Interesting AA hand, folded preflop, accusations

[betgo]

Party Poker NL, blinds 100/200. CO/UTG T300, hero button T1200, SB T2300, BB T4200. Folded to me with AA. I miniraise to 400. Big stack BB minireraises to 600. I push; BB folds.

I was trapping, hoping the BB would think I was afraid of busting out. BB was presumably trying to represent strength preparing to push on the flop. I was suprised by the BB's fold, figuring he had to call. Actually it may have been a good move. Presumably BB had junk, realized he had been trapped, and figured there was a good chance I had a big pair. Against a pair, junk is about an 8-1 underdog and against high cards about a 2-1 underdog. BB also may not want to risk his dominating chip position. Although he was getting better than 3-1, it seems like a good read and a good fold.

SB flew into a tizzy, accusing BB and me of collusion and chip dumping to insure SB came in third. We eventually calmed him down. You can't see the hole cards like on TV, so it's hard to know what is really going on. Although it looked strange, I think this was a well played hand on both sides.

[Irieguy]

Bigstack should have pushed against your min. raise. You have to fold everything but aces, which you probably don't have. His fold to your re-raise isn't bad, but his play up to that point is horrible. It turns out in this case he would have lost 25% of his stack to you, but in general when the short stack is that low, the big stack should be pushing against the others.

You played it well, though.

Irieguy

[betgo]

I don't agree I had to fold anything less than AA to a push. Only if you play weak-tight scared. I would have miniraised with KK or QQ, but pushed with high cards or smaller pairs. I would fold marginal hands here, but push with any pair JJ or less or a strong high-card hand. If I had miniraised with a weaker hand, I would call the push. I would be pot-committed, and suspicious it was a steal. You can't play too scared of busting out.

I agree the minireraise seemed strange, and pushing or flat calling might be better. I assume the BB wanted to make me think he had a big hand and make it hard for me not to put another 200 chips in. Then I would have to fold on the flop to preserve my remaining 600 chips and probably take third.

[jadowa]

The t300 stack is what lead to his decision. One of two things happened...

He didn't want to lose his chip lead with a very short stack at the table and only 4 left. If he took his chances with you and lost he could no longer bully you and the SB guy.

Or

He realized with a t300 stack at the table, you must have a monster to risk being out of the money.

[pshreck]

There are often plays at party poker thare are SO BAD that if they were done by good players, they would have to be considered a form of chip dumping or collusion.

With 4 left, I was 3rd in chips with 1000, blinds 250/500. Small stack is in the SB with 650. He pushes on big stack, who has 4300, who needs to call 150 into a 1k+ pot. He folds. To make matters worse, the small stack shows 45suited.

As angry as I got, I know its not cheating. Its that we are playing against a ton of idiots, and we have to accept that. In your case, that guy had every right to be mad. The other player should have called, there is no way he can put you on such a good hand with such high certainty to justify a fold. It was a bad play on his part (even though you had aces, and I think you understand why).

[rjb03]

[ QUOTE ]
There are often plays at party poker thare are SO BAD that if they were done by good players, they would have to be considered a form of chip dumping or collusion.

With 4 left, I was 3rd in chips with 1000, blinds 250/500. Small stack is in the SB with 650. He pushes on big stack, who has 4300, who needs to call 150 into a 1k+ pot. He folds. To make matters worse, the small stack shows 45suited.

As angry as I got, I know its not cheating. Its that we are playing against a ton of idiots, and we have to accept that. In your case, that guy had every right to be mad. The other player should have called, there is no way he can put you on such a good hand with such high certainty to justify a fold. It was a bad play on his part (even though you had aces, and I think you understand why).

[/ QUOTE ]

There are those who'd argue that keeping the play on the bubble with a very big stack is advantageous to that player if he knows how to exploit the medium/small stacks.

[pshreck]

Thats true, but not in that situation. Mind you the big stack only has 8bb's. No time to get fancy. He needs to knock someone out and get into the money.

[rjb03]

Ah, yes. I overlooked that.