Stupid Move or Lucky?

[Low Limits]

I just wanted to post a hand I played last night in a live game. It's 3-6 HE. I'd been playing at this table for about 2 hours. I was only seeing about 15% of the flop and was usually folding on the flop since nothing would hit. I think the players viewed me as weak-tight. BTW, how do you change this impression if you just aren't getting any of the flop? For the past 25+ hours of live play, I haven't been dealt AA. This time was no different. I'm dealt 7 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif 7 /forums/images/icons/club.gif . I'm UTG+2. The UTG called. I raised BUT people said I string-raised so I just said whatever and just called. I think this occurrence helped me this hand. Anyway, 8 callers in this hand. Loose table with players betting to the river with bottom or middle pair. Anyway, flop comes 3, 5, 10 (or something like that) rainbow. SB bets, BB calls, UTG calls and I raise. My thinking was, if I was in SB's position, and I had top pair (or anything for that matter), I would bet for information. So, I tried representing AA and I raised (especially since I was so nonchalant about just calling on the flop like it was no big deal because I would make it up anyway). Everyone calls!! Turn is an A. Checked to me and I bet. 3 players fold. River is a 2. Checked to me and I bet. Everyone folded to UTG who calls for time. I know he has me beat but I stay calm. He eventually mucks it and I take this pot. I'm just wondering if I just out-played my oponents if I just was stupid and/or lucky. I had poorly slow-played the previous hand (which I ended chopping instead of taking the whole $100+ pot) so I just wanted to make a move to make up for it. Sorry for this long-winded post but your insight would be appreciated.

[Bob T.]

BTW, how do you change this impression if you just aren't getting any of the flop?

First, it's live 3-6. Your opponents might not have an image of you. You see this all the time, someone doesn't play a hand for a while, and then they get a pair of 7s, and try to push it through like it is AA, and someone calls them down with 99, just because they weren't paying attention. A little later, you might get a hand, and your opponents don't pay you off. Maybe that is the sign, or certainly, if it happens a second time, you want to start pushing a little bit, and see how they react. Then if you start getting played with, a little too much, slow down, and try and get them in situations where they are dominated.

So first, they might not have an image of you, so don't try and take advantage of what they aren't thinking. And second, if they aren't paying you off, then loosen up, and get aggressive, and push them around a little bit, until they start pushing back. Then try and trap them. Just remember, that many of your opponents are probably just playing their cards, and most likely not doing that all that well, so you really don't need to be making big image plays.

Everyone folded to UTG who calls for time. I know he has me beat but I stay calm. He eventually mucks it and I take this pot. I'm just wondering if I just out-played my oponents if I just was stupid and/or lucky.

Maybe both outplayed them, and got lucky. You had a plan here, and you tried to execute it, that was good. But, you had a large field of players that you had to convince all of them to lay down their hands, and I suspect that you had to be lucky enough that none of them had an Ace for your plan to work.

[Low Limits]

Bob T,
As usual, thanks so much for your input. If I can finish up work by 8 p.m. today then I will head over to another live game at a local casino and do what you recommended about pushing the players around. I just find it hard to be aggressive when I don't get any part of the flop for what seems like hours but I can see how showing a little aggression nonetheless can be +EV if I eventually get a drawing hand and want to draw cheaply. Thanks again for your informative advice!

[CrackerZack]

With this many people, I think its a bit reckless, but if you're worried about your image (which usually isn't a problem at 3-6, esp at mohegan if you're from the NE like me) then some of the recklessness can be written off to advertising. So I'd say you got lucky. In these loose games, I think calling pre-flop is better btw and going for the set, if you don't hit it, usually get out. Since you string-raised implying a big hand, you had a bit more bully power.

[Louie Landale]

If you are sure you know what your image is, don't try to fix it, try to take advantage of it. Which is I guess what you did.

Never-the-less, its a mistake to try to bluff 3 players right from the get-go. You need to semi-bluff with a hand with more than 2 outs. Your timing was OK, but the hand was not.

Out of curiosity, how many hours went by before you started counting hours without AA?

- Louie

[Nottom]

Basically completely off topic, but just felt lik ementioning that when I first started playing on Paradise and using PockerTracker I went my first 1000 hands without getting AA or KK. Any stat guys want to take a stab at the likelyhood of that?

Interestingly enough, I mentioned my draught(sp?) after losing to some guy's 3rd AA in about 20 min and caught one two hands later. I raised and stole the blinds ... lol.