Is this a jerk move by this guy?

He knew his Jack wasn't good and all he wanted to do was chase me out of the pot. I had been playing with the short stack and knew he was tight, but that I probably outkicked him. Basically he just gave the short stack 7,000 in chips.

[ QUOTE ]
so, tell me where in Harrington's book it says you should be trying to knock out the shortstack.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is something in there saying that when a player is all in the two active players in the hand sometimes check it down.

I'll search for it.

[TomHimself]

maybe it made u tilt ur chips to him heh

[SavageMiser]

You're thinking of a cooperation play (vol. 2, pg. 285), but that doesn't apply here. With 180 players left, there's no reason to soft-pedal another player in order to get the short stack out.

That changes when the prize money is within reach, but I'd guess the difference between 180th and 179th is $0. ($0-$0=$0)

[ansky451]

Why oh why can't you use the converter?

[betgo]

You don't need to check it down when you have something.

You don't bluff when there is no sidepot, because you can knock other players out and lose to the allin player. Even if you don't care about knocking out the allin player, you are risking too much to win too little.

Once a decent sidepot is created, it is fine to bluff at it.

Your opponent's aggressive play was successful. I don't know if I agree with other posters that it was a great play. If you had decided to call him or had a stronger hand than you did, he would have lost a huge pot.

You might have been better off flat calling your opponent. You might have avoided some of the trouble you got into. Also, his bet at the dry sidepot was unlikely to be a semibluff on a draw. He was representing a strong hand and TPGK might not be ahead.

i would think the guy is a jerk. i mean he gains nothing from reraising in that spot

[beetyjoose]

I don't think this guy made a great play. He didn't really win anything. However, unless it's down to 10 players or less,if you are concerned with knocking out players, chances are you are going to make a lot of miscues.

[zambonidrivr]

grow a bag. play for first.

[-Oz-]

I wrote an essay in this month's magazine about this very subject: http://www.twoplustwo.com/magazine/c...orne0805.html. I refer to it as "Implicit Collusion" and Harrington describes it as a "Cooperation Play" on page 285 of vol 2.

As others have noted, there really isn't any value in knocking out another player at this point in the tourney. FWIW, I think your play was fine (without knowing the villain could make a play like this). You sent a strong message with your check-raise. If he wants to take a chance of getting knocked out with second pair, bad kicker in a protected pot, more power to him.

But given that, you very well could have had a "small blind special" in this situation too. His play turns out to be pretty horrible considering that he was in 3rd place in this hand and took an unneccesary chance of getting knocked out.

Advice: don't sweat it when your opponents play badly. You still have a good stack at this point. Other opportunities are coming.

-Oz-