Quote Originally Posted by dsaxton
Quote Originally Posted by dalecooper
I had to trust a read here - nothing more I can say. I used the whole clock and thought over a number of hands I'd played with that guy, and I decided he was full of it.
This is kind of silly. In the transcript of the hand you say "what a bunch of crap" and then make a crying call, and now you're talking about "reads" and examining a "range of possible hands." It's pretty obvious this was just a stubborn call.
I was trying to get him to say something in response, and doing some thinking out loud. It helps me figure out what his bet means to talk about it. In a real poker game I'd do the exact same thing. You can think whatever you like, but I concluded that he hadn't played like he had a queen in his hand, and I was happy to be right. I figured him for a missed draw or a pair like pocket jacks; wasn't expecting to see AK but it made sense after the fact.

It's of course almost impossible to get online players to respond in the middle of a hand like that, but I like to try anyway. Hellmuth does it all the time, seemingly ranting about a hand while trying to get a reaction out of his opponent. Negreanu does it (in a nicer way) too. I'm not that good at it, but when you're sitting there fuming over your counterfeited two pair, it's better than nothing.

I'll also say this - if there's one thing I do VERY little of in poker, it's making stubborn calls. I don't like to pay people off when they get lucky against me. I try to always take the time to make the right read. The hand history doesn't show it here, but I made that call when the clock was at 1 second - and if I'd had five more minutes to think, I would have used it. The last time I can remember making a legitimate stubborn call was with pocket aces against a guy who had pocket kings, and he hit trips on the turn and raised me big. I *knew* he had the trips but I couldn't let it go, I was just so mad that he had sucked out on me. I made a spite call. This was not one of those... I like to think that I learned my lesson. I'll make bad calls if I misread the hand, but I won't call a guy that I really think is ahead of me just because I'm on tilt or something.