[rkiray]

sorry David,

I was just making a play and we both got burned. It was a fairly tough game and we both sat down at about the same time. It was tough because there were several very agressive players, but no one I would describe as a maniac. I started off well with a bunch of good cards, Raised frequently and won some pots. Luck quickly changed and I was down a little bit. You were in a tough seat because most of the agressive players generally were acting behind you. It looked to me that you made a good adjustment here and started to raise alot. In general your raises were getting respect, generally the agressive players were folding, and certainly almost never reraising. My raises were getting similar respect. So I decided to try to make a play at you. I had actually waited several hands for the opportunity I wanted. A few hands earlier I had reraised you with KK, I won the hand and you chatted "nh". I now wanted a hand where I could semi-bluff reraise. I was hoping that this would get all the agressive players out and I could steal a pot from you.
It didn't work.

BTW, I was very happy when you said you would post this hand. I generally haven't posted hands here and I usually don't put quite this much thought into a hand. So it was worth discussing. In fact, I sometimes thought the discussions on this board bordered on obsessive. I'm sure the problem is I'm just not a good enough player yet (I've only been playing for about 3 years). I always consider my hand and what I think the other players in the hand have. I think a little about my table image. If I haven't been getting card and thus playing really tight I might loosen up and raise a little more. Conversely if I've had a good run and raised a bunch, I might slow down and tighten up, since the table might think I'm a maniac. I also try to note if someone is not respecting my bets/raises or is giving me too much respect. But I rarely try to make a play based on what I think an oppenent is thinking about me. This was an exception. I know in S&M's books they claim you need to think like this (and even deeper at higher levels), so even though the play didn't work I was happy I tried. I'd love to here what you were thinking about in this hand.

Rick