Question - good decision?

Okay, a little background. I just doubled up on this guy last hand, and had been pushing him around for like half an hour. He was PO'd, and i figured he would call with a pretty big range of crap...

edit: lots of problems, short stacked, pushing w/o even a pair, etc. etc. I realize all these things... i guess i'm curious if, had i been able to see his cards, should i still have shoved...


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

MP3 ($5.06)
CO ($6.07)
Button ($4.59)
SB ($3.02)
BB ($4.17)
UTG ($1.31)
UTG+1 ($3.04)
Hero ($2.90)
MP2 ($12.28)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, J.
2 folds, Hero raises to $0.1, 5 folds, BB raises to $0.5, Hero raises to $2.9, BB calls $2.40.

Flop: ($5.81) K, 5, 8 (2 players)

Turn: ($5.81) T (2 players)

River: ($5.81) T (2 players)

Final Pot: $5.81

Results in white below:
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5.81 | Rake $0.25
Board [Kd 5h 8c Tc Td]
Seat 1: l PHANTOM l folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: ReaPsTA folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: JavPin (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: ku12 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: NBCT99 (big blind) showed [5c 5d] and won ($5.56) with a full house, Fives full of Tens
Seat 6: wekawood folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: locks133 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: REDBRG mucked [Ah Jh]
Seat 9: flopma$ta folded before Flop (didn't bet)

You realise you have AJ right?

Well, I'm a no where near the level of some of the people on here - it looks like, to me, you were just messin' with the guy and hoping you could set him off. You would know better based on playing him what his reraise out of position would mean ?

At this point you are behind AK, AQ, AA-JJ, any other pair is at best a coin flip and what - a 3/2 favorite over any non-ace - non-jack hand? You also said you felt that he was calling with anything so with the odds of winning that hand - I think i would have just folded. Actually, I hate AJ with a passion so I would never have entered the pot in that position personally unless it was a nitty table and I could have limped to see the flop. I hate his call too, but if you put him on tilt - it's expected.

That's how this rookie looks at it - all around ugliness.

When I think someone's tilting, I try to shove AFTER I have a hand, but with anything reasonable: TP decent kicker, overpair like QQ, low pair w/ SD/FD, etc. I'm not inclined to take them on preflop without a pair. Notice how this hand plays if you have 88 - he's on supertilt.

In general, I'm willing to stack off with TPTK about half the time at NL10. Against a tilter, that's more like 99%. That's how I attack the tilt-o-whirls.

And I learned this the hard way - it may take 50 hands to find the right situation to attack him, and everyone else at the table is looking for their shot at his stack. Be patient, you'll get your share of "free" stacks from tilters over time - just maybe not this time. If you attack from weak position (this turned out to be nearly a coin flip, but it could have been worse), you may donate a stack instead of taking one.

OK, so not even considering the results (me getting stacked), it was a bad move. I know he was tilting, but instead of shoving (and getting into this coin flip situation), i should have called (or folded) and used position to my advantage. My opening range being way tighter than his, i should have waited for at least TP/GK, overpair, or a decent draw before shoving. I figured he would have shoved maybe 1/4 or 1/3 times, and that's giving him an opening range of almost 50% of cards (to do that first 3bet of 0.50). Even without getting into the math, that's obviosly a -ev decision

Thanks Robb for looking at the emotional side of this, i think a monster leak in my game is being far enough along in learning the game to see when someone is letting tilt seriously affect their decisions, but i'm too impatient (or stupid!) to wait for the right moment and f'in kill them. I just want to see all their chips in the middle...

My question is, if you only have 2.90 now and just had doubled up off the guy, why were you playing with ~1.50 on the table??

Originally Posted by shazbox

My question is, if you only have 2.90 now and just had doubled up off the guy, why were you playing with ~1.50 on the table??

Good question. Long answer: This is on purpose right now... I started just playing for fun, for play $, never put much thought into playing for a profitable part-time hobby. I find FTR, see that there is some info here about no deposit bonuses, and that i can try to play for real, for free. I sign up at VC Poker, CD Poker, etc., and end up with $10 at VC, and a few days later, PokerStars gives me $5 (still don't know why they did that...). I played very carefully (not timid, but careful) and built my $5 into $30, and my $10 (@ VC) into $40. I did that playing with a $2 buyin to the $2 NL tables (seemed logical, even though you can buy in with $5). That was about 2K hands. The next 2K hands brought me back down to almost exactly where i started, this downswing started when i switched to playing with a $5 stack. Maybe i changed my style, maybe i wanted to protect it a little more, who the hell knows. I'm back down to almost nothing, and thought i might try to go back to playing the way that was winning for me. Besides, isn't 100BB the correct roll to play with for most of the advice given here? Isn't there different logic when you are playing with a 250+BB stack? I know, none of this crap probably matters at the itty-bitty micro stakes i'm playing, but shouldn't it be relevant nonetheless? I really want to grind this up until i am properly rolled (enter BR management argument here - im thinking like $250?) for 5NL, then go for the $50 deposit (and $50 bonus). Seems to me you can't accumulate FPP's fast enough at all at 2NL, so i want to be playing where $8 pots are more frequent ($0.40 rake min = 1 FPP). Wow... if you're still reading this, i just f'd your mom. Just kidding, i'm just saying i'd be shocked if you read this novelish post...

Short answer: I seem to do much better with a 100BB stack than a 250BB stack. Isn't it strange that you can buy in at 2NL with a $5 stack, but you can still only buy in with $5 at a 5NL table?

Check out this post, reload (or play the other site's no deposit bonus) using 100 BB buy-in and proper br management. And good luck at the tables. (You had some very bad luck if you f'd my mom, so I hope it goes better for you at poker!!)