09- 5-05, LearnTexasHoldem:
Did I Play My Trips Right?
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The flop came QJ2. He bet and I called with top-pair and weak kicker. The turn was another Q. At this point he announced he was all-in with a stack slightly larger than mine (we were the chip leaders). I had to put him on a Q at this point. This hand would have put me out of the tournament had I called and lost. It took me a long time to decide what to do. If we both had Q's and he had even a decent kicker, I would probably lose.
I ended up deciding to gamble a bit and called. It turned out he only had a J and was making a big play at the pot. I was very happy to double up and then eliminate him a few hands later. When I turned my cards over, a couple of people said, "You had to think about THAT?". I'm still of the opinion that I might lose that hand half of the time or more. If it was a different player, I probably would not have called it.
Am I being way too conservative here or is this a potentially disastrous situation? I'm not sure what I would do if it happened again.
Answer: Never fault yourself for being a thoughtful player. Regardless of the situation, making a mechanical kneejerk reaction isn't ever right. Likewise, whenever your tournament life is on the line, it doesn't hurt to give the decision a little extra time.
I'm going to generalize my answer some so I don't just write two sentences. What exactly does it mean when you are playing against a player who is overly aggressive and/or overly loose (too many starting hands)? How does this affect your counter strategy? When someone bets too much and plays too many hands, it means that they usually don't have much. Now, sometimes they will have something, but generally speaking if you play more hands preflop you will have less postflop. A person who plays fewer hands generally has something. What this means for how you play against them is that you can't give them credit for a good hand everytime since he/she would bet nothing in that spot just as likely as they would bet the nuts.
It can be difficult and annoying to play against someone like this when you aren't getting cards, but when you are getting cards, they are gold mines. Just make sure you don't play the same against them as you would a tight player. Making adjustments based on how the opponents play is part of good poker. You won't be right everytime and that doesn't matter; just the majority of time is fine. An example of this might be if you have seen the player raise the last 6 hands in a row, some of which went to the river and you could see were junk, only for him to raise again when you have a hand you normally don't play against a preflop raise.
In this spot, say if you have KJ or AT or something, you might actually reraise him since after watching you can assume you have him beat. The same goes for post flop. Say you have AJ and the flop is QJ4. Against a person who overplays a lot of hands, I would feel pretty confident calling him down with my middle pair best kicker. Another point that needs to be made is that just because a particular move is difficult to play against doesn't make it winning play. In no limit holdem it is hard if someone is really aggressive and gambling with you since every pot is a big one and you need something decent to call him/her with; that doesn't mean the person is a good player though or that their moves are winning moves -- difficult to play against doesn't equate to winning play.
Now with all this said, back to your question; I think having trips against this player is a monster, but again, you don't have to rush the decision to call will all your money. If I had seen enough of this player's play prior -- enough to safely assume he was a consistent overplayer/maniac -- I would have called him with a good Jack even.
Lastly, advice at the poker table is plenty -- and usually worthless. No one who actually knows how to play well is going to just volunteer tips at the table to you. Don't pay attention to any of it. Think things through for yourself.
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