First hand of a home tourney. 87h on the button. You make the call.

[Grisgra]

7-handed, person who places 3rd gets his money back, top two get the rest. Starting with 40xBB in chips.

UTG -- a tricky, aggressive player -- raises 6xBB. Folded to you, with 87 /images/graemlins/heart.gif. You figure that UTG probably has a monster, but there's a reasonable chance he might just be making a goofy first-hand bluff.

What do you do?

[DougL]

Can I be first to guess that you are the tricky, aggressive player and the "hero" is the person who looked up your AA with 87s?

With 6/40 of your stack in the pot pre-flop, this is making a big commitment to get "all his chips". The reason to make this call is gambling. When you say that “there's a reasonable chance he might just be making a goofy first-hand bluff”, what hand do you hope he has? Best case he has AA or AK and falls in love with it on a bad flop for him. Make your stack 240BB and there could be talk about neat strategic moves.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
Can I be first to guess that you are the tricky, aggressive player and the "hero" is the person who looked up your AA with 87s?

[/ QUOTE ]

Gee, how did you guess? /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[ QUOTE ]

With 6/40 of your stack in the pot pre-flop, this is making a big commitment to get "all his chips". The reason to make this call is gambling. When you say that “there's a reasonable chance he might just be making a goofy first-hand bluff”, what hand do you hope he has? Best case he has AA or AK and falls in love with it on a bad flop for him. Make your stack 240BB and there could be talk about neat strategic moves.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly what I told him, and then he gave me the line about how I'm a Numbers Guy while he plays position and other such crap, and how Dan and Gus would play this hand just like he did . . . of course, what he knows about poker he's learned from watching WSOP and WPT, so this is not exactly surprising. Still, I wanted to confirm I wasn't clinically insane.

[Grisgra]

I honestly don't know whether you're joking or not! Though given that there are only two so far, the same number as for Go All-In, I have a hunch /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[DougL]

There is one place you might be clinically insane. You would fold 87s because the numbers tell you that this is the rational thing to do. Your friend called partly because he saw it on TV and partly because it was fun. Since neither of you are making your house payment out of the game, who can say who is right. You are trying to play the best you can, he's having the best time possible. The two of you had a discussion of his "bad" play after the fact. This is one game you can't win.

This board is great for learning how to play better, but many posts seem to be from the point of view of stone-cold poker pros whose every decision controls vast fortunes. A guy sucked out on you with a joke hand. Share a good laugh and let him know that you are hunting his aces, next time. The world's worst home game is one where every bad play creates a poker discussion group.

[Grisgra]

If he admitted it were a joke hand then it wouldn't be a problem /images/graemlins/smile.gif.

[Insty]

If this is a home game and you're likely to see this guy again I'd be encouraging this sort of play as 76% of the time you're taking this guy's money home.

Think of it as an investment.

[DougL]

Why is it important that he admit he played it wrong? If he were your duplicate bridge partner, I'd understand. As a poker opponent, I see zero advantage in having him admit he played badly or that you played well. Play enough poker, and you might see someone make the same call all-in after the guy SHOWS the AA.

[Grisgra]

Yeah, but it's pretty low stakes -- and it's not as though he's my sworn archenemy /images/graemlins/smile.gif. I'd rather improve the play of most at the table, frankly -- makes it more of a challenge. I'll save the $$-making for Party /images/graemlins/grin.gif.