Have I completely lost it?

No hand history, but here's what happened. I was playing a $25 6-max table to keep myself occupied between hands in a SnG. I had been dominating the table and had doubled my buy-in in a very short period, mostly showing down good hands, but playing a lot of hands overall. One other guy also had $50+, and he seemed like a mediocre player, but very aggro. He was playing an average number of hands for the table (e.g. standard 6-max kinda-loose), but whenever he got into a pot he seemed to lock on like a pit bull.

On this hand I picked up AKo in the cutoff. The other big stack raises from .25 to 1.00 UTG. Next player folds. I smooth call - based on the table texture I think everyone else will probably fold, and I don't mind playing against the other big dog with position. Actually the button calls also, so three of us see this flop:

Kh 6s 4s

The pot is now $3.30 or so. The raiser leads out for $5. I go all in...


(Now bear in mind, I was playing these stakes mostly to amuse myself. This is not my usual play with this hand and deep stacks. But I'd still like to discuss its legitimacy.)

Seems like overkill. I would think the only hands that call are KK,AK,66,44.....and maybe, just maybe you get some chump with KQ or two spades. It seems like a call most likely beats you and folds net you a smallish pot. Why not reraise to $15 or so?

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing afterward. But that would have stopped me from being the table bully and then I'm not having as much fun...

Originally Posted by dalecooper

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing afterward. But that would have stopped me from being the table bully and then I'm not having as much fun...

Well...if I get into Push Mode then I'll do this just to set up the table. You have to get a run of cards though. It's fun when you don't have to figure out the best "value bet" - PUSH!

with 200bb stacks, you don't need to do this. just raise to $15, check behind on turn, then bet river or call a bet

dale-

if you make this push here, you have to either have already set the tone by having done it several times, or plan on doing it several more times. as an isolated incident, i would suggest following gabe's advice with a more reasonable lead out amount, and then a check behind/ raise or fold on end line. however, if you want to set off some fireworks now for future plays, then by all means, push it real good. but just make sure to keep pushing when you don't have shit and also when you have the shit.

Originally Posted by r8ed

Originally Posted by dalecooper

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing afterward. But that would have stopped me from being the table bully and then I'm not having as much fun...

Well...if I get into Push Mode then I'll do this just to set up the table. You have to get a run of cards though. It's fun when you don't have to figure out the best "value bet" - PUSH!

That's the argument in favor. I was running over everybody and I wanted to make it clear, even to the other deep stack, that it was MY TABLE. The cards were there and I was busting people left and right, although before this hand it was just a few short stacks, nothing major.

The argument against is pretty clear though. I don't think it was an optimal bet, I probably should have made a regular raise, or even called and popped him on a non-spade turn.

Results for the curious:

He called Ks 8s - no spades came down and MHIG.

Pushing over a deepstack overbet w/ tptk against any opp is a bad play.

Dale,

I know you were playing at a lower buy-in than normal, but this play isn't very smart long-term. Yes, you were crazy here.

What worries me, though, is duscussed being in a downswing lately in your blog. Then a day or two later you talk about how you made some money, but you sucked out on people to do so. I'm seeing the beginnings of a trend here...Could your play be causing your downswing? Is there anything here, or am I reading too much into things?

You're reading too much into things. I certainly wouldn't argue that my play has been perfect, but my blog badly misrepresents it - it's not intended to be an honest and complete analysis of how I'm playing, which is how I guess most everybody else is using theirs. I just like talking a bunch of shit and making jokes, that's all. The other night when I made money I was actually playing well, but the highly unlikely beats were going for me instead of against me for once. If you play many sit-n-goes you know that a lot of times toward the end, you can't help putting your money in when you're behind - you have to raise a lot of hands to keep in the game, and you get pot-committed quickly when you would prefer not to be. It just happened that usually I'm the recipient of the ridiculous shit (like having kings to someone else's A6 or whatever, and losing)... that one night it went the other way several times, which was nice.

Not to keep rambling, but to give you the most choice example, I raised late in a SnG with AQ, for probably 1/3 of my chips. Two players went all in and I was forced to call by the odds, plus the fact that there were only five of us left - I figured there was a chance I had one guy dominated and was racing against the other. Instead it turned out they had AK and QQ, and I hit a four card flush for the rare double-suckout that busted one player, crippled another, and almost tripled me up. Not terrible play, just bad timing and a beautiful piece of luck.

This hand though - I freely admit it was badly played.