A VAPoker blowup

It's not unusual for me to make a play without thinking, but I made one last night that I had thought through - just not enough. The hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2245322

Several limpers and I see AQo in the SB. My thought is that I'm probably ahead here, but I don't want to play AQo out of position, so I raise to take the pot right there. But instead of a standard raise to 250 or 300 (given the existing limpers), I push all 29 big blinds in the middle. Who does that? I guess I do. I guess I'm unfortunate that I run into QQ in the BB and JJ UTG. I definitely did not put UTG on JJ. Obviously a limp UTG **could** be strong, but I had seen a bunch of EP limps from him and I wasn't worried.

So what else could I have done here? I could have limped. I could have made a more standard raise to 250. Either of those would be the better option. I'd lean toward the raise as it allows me to define my hand better when I'm raised by the BB. In fact, if it had been reraised by the BB and then it was called by UTG, I could have easily folded. Oh well. But the limp isn't so bad either. I'm OOP, and blinds are relatively small. There is no need to push so hard so early.

So there it is - another learning experience for VAPoker. Of note, this was the second table in a double shootout for the 2008 WSOP qualifier. I breezed through the first table, so perhaps I was a bit overconfident.

thoughts on previous posting

So I've done some thinking on my previous post. I still haven't decided if the call was correct or not. I the end, I think it was. I needed to be 32% to win, and I was 42% to win as per PokerStove. Sometimes, you make the right decision and it doesn't work out, but the real question is - how could I have played that hand better? I think I should have pushed pre-flop. If I felt that my pre-flop raise was going to pot commit me before the flop if I'm reraised - then I should have push initially. Oh well - something to note for next time.

too many mistakes

I'm still making bad plays. I want to get to a spot where I'm getting outplayed and not rethinking my decisions and regretting them. In this particular hand, I was obviously trying to slow play. After the flop, I was hoping to trap him. I figured I could get him for all his chips if he was playing AJ, QQ, or KK. It was the 4th hand of the S&G, so I had no read on him at all. When he check raised me on the turn, I thought about it - can I be beat here? I came up with yes, but probably not. A weak player might make the same move with AJ, and a lot of players might make that move with QQ or KK. So I call and I'm on the rail. I should have been more conservative.

Before the flop, I doubt there was much I could have done. Everybody online plays every pair before the flop. I could have raised to 300 and still gotten a call, but I would have only gone to 180 or so to keep him in the hand. Oh well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1534912

let your read go

Here's a quick hand that I played terribly. The button had been raising and raising my blind. KQ is certainly a callable hand here - but if I think I'm ahead here, I should have raised. I contemplated that, but wanted to outplay him after the flop. That was dumb. In retrospect, I would like to have reraised. I bet into him - hoping to taking it right there. He raised, and I should have been done with the hand right there - but no, I wanted to outplay this guy who had been taking my blind and I put him on trying to outplay me. So I call. Then I bet into him again on the turn. He flat calls. I finally make top pair on the river and check hoping for a cheap showdown. Instead, he puts me in - and I call without a lot of thought. I'm not sure what I thought I could beat there, but perhaps I wasn't thinking.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1534105

tight is right

I spend a lot of time talking about style since I'm trying to perfect my own style. Of course everything is situational - but I'm beginning to wonder if I've been playing too loose.

Most of the ass bags I play against don't pay enough attention to keep track of how tight I am, but it's more about me. I get into trouble when playing so many hands. In his awful book, Play Poker Like the Pros, Hellmuth said "Tight is right." I think I need to tighten up my starting hand requirements, especially out of position and especially calling reraises out of position. If I raise to

But there's more. I need to be more patient on my semi-bluffs. I'm always trying to be aggressive and bet my semi-bluffs, but if you have a draw, why not try to draw at it for cheap or free?

better structure allows for more patience and reraising

Of course this is restating the obvious, but a better structure allows for more patient play. I'm watching the final table of the $500+30 I played in yesterday. None of these people were among the chip leaders when I got knocked out yesterday. The guy who was chip leader finished around 430th. Did I push too hard yesterday without the nuts? Maybe. But I was trying to get a call from a weaker hand like an overpair. That was my goal. I'm going to try hard to play in the $1000+50 event that's on Sept 23.

The one thing I've noticed watching this table is how aggressive everyone is being. Lots of reraising which leads the original raiser to lay down his hand. But there's a caveat to that. The original raiser needs to be a good enough player that he can understand what is happening. I played with so many donkeys who then call or even reraise with AJ in that spot, it's hard to make that part of my game. Just a thought for future reference.