Thinking at the next level

[chadplusplus]

This weekend, while playing at my regular home game, I made a terrible play, I mean it was just awful. But fortunately, it has made me think a lot about my game and thinking at the next level. Lets begin with the hand:

This happened in a 5 person $5 "SNG" at my buddy's house, but it doesn't really matter. The analysis is equally applicable to any type of poker game.

The villian in the hand is a fair player in that he bluffs at a really good frequency and he does think. What I don't like about his play is that he's an "all in or fold" post flop kind of guy (which is really friggin hard to play against considering his pretty optimal bluffing frequency).

Blinds: 100/200

SB:
BB:
Villian (T11000)
MP:
Hero (T10800): JJ

Villian raises to T500
1 Fold, Hero raises T1500 more, blinds fold, Villian calls.

His call was interesting. It immediately told me he didn't not have a high broadway hand as he would have always gone all in to my reraise had he held an ace broadway hand (yeah, like I said, a little overly aggressive).

(Pot: T4300) Flop: A A 4

Villian: all-in (about T8000)

So I sit there and think... well, the probability that he has an Ace is reduced significantly for three reasons:
1) He didn't reraise all in preflop; and
2) There's already 2 of them on the board.
3) Its possible, but unlikely, he was raising UTG with Axs

He doesn't have a higher two pair than I because with KK or QQ he would have went all in to my re-raise as well. I know, I've spent hours and hours playing with this guy for the last 15 years.

So despite the fact that its still early and I'm getting pretty lousy odds to call, I think I've caught him bluffing and Hero calls. Of course, I lose.

Here's the revelations this hand has taught me. I didn't think about this hand from his perspective and I should have. From his perspective, I re-raised with position which probably means I either have a high broadway hand or a high pocket pair. For instance, he knows I wouldn't reraise with Ax and probably not KQ because he knows that I know that KQ is dominated by Ax. Consequently, from his point of view, I probably have an ace. Furthermore, If I do have a high broadway hand and flop trip aces, its almost an insta-call (almost I said!!). So obviously, he would not have risked all his chips if he didn't already have trip aces beat - and of course, my hand was much worse than trip aces. But I didn't think about any of this at the table.

Multitabling micro-limits and small stakes NL online has made me a very ABC poker player who only resorts to putting my opponents on hands when I must (i.e., when I get pushed back at, which happens pretty rarely at those levels). I've become a lazy online multitabler running through my hands like a robot. Rarely have I ever resorted to going to that "next level" because the players at these low level games just don't require it. Unfortunately, to get to the next level of poker, we must all raise our level of thinking to that next level - and that is my next goal.

So I just thought I would post this to share with you guys what I learned and to see if y'all have any other comments worth sharing.

[vexvelour]

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3) Its possible, but unlikely, he was raising UTG with Axs

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I don't think this is unlikely, however, I think it should be read-based. Maybe he had a pocket pair and was sure you didn't have an ace. I don't think I could call that...there's just not enough in the pot for me.