You Decide #27
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
If you haven't read my Razz post, check it out. It's just before this one.
I love it when this happens. To me, this is the flipside to You Decide #26, where I pushed all-in with AA preflop on the first hand of a tournament. Here, I was dealt QcQd in the SB midway through a single-table SNG. There were 5 or 6 players left. The blinds were 80/160. I had about 5K. The player on my left, who I will dub ChickenHead (for his FullTilt icon) had about 4.5K. The BB had about 1.5K.
All players folded to the button, ChickenHead. Chicken minimum raised. I, in turn, minimum raised back. The BB folded, as I expected. Chicken minimum raised me back. I minimum raised him back. He minimum raised me back. I minimum raised him back. He flat called. So, to recap, we reraised back and forth 6 times. The pot had about 10x the BB because of the three initial blinds (mine, CH's and BBs). Let's just estimate it as a 1600 pot.
The flop was As9s8x. I check. ChickenHead pushes all in for about 4K more. If I lose the hand, I'm under 1K and severely short stacked. I folded.
So, did I play this hand well? Did the min raise war save me money rather than pushing? Should I have made a significant re-raise instead. Did I give him an opportunity to bluff raise when I checked?
My initial opinion: The min raise war was useless posturing. When he finally flat called, that let me know he didn't have me beat pre-flop. An AA or KK would've kept min raising. On the flop, my check could have been a slow play, so it is not absolutely an invitation for him to bet. Even if he did bluff, I had to consider him for an AK, AQ, AJ, or even A9. He may've also had a flush draw instead. Either way, I had to fold. Betting out on the flop would've left me open to a reraise I couldn't call anyway.
Opinions?
posted by Jordan @ 1:32 PM,
