Line Check - BB Hand Level 1

[MrMoo]

First let me say that I'm not picking on you in particular. I just read through all the posts since yesterday and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. Questioning posts on here isn't a bad thing. A lot of times some fairly bad information gets posted. However, I'd think ExitOnly's posts would have earned a little more respect. His analysis is always spot on.

Onto the post. Whether you played your hand (jedi) or the OP played their hand wrong is a matter of opinion. Absolutely true that both of you have well disguised hands that when hit hard, they'll likely get paid off well. Also true is that you're getting great odds to call here. Realistically however, over the long term most players believe this to be a -EV play. This is for several reasons. The strongest argument is that it is going to be quite rare for a flop to come that you would consider your hand great. If indeed you do get a strong flop, where you hit two pair or trips, at the same time it's unlikely to hit another player that will pay off your hand. You can also figure the times that even when you do hit the flop hard, that someone else still wins with a better hand in the end. The last argument is that most people aren't the poker gods they think they are and many flops can come which will encourage you to put more chips in when you don't necessarily have the best hand. All of these reasons have been stated above. Ultimately I think it comes down to two things. One, your avoiding you a questionable situation which can somewhat frequently put you to a difficult decision. Two your saving chips and while these chips aren't currently "worth" much in the scheme of things, they have a way of compounding in the later stages of a tournament. One chip saved can mean many more later on in the tournament. It's the same logic for people who play every hand. They think "any two can win". And they're right. But what they don't realize is that all these times they miss their hands cost them so many chips that when they do hit a big hand, it usually doesn't pay off enough to get them out of the hole they've already dug. At least it works out this way in the long run.

ExitOnly, I'm looking forward to your analysis.