The affect of winning the previous hand?

stpboy

I was playing in a $4.00 180 person SNG last night and had the following hand(s) occur, we're in the money at this point I believe:

PokerStars Game $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit
- Level X (400/800) - 2007/01/31 - 04:53:21 (ET)
9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: aknewbie (25366 in chips)
Seat 2: stpboy77 (17435 in chips)
Seat 3: mowne (7875 in chips)
Seat 4: SNKY-SNKY (34497 in chips)
Seat 5: eeeeha (15988 in chips)
Seat 6: ! ! lPudge#7 (21355 in chips)
Seat 7: FLIPTOGOOD (5322 in chips)
Seat 8: ERICN999 (24758 in chips)
Seat 9: b1inc (6787 in chips)
aknewbie: posts the ante 50
stpboy77: posts the ante 50
mowne: posts the ante 50
SNKY-SNKY: posts the ante 50
eeeeha: posts the ante 50
! ! lPudge#7: posts the ante 50
FLIPTOGOOD: posts the ante 50
ERICN999: posts the ante 50
b1inc: posts the ante 50
SNKY-SNKY: posts small blind 400
eeeeha: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stpboy77 [Ah 9h]
! ! lPudge#7: folds
FLIPTOGOOD: folds
ERICN999: folds
b1inc: folds
aknewbie: calls 800
stpboy77: calls 800
mowne: raises 7025 to 7825 and is all-in
SNKY-SNKY: folds
eeeeha: folds
aknewbie: folds
stpboy77: calls 7025
*** FLOP *** [8c 5c 8d]
*** TURN *** [8c 5c 8d] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [8c 5c 8d 2s] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
stpboy77: shows [Ah 9h] (a pair of Eights)
mowne: shows [7c Kc] (a pair of Eights - lower kicker)
stpboy77 collected 18100 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 18100 | Rake 0
Board [8c 5c 8d 2s Ts]
Seat 1: aknewbie folded before Flop
Seat 2: stpboy77 showed [Ah 9h] and won (18100) with a pair of Eights
Seat 3: mowne (button) showed [7c Kc] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 4: SNKY-SNKY (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: eeeeha (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: ! ! lPudge#7 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: FLIPTOGOOD folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ERICN999 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: b1inc folded before Flop (didn't bet)


I felt I had a good read on mowne but new that I wasn't likely dominating him by any means. The very next hand I get AK to a raise and a re-raiser. My thought were:

a) first player all in, could have anything

b) second player makes a small raise to isolate however to me that represented a tonne of strength. I absolutely knew that if I raised he was calling and I was either racing, which I don't want to do, or I was beat by AA, KK. Is calling an option?

c) I just won a nice pot and don't want to blow my chips. This is poor thinking I believe.


PokerStars Game $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit
- Level X (400/800) - 2007/01/31 - 04:54:44 (ET)
9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: aknewbie (24516 in chips)
Seat 2: stpboy77 (27660 in chips)
Seat 4: SNKY-SNKY (34047 in chips)
Seat 5: eeeeha (15138 in chips)
Seat 6: ! ! lPudge#7 (21305 in chips)
Seat 7: FLIPTOGOOD (5272 in chips)
Seat 8: ERICN999 (24708 in chips)
Seat 9: b1inc (6737 in chips)
aknewbie: posts the ante 50
stpboy77: posts the ante 50
SNKY-SNKY: posts the ante 50
eeeeha: posts the ante 50
! ! lPudge#7: posts the ante 50
FLIPTOGOOD: posts the ante 50
ERICN999: posts the ante 50
b1inc: posts the ante 50
eeeeha: posts small blind 400
! ! lPudge#7: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to stpboy77 [Kh Ac]
eeeeha said, "nc"
FLIPTOGOOD: raises 1600 to 2400
ERICN999: raises 1600 to 4000
b1inc: folds
aknewbie: folds
stpboy77: folds
SNKY-SNKY: folds
eeeeha: folds
! ! lPudge#7: calls 3200
FLIPTOGOOD: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [7h 2d 4h]
! ! lPudge#7: bets 17255 and is all-in
FLIPTOGOOD: calls 1222 and is all-in
ERICN999: calls 17255
*** TURN *** [7h 2d 4h] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [7h 2d 4h Ks] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
! ! lPudge#7: shows [8d 8s] (a pair of Eights)
ERICN999: shows [Qh Qc] (a pair of Queens)
ERICN999 collected 32066 from side pot
FLIPTOGOOD: shows [5s 5c] (a pair of Fives)
ERICN999 collected 16466 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 48532 Main pot 16466. Side pot 32066. | Rake 0
Board [7h 2d 4h Ks As]
Seat 1: aknewbie folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: stpboy77 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: SNKY-SNKY (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: eeeeha (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: ! ! lPudge#7 (big blind) showed [8d 8s] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 7: FLIPTOGOOD showed [5s 5c] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 8: ERICN999 showed [Qh Qc] and won (48532) with a pair of Queens
Seat 9: b1inc folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Metro

I think it was Harrington who said just because you have a good hand doesnt mean you have to play it.

