11-15-04, LearnTexasHoldem:
Good Aggression Or Lucky Fold
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The flop was horrible for my Queens: King, Ace and a rag. And since I didn't have position, I had to bet.
The guy was always aggressive and I don't like raising pre-flop and checking afterwards since staying aggressive even if the flop didn't help is a sign of strength that has bought me a few pots as you might expect. I figured he had to have one - if not both - of the overcards and would eventually push his chips in.
So instead of checking, I made a bold bet of $2,000 which was more than he had left - forcing him to go all-in if he called - yet was still not a huge chunk of my stack (although losing this pot would have hurt, no doubt). He immediately started to agonize and he articulated why he was agonizing: He had a King and he thought I had an Ace and had him beat. I sat there hoping to not give away anything as he repeated several times, "You have an Ace, you have to have an ace."
He finally folded and I won the pot.
In retrospect, the guy was playing more conservatively than he usually does, I suspect because the tournament had higher stakes and a structure that meant second place was as good as first (instead of a $20 buy-in standard payout, it was a $50 shootout where the top two players at every table advanced to the next week's final table and a guaranteed payout).
Still, I still wonder if what I did was a bold play that I can save for the future or recklessly endangering $2,000 in chips. What do you think?
By the way, between your site and the newly-purchased "Super System" - as well as playing online and in weekly tourneys - I can actually feel myself getting better and smarter about the game, giving me a confidence that allows me to win hands I probably shouldn't. I owe you and Doyle a beer...
Answer: Thanks for the question Brian! There are a couple ways of looking at this. The first way of looking at this situation is to say that you made a big bet into a flop that you knew you were behind in, to a player who is a calling station, who would most likely call you only with a hand that beat you. That's an accurate description of what happened but I don't think it is the one I would choose.
What is more important when looking at this hand is to first of all site that you raised a larger amount than you normally would preflop because you anticipated the bad player calling. That's the first plus. The next move you made was one in which you assessed the texture of the flop and made a play that would cost the other player all his money to play. You put the decision in his court. The bottom line is that he ended up folding the winner.
That play may not work in every case, or even in most cases, but what makes a good poker player is knowing when to push and when to back off. You won the pot here so the to answer your question as to whether this was good aggression or just lucky, I would say that it was a good play. For the readers, please don't think I'm advocating betting an underpair into two overcards on the flop when you are in with a bad player -- I'm not. The point I'm making is that the highest form of poker involves playing the other person's cards as much as yours.
Notice also that Brian did the betting and not the calling. That makes a huge difference. If the other player bet into him with all his chips and Brian called with QQ and ended up wining, I would have to say that the play was a bad one and lucky. There are very few absolutes in poker. Most play is really situational and everything works sometimes. This is why playing winning poker month after month and year after year becomes really difficult, because with so much negative reinforcement it is hard to sort through all the play and not just digress to playing every hand to the river.
Poker can't be won with that kind of approach. You need to consider yourself a sniper, not a machine gunner who just sprays everything in sight. When I start getting too loose I try to remember the cartoon bear that is already holding a hand full of fish and drops them all trying to pick up another one.
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