nl 2 table sng hand #2

[Comatose_Soul 0]

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) converterUTG (t1140)UTG+1 (t1290)MP1 (t1390)MP2 (t1330)MP3 (t1240)CO (t2320)Button (t1770)Hero (t1540)BB (t1480)Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, Qd. UTG raises to t40. For some reason I immediately thought Aces when the guy min-raised, figured some sort of good hand. So I simply called.Flop: (t140) 7s, Ts, Jc (3 players)Hero bets t100, UTG calls t100, MP1 folds. Ok, normally a great flop for me, but I was thinking the guy had a monster earlier. I bet ~2/3 of the pot, and the min raiser calls.Turn: (t340) 9d (2 players)Hero bets t200, UTG calls t200. I'm sick about this hand. I've got a pair of overs and an open-ended straight. I bet a little less than 2/3 of the pot, and the min raiser calls again. He has to have a hand now I'm thining.River: (t740) 4d (2 players)Hero checks, UTG bets t300 What now? He bets T300 into a T740 pot, he wants me to call does he not?

[RISEorFall 0]

you really really really need to reraise this PF. You're out of position, and a reraise gives you more information on the min raiser. If he goes back over the top of you, then maybe you can fold assuming AA or KK. If he had AA or KK he would've started betting on the flop or atleast the turn. His just calling to the river, then betting like half the pot when youcheck makes me think he has A or K high and doesn't think you have anything. It looks to me like he's assuming you'll fold

[Comatose_Soul 0]

99.9% of the time I agree -- I'm gonna re-raise to see where I'm at, but for whatever reason I had a sick feeling about this one, and I went with my gut and just called.I'll give the outcome tonight or early tomorrow morning

[Absolute 0]

you played this whole hand like a donk."i thought he had aces"cmonthere is no way you can put him on aces unless he told you "i am minimum raising because i have aces"not re-raising this pre-flop should be a poker crime.poker isnt a game about "feelings". its about making correct plays. this isnt one of them.your bet on the flop is fine.on the turn, when i see someone double their previous street bet, or bet less size of the pot than the did on the previous street, its a huge indicator of weakness. if i were the villian, id take your hand away from you right there.your check on the river is worse, and any decent player can take that pot from you by pushing right there.

[Mr Monkey 0]

you played this whole hand like a donk."i thought he had aces"cmonthere is no way you can put him on aces unless he told you "i am minimum raising because i have aces"not re-raising this pre-flop should be a poker crime.poker isnt a game about "feelings". its about making correct plays. this isnt one of them.your bet on the flop is fine.on the turn, when i see someone double their previous street bet, or bet less size of the pot than the did on the previous street, its a huge indicator of weakness. if i were the villian, id take your hand away from you right there.your check on the river is worse, and any decent player can take that pot from you by pushing right there.

[BeanGW 0]

but for whatever reason I had a sick feeling about this one, and I went with my gut and just called.

Allow me to add on to the wise words of Absolute.If you had a sick feeling about this one, and you felt he had Aces, FOLD! As silly as that sounds to me... you aren't going with your gut by staying in a hand when you think you are beat.In a tourney you have to realize that these situations can be extremely costly. If you do not play your hand correctly, ie reraise preflop to better figure out where you stand, you are liable to lose an awful lot more down the line by "just calling".NL poker as a whole is a game where small mistakes can be very costly, and often times the player that makes the fewest mistakes wins. Here you are trying to justify a play to yourself that is really unjustifiable.If villain had a VPIP of 15% with a preflop raise percent of 2%, and here now he was min raising from UTG, OK, it's very reasonable to assume that he has a very strong starting hand. But your reraise might help determine whether he has Aces, K's, J's, or 10's... Now, it might not. But lets say you reraise and he goes all in. Well, there ya go.Let's say you reraise and he just calls. Well maybe he'll now check to you on the flop if an Ace or a King doesn't fall. Hmmm... well you can fire away a bit more safely. If raised, again, an alarm bell should go off.If he bets into you on a scary board (A-K-x suited) after your PF reraise, maybe you let this one go.Simply put, you gain absolutely nothing by just calling his PF raise.

[Comatose_Soul 0]

you played this whole hand like a donk."i thought he had aces"cmonthere is no way you can put him on aces unless he told you "i am minimum raising because i have aces"not re-raising this pre-flop should be a poker crime.poker isnt a game about "feelings". its about making correct plays. this isnt one of them.your bet on the flop is fine.on the turn, when i see someone double their previous street bet, or bet less size of the pot than the did on the previous street, its a huge indicator of weakness. if i were the villian, id take your hand away from you right there.your check on the river is worse, and any decent player can take that pot from you by pushing right there.

I'm not arguing. The main reason I posted this was because I thought it was interesting how my 'feelings' and my mind were contradicting each other and affecting my play.I literally said 'this guy has Aces,' out loud when he min raised UTG. I've been running real cold, so this is probably what put this in my head (I have no other reason to think he has Aces -- I even checked my PTracker DB, and I've never sat at a table with this player before.) So it comes around to me in the SB, and I agree 100% the right play is to re-raise. I had Aces in the gut though (contradicting the logical part of my brain,) and said I'm calling and folding if I don't hit a Q.Obviously I didn't hit a queen. But at this point the logical part of my brain starts to kick in. I've got an over-pair and a backdoor straight draw. Surely he does not really have Aces -- I can get him of this hand. I bet out close to the size of the pot. He calls.Turn comes, and I slow down when I probably should not have. I agree with Absolute's assesment of turn raises (it was not as strong as my flop bet,) it smelled afraid -- and I think I was. I was looking at any 8 having a straight, and my illogical gut was screaming Aces again. With the logical side of my brain and my gut at war, I compromise and make the bet I made (a bad one - agreed.)River is pretty much a blank, but I'm spent. Two sides of me are screaming at each other and I'm practically waving a white flag. Yet he only bets 300. I start racing through what he could have, AJ? Maybe he missed the spade draw? AQ and he missed the straight? I had to know, so I called and he flipped over AsAd.

[Smasharoo 0]

i thought he had acesFold the flop then.

[Comatose_Soul 0]

i thought he had acesFold the flop then.

Just didn't make sense -- I had no reason, no read (was like the 6th hand of the tournament. ) I did let it affect how I played, so folding probably was the best decision - guy probably could have had 72o and taken me down, had he been a decent player.

[TheIceman05 0]

Just didn't make sense -- I had no reason, no read

IF you're going to play incorrectly based on your "gut feeling" why not minimize your possible losses and get out of the way? Playing the hand like you did ends up being the worst of all possible options, including folding the flop.Ice

[Comatose_Soul 0]

IF you're going to play incorrectly based on your "gut feeling" why not minimize your possible losses and get out of the way? Playing the hand like you did ends up being the worst of all possible options, including folding the flop.Ice

I agree, wish I could have stepped out of the mess -- Luckily it was not the end of my tournament. I managed to put it behind me and play decently after.

[Absolute 0]

lol i dont think this is a preflop foldbut you certainly cant convince yourself its AA from a minimum raise and play scared cause of it

[Comatose_Soul 0]

lol i dont think this is a preflop foldbut you certainly cant convince yourself its AA from a minimum raise and play scared cause of it

Right -- thats what I mean by stepping out of the mess. Playing normal, and not letting the fact that I've been running cold mess with my head