The dangers of playing too passively...

[Bad Beaten]

I know this is Poker 101, but it never hurts to have a refresher on why passive isn't safe, and how hands can change value based on position.

So I present to you all a hand from a $6 2-table SnG at PokerStars

PokerStars Game #2058110213: Tournament #9822371, Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2005/07/08 - 12:28:02 (ET)
Table '9822371 2' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 2: a-thom (730 in chips)
Seat 4: marcycaron (2225 in chips)
Seat 5: alamoking (1695 in chips)
Seat 6: jj_frap (2605 in chips)
Seat 7: tbenn15 (1085 in chips)
Seat 8: tabreez (3200 in chips)
alamoking: posts small blind 50
jj_frap: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jj_frap [6c Qs]
tbenn15: folds
tabreez: folds
a-thom: folds
marcycaron: folds
alamoking: calls 50
jj_frap: checks
*** FLOP *** [6h 6d Ac]
alamoking: bets 200
jj_frap: raises 300 to 500
alamoking: raises 1095 to 1595 and is all-in
jj_frap: calls 1095
*** TURN *** [6h 6d Ac] [Qc]
alamoking said, "of course"
*** RIVER *** [6h 6d Ac Qc] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
alamoking: shows [Ad Ts] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
jj_frap: shows [6c Qs] (a full house, Sixes full of Queens)
jj_frap collected 3390 from pot
jj_frap said, "gg...Sorry"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3390 | Rake 0
Board [6h 6d Ac Qc 2h]
Seat 2: a-thom folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: marcycaron (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: alamoking (small blind) showed [Ad Ts] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Seat 6: jj_frap (big blind) showed [6c Qs] and won (3390) with a full house, Sixes full of Queens
Seat 7: tbenn15 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: tabreez folded before Flop (didn't bet)

We all know that ATo is a cack hand when you're in early position at a full table or if there's been a lot of action prior to your betting (especially early on)...

But there are times when it's an excellent, and this is one of them...

Everyone folds to SB, blind are reasonably high, and he has a hand that is easily average-plus...There are more bad hands than good hands in Hold'Em, and I was holding a hand that -- at best -- justifies calling a min-raise. (And even then, you need a fair bit of confidence in your post flop play so that you'll know how to handle what would almost certainly be a marginal situation if you hit a piece of the flop.)

And yet he elects to complete, rather than raise.

I check, and flop a monster that helps him. I elect to raise rather than check-call because his immediate bet (He never paused or anything) showed great strength, but the aggresiveness with which he plays the hand does not show enough strength to have me beat...(The obvious scare hands were A6 and AA, neither of which I considered to be plausible holdings.)

He gets cocky and re-raises me all-in (Reasonably justifiable...x-6 and A-x where x < 10 are both plausible holdings at this point, although I'd have raised a-x...And I'd bluffed at a few pots and won them earlier in the tourney...)...I call, and just to rub it in, a Q comes up on the turn.

[ZenOffsuit]

you didn't actually mean that 'sorry' you typed did you ?! He deserved to lose, he played his cards and didn't think for a second about what you possibly had when you made that re-raise.

[Bad Beaten]

I always feel bad when I bust people out when they think they have strong hands, or when I make a desperation all-in (or a trivial call against a near-dead player), end up dominated, and hit my lower card.

[Muxy]

I always feel bad when I bust people out when they think they have strong hands, or when I make a desperation all-in (or a trivial call against a near-dead player), end up dominated, and hit my lower card.

There are no sorries in poker.