Having a great day today, but made one very questionable decision

[Pitcher]

Hi All,

1st. I want to crow a bit about a great day. It is hard to make over $1000 in a day playing $30 SNG's but I did even better than that. Check out these results:

14 tourneys played
1st. 9, 2nd. 4, 8th. once.

I got very lucky a couple of times. Here is one you will love. 4 players left. Blinds are 50/100 and I have about 1300 chips. I am not doing very well (3rd in chips) and the 2 chip leaders have over $2500 chips. I am on the BB with J-7. UTG (one of the chip leaders) limps and the SB (he only has 90 chips left) goes all in for a total of 140 chips. I decide to call the 40 to see the flop. So 3 to the flop. The flop is J-8-7. This looks great to me, so I bet out for 400. UTG re-raises to 1800+. I don't see much choice but to call all-in though I suspect trips. The turn comes a J giving me J's full of 7's. UTG turns up 88 for 8's full of jacks. How lucky is that! I went on to win that tournament.

So here was the questionable one. I have around 1100 chips and draw A-10 suited in MP. There are 8 players left and the blinds are 15/30. I am about 3rd in chips (played and won one hand). I decide to open for 120. LP player raises all in. LP has me covered by about 250 chips. This is the 4th. time this player has gone all-in after a 3x - 4x raise. After the 1st couple, I am beginning to smell a rat. After letting the time run down, I decide to call the all-in. I don't improve and get busted out when this player shows 99. I put this player on a pure bluff. What do you think of this play? In retrospect, this seems way to aggressive.....


Pitcher

[CrisBrown]

Hiya Pitcher,

Congratulations on an outstanding day. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

As for your all-in call with ATs, that's one of those dicey situations I was talking about in another thread, where you are often either a coin flip (vs. underpair), a significant underdog (vs. big pair), or dominated (vs. higher Ace). I try to avoid calling all-in in those situations.

Your open-raise was fine, but when he moved in over the top, it was time to wait for a better spot. I know it's suspicious when someone seems to be doing this a lot, and eventually you (or someone) will have to take a stand. But it's early, and ATs isn't strong enough to take a stand on this early.

Again, congratulations on an outstanding day. I've had one or two of those, and when they happen, they're a whole lot of fun. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Cris

[Stoneii]

fabulous series of results for 1 day Pitcher, can I have 1/2 that series for a week please /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Was this dubious decision you took after you had taken down a lot of the 9 wins you executed? I suspect if it was in the first tournie of the day you may have folded much easier (I would've dropped it before his chips hit the table - even with his all-in moves - unless I had a similar days history to yours behind me - then I might even have called with 9Ts /images/graemlins/wink.gif)

Again , well played, tremendous day!

stoneii

[PrayingMantis]

Pitcher,

Great day indeed. I'm jealous /images/graemlins/grin.gif. I didn't have yet anything close to a day like this, but I guess that's exactly why I play poker: being able to cash 1000$ in one day (someday), by doing something I enjoy so much.

Regarding your AT hand. Well, I usually play lower buy-in's, but the phenomena of someone, who's not so short, going all-in every few hands is well known to me from 10$ and 20$ too.

Thing is, usually when I decied to make a stand with my not-so-amazing hand (AT for example), he has at least a coin flip against me, not to mention the times someone goes all-in with garbage 2-3 times (I only guess it's garbage, because all fold), just to do it the 4th time with KK, in order to trap someone with KQs, who thinks he easily has the best hand now and calls for his whole stack.

So if it's early, and I don't have a big pair, I'll muck my AT even if I think it's a good chance I'm against a lower Ace.

Only my thinking,

PrayingMantis

[Pitcher]

Thanks for the replies,

Stoneii makes a real interesting observation about when this happened. I was about 3/4 of the way through that run and I was starting to believe my press clippings! I must be a freaking genius! I am surely the best player on the planet after such a run, therefore my judgement must be infallible!
The thing is, before I made the play I typed a comment about it being a dubious play. Why make a dubious play....? Arrogance starts slipping into your game. You somehow lose respect for the game and your opponents when you are running that well. In essence, your game starts springing leaks all over the place.
In a wierd sense, it was probably "good" that I made that play because it snapped me back into reality.
Another thought along these lines was about a post I made (I think it was my 1st. one) where I finished out of the money 21 straight times. I was so frustrated! I couldn't beleive how many beats and bad beats occurred during that streak. I was all over the place in my decision making after 6-7 in a row out of the $$. I went something like this: 1st. the chasing. The cards have to turn sometime right? I will play for one more card and see what happens. Of course, I have forgotten how to play poker by then (no reading players, situations, just focusing on THE CARDS). 2nd. the shell. After chasing didn't work, I decided to become the "Rock of Gibralter" If anything, this was even worse because I finished 4th a few times during this stretch. 3rd. Despair. I started feeling very sorry for myself. I started whining about the losing streak to other players. This just got me labeled a whiner and did not improve my game. I am not sure how I was playing during this period... only that I shouldn't be playing. Finally, a kind player gave me some advice. He asked me a question (are you making good decisions during your losing streak?) and made a suggestion that I call it a day until I could look at things more clearly.
Sorry for this long dump, but I think it helps me and everybody eles to hear this stuff repeatedly. If you make good decisions consistently the results come. Cris made this long run observation in the Humble Pie thread and it is so true.
So, I should enjoy my great streak, but realize, you can't ever get complacent. The competition is just too tough.

Pitcher

[Utah]

Congrats. on a great day. I know the feeling - I played 7 $20 sng's yesterday and I had 4 1sts and 3 2nds. Wish we could do it every day /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I think you made two mistakes on the hand. First, I would not have raised with A,10 unless I can steal. With the high probability that he was going to call or come over the top then you should click them into the muck.

When he goes all-in, you cannot call for 2 reasons.
1) A,10 is a terribe hand to make a stand with, unless late in the tourney. Usually a small favorite or a major dog
2) If you are a strong player, which your results seem to indicate, you want to outplay your opponents and not give them coin flips to knock you out. I know I can outplay my opponents on $20 SNGs so I avoid all-ins unless the play is obvious.

[triplc]

Geez, Pitcher, sounds like you had your fastball clocked at 100 on the gun today...wow!

I ran into a similar situation a while back, and did a similar thing, but got luckier on the result. I raised with KQs and called out of frustration and he turned over pure trash (don't remember the specifics)...sheesh. Did you consider limping with ATs? If you've got a maniac who will move all-in with anything anytime there is a raise, then I would think you should fold or limp with anything that you don't want to see reraised. AT and AJ are in that category.

Those types of players are tough to deal with though...unless you get a big hand...then it's great.

CCC