I have employed this a number of times in tournaments - where I know I can be effective with the chips I have - but I dont want to be in a situation where I could lose a chunk on race situations.

Consider the following:

I have just been on a blind stealing rampage to get myself back into a game I was starting to lose. I was just caught isolating a short stack and showed down a weak hand for a win.

Now I am in MP with a hand like 88 - 99 and even 10-10. There are some monster stacks behind me who are perceptive and can play well. In poker I want to be the aggressor preflop or outplay someone after the flop. I know if I raise 4-5x bb with this hand there is a high probability that one of the good players behind me will make me decide for all my chips. Therefore - I am forced to call an all-in, rather than push all-in. In this situation I would rather be in late position pushing all in with 78s (with high probability that my opponent can fold) than calling an all-in from EP or MP with 8-8.

Now this is very specific to who is playing behind me. Some times it is delightful to have this situation - where you get a great hand after showing down a weak hand. You can often set a trap with a pair of 99s by putting in a small raise and waiting for someone to make a move - but it depends on what the move is. A weak player will take your 3x bet and raise about half the pot or less - but this timidness allows you to push back over the top, hence becoming the aggressor.

A good player in this situation will make your decision very tough, essentially know that you are all-in or folding.

So it really depends on your read of the table and if you are entering the pot - are you willing to put all your chips in? Even with a hand like AK - I dont want to be put out of a table I have a good read on, by having a player with 10J push me all-in - because I am not far enough ahead in this situation to warrant a call vs. a push.

Again this is always situational. BUT, I do believe that just because you have a good hand in a tournament doesn't mean you have to play it.

I am sure there will be many odds based ppl who will say I am not playing good poker if I dont want to put my tournament on AK vs 10J - but everyone has their own way of playing - which makes this game great.

Bobsi38127

Playing the heater can be very effective sometimes and can really screw w/opponent's heads. Say itz a 27 player NL tourney the blinds are at that point where even having 3K in front of u can be crumbled in a few hands, so opponents generally restrict raises to 1-2x and fire on the flop when they hit hoping they can take the pot then and there (ie: 300/600 on pokerstars).
You win a solid all in race AK vs JJ , the side doesn't matter really, the point is u win and it puts u with a good chip count. (most likely chip leader) After that u get a premium hand like AK or AQs and raise and everyone will probably respect the big stack (if they made it that far they probably have common sense) and fold, then the NEXT hand u pick up a PP like 9s or 10s and raise yet again and maybe get a caller or even a short stack all inner, most likely cuz their irritated by the bombardment of raises, and u win that pot somehow. Then u get a mediocre hand like a suited connector or K9-J, well u have command here and people would probably fear ur aggression and u can use ur table image with some exaggerated aggression and proabably steal the pot PF or the flop which is at minimum 1K if only the blinds and u are still around, or even if sum1 did reraise 90% of the time it'd be a short stack w/not enough to complete ur raise, so if u won here in that instance, your momentum could get u a massive chip lead where it'd be easy to take down the rest. If u lost then people would see now how u played a medium hand and u could tighten back up and when u do get a premium hand later on down the road u could punish the ppl that underrate ur hand.

SirWatts

The minireraise is probably a huge hand (not as reliable as it used to be though), though in this case it could just be a weak isolation thing I guess. As long as you're pretty sure the minraise screams strength I don't mind the fold, but if you're not sure I don't think you can really go wrong with jamming either.

stpboy

I was really thinking about these hands in terms of (other then my reads) why I was willing to call off 7K in chips with a very speculative hand but wouldn't call 4K of my chips with a premium hand. I'm glad to see that some of you wouldn't necessarily view that as playing scared. I had just accumulated a nice pot and the first thing that came to mind was to slow down and make rationale decisions with the information the other players actions were providing. I had just put myself in a position to go deep in the tournament and that was my goal.

I find that my thinking of late in tournaments is to make the final table and then pick my spots accordingly. My last two consecutive tournaments I've finished 2/180 and 3/1302, I was thinking if my thought process was 'play to win' I may have won one of these tournaments. However, I also may not have made the money. I guess it depends on what is more important to me.

stp

AcidJoe

Phil Gordon also mentions that if the dynamics of a table change by someone winning a large pot, someone losing a large pot, a player being eliminated etc it's always good to take a step back and think about how that changes the table.

Now in the Stars $4 180's I probably Jam that pot and take my chances. Yes I'm probably racing but getting a call and hopefully winning gives me a great shot to take it down. Now if your not in the money yet, I play a little more careful especially due to your hand prior. I will assume your in the money since 18 pay and your table has 9. If there was 3 tables left I would assume you'd know you weren't in the money.