Am I missing something???

[sdplayerb]

So you pushed in with 3650 to win 225 (75/150 blinds)?
I would have only called with QQ-AA if I were him, and think his call was horrible as he had to fear AQ, AJ, etc.

But your play was very bad also. If he did wake up with a big pair, you are done. The 225 you add to your stack is of little value. I can understand worry about his reraise, and good you know he'd do that.
I'd either fold or limp and hope to flop a set or make a bet if he checks the flop.
If the big blind was around 10x your stack, what you did would be fine, otherwise the risk was just not worth it.

[Rushmore]

You're right--your play was (highly) questionable, and his call is beyond ridiculous. His wife must have had dinner on the table and a rolling pin hovering over his head.
On the other hand, what the hell were you thinking? If you know that his call is absurd, that would infer that you also know that the only times you are called, he has to be holding, oh, say an absolute minimum of oh, say, A8.
Why do you want to put all your chips into the pot with a hand that will lose a high percentage of the time the bet is called? Was it...the prospect of picking up the blinds?
I don't care how bad his call is here (and it IS bad). Your bet is awful. This is best illustrated by the fact that he made a "bad" call, and was granted the gift of being only a slight dog.
Do you EVER want a call here? No. You want the blinds.
Imagine how you'd feel if he'd made a "good" call.
Oh, yeah. "Unlucky." As opposed to "mad." Either way, you're on the rail.
You're just risking too much for too little.

[Big Dave D]

Thanks for the comments so far...keep em comin'. The reason my raise is not quite so bad (and I acknowldge that it is bad) is that I am picking up over 10% of my stack each time. And I know that a normal raise will simply not win the pot.

The bigger question this asks is how very different play online is...as I said, based on the rankings, Alex1 is a good player, yet he's prepared to cripple himself on at best a 50:50 shot...and it could/should be a lot worse. All-in moves seem much much more common and people really seem to struggle to lay any hand down. Basically all that GAP concept stuff from Sklansky's book becomes fairly useless. Its almost as if people are playing "The System", whether unwittingly or not and sucking a lot of the skill out of the game.

Cheers

Dave

[cferejohn]

Well, the point of the "Gap Concept" relies on the idea that people are extra protective of their stacks in a tournament environment since if they win, they are done. In an environment like PokerStars, where if you flame out early in a tournament, there's probably another one starting in 10 minutes (or a 2 table sit-n-go), perhaps it has less credence. Perhaps the players who play tournaments 40+ hours/week (as I imagine anyone who ranks highly must) figure that they are justified in taking 50-50 risks, since if they go out early now, they can just sign up for another one almost immediately.

This is probably even more tru if playing 2 tournaments at once. You take big risks to double up in both of them. If one pays off and the other doesn't, you're not too upset about it since you don't have to split your attention anymore.

All that said, his call was still horrible, since his *best* possible outcome is that he was a slightly less that 50% shot, since he could easily have been against a better ace or a pair better than 8's.

[ohkanada]

I think before we can answer why your opponent would call you, you need to answer the following questions:

1) Price of tourney
2) Have you been pushing it all-in and winning the blinds recently?
3) In past tournies with the same player have you done the same thing?
4) Has this opponent just received a bad beat of some type?
5) Is he playing multiple tournies or live tables at the same time?

I play the occasional tourney on Pokerstars and I can't say I have heard of Alex1. I might recognize his picture. He could be bad, good or great. Who knows. He may get his ranking based on pure number of tournies played with a few good hits. He may also have been tired this time and was ready to double up or go to sleep.

Ken Poklitar

[cferejohn]

In no limit especially, I try to almost always be the one putting the chips in the pot first. Since most no limit hands don't get to a showdown, the aggressor obviously wins the majority of pots. Note that the aggressor isn't necessarilty the first bettor. The reason the 'system' works as well as it does (not to say it is perfect, of close to it, but it does have merits) is for exactly that reason.

[Simon Diamond]

Ken

Some more info about alex1 : Since February he has made several $100 event finals, winning two and has cashed in a couple of $200 events.

I haven't seen a great deal of his play, but from what I have seen he is a very aggressive player who likes to make plenty of moves. It seems he can amass chips quickly and just as quickly throw them away, but his results and his standing in the official table would suggest he is a decent player most of the time.

Simon

[Rushmore]