Actual Poker related psychology question

[Dave D]

So I originally posted this in MTT, but it really is a psychology question. As one of the responders there said "I wonder what compels someone to push in this situation". Any ideas?

30+3, 870 entrants, 500ish left

So what's important here is my past 2 hands. My concern is that the pusher on the last hand thinks I'm bluffing now because obviously raising 3 hands in a row means that. Generally this table has folded to my raises, or I've gone HU so people have respected my raises and probably see me as pretty tight.


So the previous hand it folds to me on the button, I raise 3x the BB to 150. I have 2360 before the raise. BB calls and on the flop he checks to me and I 2/3 bet the flop and he folds.
Very next hand this happens.

Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: SeGaMeSu ( $1705 )
Seat 3: dogling ( $2535 )
Seat 5: sdlowe21 ( $1215 )
Seat 8: freddieo ( $2720 )
Seat 9: losealota ( $780 )
Seat 4: Blackjackag ( $290 )
Seat 2: LarryCope1 ( $1995 )
Seat 7: tmase ( $2735 )
Seat 10: mhobbs_bbt ( $1145 )
Seat 6: craylock ( $700 )
Trny:14835104 Level:4
Blinds (25/50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dogling [ Kd Ks ]
tmase raises [100].
freddieo folds.
losealota calls [100].
mhobbs_bbt folds.
SeGaMeSu folds.
LarryCope1 folds.
dogling raises [400].
Blackjackag folds.
sdlowe21 folds.
craylock folds.
tmase calls [300].
losealota is all-In [680]
dogling raises [1100].
tmase folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3d, Qd, 8c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Th ]
dogling shows [ Kd, Ks ] a pair of kings.
losealota shows [ Ad, Kc ] high card ace.
dogling wins 720 chips from side pot #1 with a pair of kings.
dogling wins 2035 chips from the main pot with a pair of kings.
Player losealota finished in 464 place
losealota has left the table.



Now, my question is what I should do with this:

Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: SeGaMeSu ( $1705 )
Seat 3: dogling ( $3790 )
Seat 5: sdlowe21 ( $1190 )
Seat 8: freddieo ( $2720 )
Seat 4: Blackjackag ( $290 )
Seat 2: LarryCope1 ( $1995 )
Seat 7: tmase ( $2335 )
Seat 10: mhobbs_bbt ( $1145 )
Seat 6: craylock ( $650 )
Trny:14835104 Level:4
Blinds (25/50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dogling [ Tc Ts ]
freddieo folds.
mhobbs_bbt folds.
SeGaMeSu calls [50].
LarryCope1 folds.
dogling raises [200].
Blackjackag folds.
sdlowe21 folds.
craylock folds.
tmase: damn
tmase: jj
tmase: would of got it all
SeGaMeSu: go 4 it
tmase is all-In [2285]
SeGaMeSu folds.

I think you have an easy fold there. Small favourite or big dog.

However, if he actually did have JJ the previous hand, then he could be steaming with any pair, thinking that he will recoup his "losses" from the last hand. You have an aggressive image at this point and it would be easy for him to push on any pair thinking that you are trying to play your rush. It's also really easy for you to call his bet, and maybe he knows this. Sure, you still crush 99-22, but it's hard to say he doesn't have AA-JJ, AK-AJs, all of which you would rather not go up against at this stage of the tourney. Without stats, its hard to say what kind of player you're looking at here. He didn't really lose the last pot, so he may not be steaming. But still, don't forget your basics: "Don't go broke in a small pot."

[DarrenX]

For the record here I would have limped based on the actions of your two previous hands, as you now have yourself in a situation with a solid but marginal hand where he COULD be making a move on you out of frustration, but it's not worth it to find out. As it was played it's a definite fold for me.

Easy fold. Especially at this stage in the tourney with such small blinds. At best its probably a coin toss against AQ.

Fold. Originally I would have just called here and probably called a moderate raise thereafter. I would try to see the flop for a fair price. I would not have raised here. Your chip count is excellent for this stage of the game why blow an early lead with the 10 10? Survival...survival...survival...fold.

[Dave D]

Because his actions scream of someone on tilt, and/or someone trying to steal/resteal on someone he believes is being over aggressive.

This post was meant more as a psychology question than a strategery post.

[WhiteWolf]

I doubt he is on tilt. The biggest cause of tilt is getting sucked out in a big pot when a player was a big favorite. That didn't happen here - in the first hand, the guy made a good fold pre-flop, then saw a runner-runner gutshot that would have given him the straight. Disappointing, but hardly tilt-inducing.

The push is still strange, though. He may be making a play for other reasons. Hovever, at this stage in the tourney I think folding is called for.

Psychologically speaking...I would fold. Why would he be on tilt? Because he didn't call with the JJ in the previous hand? Maybe a little upset but probably wouldn't put his tournament life on the line because of the erroneous call with the JJ. The blinds aren't large enough for him to be stealing, and it's not like he lost a lot of chips in that last hand that he folded. So I don't see tilt as being a factor here unless he is a total spazz master. In that case you need to place a note for future reference on this player.

Unless you have some additional insite into the player that we don't know I would recommend folding. Probably caught back to back JJ.

[Dave D]

I actually thought it was this more than anything else:

and/or someone trying to steal/resteal on someone he believes is being over aggressive


Incidently, he had QQ and MHING.