PokerStars $20 NL

[MHoydilla]

This hand occured in a pokerstars NL tourny. The tourny started with 200 people this hand occured with 35 left. Top 18 get paid but 1st pays 30x 18th. I was in 7th when this hand occured. I had 13000 in chips in the BB and dealt QQ. Preflop the 2nd chip leader (UTG+3)21000 in chips who had been raising alot preflop raised from BB=300 to 1000 everyone folded to me I raised to 6500 he called. The flop came 346 (rainbow) I pushed all in he called. He had 55 and caught a 5 on the river. My question should I have raised all in preflop, just called or what else? How should my decision of been effected as I was close to the money? thanks

[Greg (FossilMan)]

I don't like your preflop raise. It was NOT too small, but too big. Against any decent opponent, you will never get called unless he has AA or KK, maybe QQ. He was a moron to call your reraise, so in that sense your raise was good.

After the flop, you went all-in as you should, and he called as he should. He's getting 2:1 on the call, and has to figure he has 10 clean outs, making him only a 3:2 dog to win. Thus, his only mistake was the preflop call of your huge reraise.

But, you got him to put in his money badly, so you've added to your recurring field.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[MHoydilla]

Ok being that my preflop raise was to much what should I reraise him? Or should I just call and wait for the flop? In my mind this hand must be reraised. Now would the amount of the raise differ if I was percieved to be an all out maniac? As within the prevous 3-4 rounds I had successfully bluffed at three large pots and showed all of them.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

My standard reraise in this spot would be to 3x his bet, or to 3000 in this case. He might call with smaller pairs and such, and you are taking on some risk, but if you generally make good decisions later in the hand, this is the right number.

Essentially, unless you have specific good reasons for doing otherwise, bet and raise the pot if you're going to bet or raise. In this case, a pot-sized raise would've been more like 3500, but anything in that ballpark is OK. I tend to bet and raise somewhat less than the pot. This puts a little more play into the later streets, on average.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Guy McSucker]

Unrelated question: why did you show your three bluffs?

I prefer to leave my opponents guessing, so they're uncomfortable, and if anything, for them to err on the side of folding in the future too, because hands that want a call in a tournament are pretty rare beasts.

You obviously have a different philosophy... what's your reasoning?

Guy.

[MHoydilla]

Honestly I was stuck on my live NL Holdem mode. In live NL a player has an unlimited amount of time at a consistent blind. This being so I like to mess with my opponents heads and constantly showing bluffs, this has dramatically increased my hourly earn. I feel I am payed off in many spots which do not warrent it this I believe is a direct result of not only showing bluffs but taunting my opponents after I have out played them. I don't advise this to anyone as most believe this is poor manners and bad for the game. Truthfully I play poker to make $$$ not friends so I will use what works. In a tournament this is probably not the best the thing to do unless you can afford to tighten up alot, like if you have a massive stack. If you then get a premium hand your more likely to get paid off on it.