I don't usually post so often, but the last post I did reminded me of a hand I played the previous week where my opponent said to me, "You play so bad and get so lucky." Here's what happened.
Blinds were 50-100. I raised to 300 in middle position with A-10 suited (hearts). A couple of others called & the button player (Matt somebody-or-other) raised to 1200. The lady to my right called the 1200. Normally, I don't call a raise with A-10, but I felt like doing so in this case. This guy was on the button and I had no way of knowing if he was just making a move or not at that point, although I had played with him a couple of other times and he seemed to play fairly tight. One of the other people who called my raise also called the re-raise.
The flop was 10-7-3 or something like that - rainbow. So I had top pair with top kicker. We all checked to the button raiser who bet 2,500. The lady to my right called fairly quickly. At that point, I thought Matt might have an overpair, but I also felt that the lady's call made it OK for me to call also, which I did. The other caller folded and we three were the only ones left.
The turn was an ace, giving me top 2 pair. The lady checked. I decided to bet because I felt like I had a pretty good hand at that point. I threw out 5,000 and that's when Matt said, "You play so bad and get so lucky." He was visibly pissed off. To my credit, I was very cool about it and basically said nothing. He called my bet and the lady folded. (She said after the hand that she folded 8-8 and would have hit a set on the river, so it was a good thing I bet I guess.)
The river was an 8, which did put a straight possibility on the board, but I didn't think Matt had that kind of hand. I honestly thought he had an overpair and I was right. I bet 8,000 on the river and he called. Without waiting for me to show my hand, he tabled K-K. When he saw my A-10, he started talking smack about me again. He continued for about three hands afterward. I did my best to ignore him and several people (and dealers) told me later that they were pleased and surprised by the way I acted (that I hadn't gone ballistic right back at him).
Matt has done this to me before, however. About a month ago I beat him on the river with a flush after I had flopped middle pair and 4 of my suit. He said I was a terrible player that time too. I'm telling you, if this guy gives me grief again, I'm going to flat out tell him to shut his rude ass up. I heard from somebody that he is a dealer somewhere & that really amazed me with the attitude he had. You would think he'd never had his kings busted before.
So, was I wrong to play this hand this way? Was Matt just frustrated or am I really a bad player? Comments appreciated. Be brutally honest please. Thanks.
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O.K. here goes. I don't normally raise with A/10 as it is a borderline "weak ace" hand, though it is stronger than most suspect. If you read some of my older blogs I have been roughed up a lot by it. However, given the action it is tough. I think his reraise was not at all suspect, and 9 times out of 10 you are looking at either a big ace, probably AK, or at the very least JJ or better. With the other player's call you are somewhat priced in, but still not getting correct odds (by my calculations there is 3000 in the pot when you called, giving you 3/1 odds, that made it more correct for the 4th player to call as he was getting better than 4/1. With 5400 in the pot after the other caller, Matt's bet of 2500 is about 1/2 the pot (you don't tell me stack sizes) is not my choice. I would shove with the overpair which should elicit a fold from top pair, top kicker and small pairs. Yes you did get lucky, and borrowing a phrase from one of my favorite poker writers, Slansky, "any time an opponent plays differently than they would if they knew what your cards were, you gain and they lose". In that case ask yourself how you would have played if you knew he had kings? Your comment was that you thought he "might" have an overpair. If you trusted your instincts you should have folded, Using my odds calculator, preflop your win % was 27.8% vs. 54.1% with the kings and 18.1% with the 8's. That is not including the other player who it might be presumed to have an ace in his hand calling the big preflop raises. After the flop your win % went down to 24.6%, kings went to 64.2%, and 8's to 11.2%. So, you were at best a 4/1 dog getting 2/1 on your money. Not good.
Personally, I would have laid it down preflop against his raise in position, it showed too much strength, plus the other caller before you showed strength as well. With 2 other callers the chances of other aces being live drops considerably. Again, i don't know stack sizes and was this the morning moose or bigger stack tournament? Those are factors. I would be more willing to gamble a bit on a small buy in tournament if I have lots of chips vs. big stack in a slower tournament.
Now, to the issue of Matt's comments. They were totally unacceptable. I think that you should have complained to the floor or gotten in his face. Personally, I am not putting up with that crap any more. It really is frustrating to have players draw out on you. It happens to me constantly, but that is the "cost" of playing better starting cards. Got knocked out of a tournament earlier today playing 8/5, turned two pair on a K/Q/8 flop, and got felted by a caller of my all in with Q/J when another queen fell on the river. How does he possibly make that call? As I was writing this I got knocked out of a tournament by playing a 4/7 in small blind with a 5/6/8 flop. I bet pot, was called in 3 places and shoved when a 2 hit the turn. I was eliminated by the big blind who had......7/9!!!! So, my bad, worse starting hand and did not read my opponents well. Also did not excercise pot control when out of position! No one to blame but myself.
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