[Captn_All_In]

Sorry this is a long post....

During my heads up tourney I was in a match with another player in the Loser's bracket semi's- winner gets in the money...loser gets nada.

Start with 10K in chips, 2nd round blinds at 200/400. SB I have AA and raise 800, he folds, I show him the hand. Next hand I have 10 2o and fold. Next hand I get Q3s and raise 800 to 1200 total. I have been playing pretty conservatively up to this point and I figure that the matching raise after showing him the AA will make him think about folding. I would rather steal the blinds than take this hand to a showdown. I do know that this is not a great hand to be raising with, but I was trying to make a move

Anyways, he thinks for a 30-40 sec and says..."Boy I dunno, this is a good hand..." I think to myself...well it can't be that good or he would have called right away...so he calls.

Flop comes...K Q 5 rainbow. He hesitates and pushes. I think for a few seconds, decide he is on a draw of some kind, and figure that if he does have the K that he would have bet less, trying to milk chips from me, instead of going for the kill shot. I call and he shows J9s. And my Q's hold up. I have him covered, and make it into the money.

Well the guy doesn't lay off about the hand the whole night. Says how Harrington would have told me fold, and that I should have laid the hand down. I was truly relying on my guy instinct and what I know about this guy's playing habits. So was I wrong to call the all in bet?


Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[tomb1]

First he calls J-9 (OK, maybe), then pushes with 2 overcards on the board (gutshot bluff, but basically WTF?), and then he has the b*lls to whine about YOUR hand? You were ahead A to Z.

I think HOH would tell you to at least limp and maybe raise with Q-3 SB heads up (and you might think about a 2.5x raise instead of 2x). Once the flop came, you took a chance with your read of him not having the K. I think top pair wins a helluva lot of times HU. I play it just like you did.

[BadBeater]

Originally Posted by tomb1

First he calls J-9 (OK, maybe), then pushes with 2 overcards on the board (gutshot bluff, but basically WTF?), and then he has the b*lls to whine about YOUR hand? You were ahead A to Z.

I think HOH would tell you to at least limp and maybe raise with Q-3 SB heads up (and you might think about a 2.5x raise instead of 2x). Once the flop came, you took a chance with your read of him not having the K. I think top pair wins a helluva lot of times HU. I play it just like you did.

I TOTALLY agree with tomb1. You played it well. Instinct does sometimes have to rule over 'the right thing'. Hey, that's why they call it gambling!

[jojobinks]

i don't dispute having a read. but, um...i guess i fold.

second pair and no kicker beats very few possible hands he could have here. i'd have been a sucker, but suspected he had KX here and laid it down.

btw, raising to 800 isn't enough. blinds 200/400, raising to 800 gives the BB 3:1 odds, which means that he should be calling with just about anything. i know lots of guys like to move to a minraise mode when the blinds get big, but...i think it's a chance to get burned way too often with hands that you don't really want to see a flop with (like Q3s, for instance).

while we're talking about harrington, he recommends limping with just about anything headsup, but you won't see him (or any other poker lit) recommending a minraise.

[Captn_All_In]

Thanks for the comments guys. They are greatly appreciated.


I see your point jojo, actually going back and looking at my post I did say "raised to 800" I should have said "raised 800" I made it 1200 to play. But even still, after going back and reading Harrington's section on bet sizes again that is still to small of a bet. He even says that 2x the blind (in this case I assume that is a bet of 1200 in all 400 call and 800 raise) is how he "encourages action" while "not committing many chips". And really I didn't want to see action with that hand.
(I am going to edit my original post now)

[SandmanDC]

I think you read him right to begin with, anyone who says out loud that they can't see folding a hand, and not reraising, take them for all they got. Rule one showing strength means weakness. Ok so he has a drawing hand, but in hold'em what isn't a drawing hand preflop? Drawing to a gutshot straight, not the best odds, semi bluff at the pot. But don't whine when you get beat by a better hand. Books are almost as easy to read as people. Sometimes you have to go with your gut feelings. That is why they call it gambling.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Captn_All_In

Well the guy doesn't lay off about the hand the whole night. Says how Harrington would have told me fold, and that I should have laid the hand down. I was truly relying on my guy instinct and what I know about this guy's playing habits. So was I wrong to call the all in bet?

You had a read on him and went with it. You didn't believe he would push in this spot with a hand that had you beat. You were correct. He's just sore over bluffing away his chips (obviously).

[bdohaney]

I have no problem with your line here, from start to finish. In a full table, yes, you should be raising 3-5xBB, but even that is variable. When you are heads-up, small raises like this work fine, and can help you 1.) refine your read on the other player, 2.) make them fold a better hand sometimes (though here with Q3o you were ahead the entire hand), and 3.) if they do have a monster, they are fairly likely here to come over the top of you, PF, and you can just fold without having lost much at all. Here, if his hand was as good as his acting was bad, I think he probably would have raised you PF. I ESPECIALLY like this raise if he was folding some of the time from the SB, because anything really weak he is likely to wrongly (because he would have good enough odds to call with almost anything) toss right here. I also mostly disagree with JoJo about him likely having you beat after the flop. There is quite a range of cards he could have called your bet with PF and pushed with, with it being heads up, I think he could have even potentially called with any PP. With his fishy comments, I think it widens his range out even more. I do agree that if he did have as strong a hand as he wanted you to believe, he would not have pushed here.

[MacGrad]

Originally Posted by Captn_All_In

Well the guy doesn't lay off about the hand the whole night. Says how Harrington would have told me fold, and that I should have laid the hand down. I was truly relying on my guy instinct and what I know about this guy's playing habits.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Next time he (or someone) says that, pull out your wallet, look at your driver's license, and comment about how the last name doesn't read Harrington.

Either that, or apologize profusely. Next time you're in a hand together, act like you don't know what you should do, take out your cell, and call "Harrington" to see what he tells you to do.

It's showboating, but the guy should get the message.

[w16227]

Kind of a brutal blind structure - 2nd round and a decent headsup raise (2x the BB) puts 10% of your stack in play.

The next time somehting similar happens - just tell him that he scratched his ear and blinked before he bet - so you knew he was bluffing. Should screw him up the next time you play.

Headsup is a distinctly different tournament game than even shorthanded. I would not have folded here. In HU - 2nd pair is "generally" good. He really have you no reason to think otherwise (othere than trying to make you believe that he had a monster).

I would be willing to bet that Harrington would have called here.

One of the things influencing the play here is the stack and blinds. You do not have much room to fool around. If you do, and nothing hits your hand (which is often in HU play), then you need to take a risk. 2nd button with queens is good enough. Sure, you may be behind or get outdrawn, but the majority of the time you will be ahead.

His lack of a reraise - and the talk during the beginning of the hand lead me to believe that his hand is not as stong as he wants you to believe. A silent or quiet call with little wasted motion in the chip movement is a better "read" of a strong hand.

U made the right move.