Should I have raised? #2

[Blarg]

At the 11's I'll get more than occasional calls, and from far, far worse hands than AA. That's one of the main reasons for pushing so hard in the first place -- the risk is huge of course, but the pay-off has a greater frequency than I think you're taking into account.

I guess in the 11's I've seen everything when it comes to calling -- every kind of crap -- so I'm kind of immune to expecting people not to call with crazy holdings, or bet with them. I know my play wasn't a great one, but inherent in it was that at the 11's I'm getting a fair number of people who will call with one pair and double my stack. The very same people I see calling my AA flop bet when it's the first hand I've played all game, I raised from early position preflop 3x the BB, and the flop comes A8x because they have an 8 are also calling this flop too because they had QJ. The people who so often double me up by level 2 or 3 are very often doing it with hands you would be amazed to see coldcalling and overcalling raises preflop, like 44, or something that develops into the ignorant end of a straight draw.

I know terrible play by others doesn't make my play better in itself, but I'm not saying I would make this play against a crowd that was typically comprised of better players. I was just thinking that in the context of constantly surprising terrible play, my chances of either getting a quick few chips or, alternatively, doubling up, seemed fairly high. Whereas almost any card that hit the board after my flop looks nasty and like it will call just as many chips out of my hand.

Perhaps my read of the 11's is dead wrong or simply irrelevant because the coordinated board makes the play just terrible regardless of any situation or any read. I was wondering if the chance to either get a few quick chips or quickly doubling up was better than trying to extract value with two bottom pair street by street, which I'm instinctively feeling seems like a fairly low percentage endeavor better suited to ring games where you can afford to extract value and be wrong a few times, as opposed to SNG's, where bleeding off chips slowly in hands like these is hard to recover from.

I know it's a risky as hell thing. These guys are doubling me up calling with crap so much that I guess maybe I'm learning bad habits of mind. I wouldn't play like this in a higher level, but maybe I shouldn't adjust my play too much based on this level. Maybe winning 100, with the occasional chance of doubling up, isn't that much better than frequently losing 600 after all.