Res Ipsa Poker

(Editorial note: I have no problem with Hoyzao nor do I think he has any with me. The following is offered as a different point of view on a hand.)

Bad play will get inside your head.

Or, if you're like me, your play will get into the head of others.

Hoyazo was not enthusiastic about the move I made to knock him out of the Riverchasers event last night. I think his position is understandable, even if I don't fully agree.

Here is his take on the hand:

Eventually, with about half my starting stack maybe 40 minutes in to the tournament, I had pocket 7s on the button and saw a standard raise from EP, followed by two or three callers of the raise, all ahead of my action. There was about 800 chips in the pot, I had maybe 1400 chips in my stack and I looked down to find pocket 7s. I was short and not in a good position to make a move where I was, so I went ahead and reraised the 200-chip bet allin to 1400 straight. I assumed I was likely ahead here and assumed I would likely take the pot down without a fight. Instead, I was insta-called by the second player to my left, who still had two players left to act behind him who had already called a preflop raise themselves with their hands. Those other two guys folded, and what does the insta-caller flip up? AQo. Ace Queen fucking o. Instcalling an allin reraise and still with two raise-callers to act behind him. The flop came down with nothing of consequence, at which point I am basically a 75% favorite in the hand. But do I have to tell you how the hand ended up? I've said it before and I'll say it again: the full tilt rng for whatever reason seems to be more likely to reward donkery, the more donkorific a particular play is. I think calling the allin reraise with AQo with two raise-callers still to act behind you has got to be among the worst moves I have ever seen made at the poker table. But hey, I called an allin reraise in the Mookie this week with the hammer preflop, and then in Riverchasers I called another allin with whatever shit hand that was -- 97s or some such garbage. Of course those are live cards that I'm calling with, as opposed to the AQo hand, but what does fear of a little something called domination really have to do with poker anyways, right?

And you know the worst part of all about this play that knocked me out of Riverchasers on Thursday night? It wasn't even made by a riverchaser. It was a regular blogger. That's the kind of shit that makes me say what I say about the level of play of the bloggers as a whole. Now the guy who made this play is not someone I know well, but he's always been a nice guy whenever I've interacted with him or seen him with others, so no rant needed. But calling an allin reraise with two raise-callers still to act behind you with AQo? Dayyyyyyummmmmm.

Here is the hand in question (converters suck):

Full Tilt Poker Game #3967461068: Riverchasers Online Poker Tour (29542848), Table 1 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:51:45 ET - 2007/10/25
Seat 1: on_thg (2,390)
Seat 2: NavyAMDO (2,085)
Seat 3: GottaWinSum (8,610)
Seat 4: KillinKegz (2,935)
Seat 5: 6722 (3,380)
Seat 6: jamyhawk (3,890)
Seat 7: jl555 (3,680)
Seat 8: hoyazo (1,385)
Seat 9: gorilla_rc24 (8,840)
jl555 posts the small blind of 50
hoyazo posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to on_thg [As Qc]
gorilla_rc24 folds
on_thg raises to 300
NavyAMDO folds
GottaWinSum calls 300
KillinKegz folds
6722 folds
jamyhawk folds
jl555 folds
hoyazo raises to 1,385, and is all in
on_thg raises to 2,390, and is all in
GottaWinSum folds
on_thg shows [As Qc]
hoyazo shows [7d 7c]
Uncalled bet of 1,005 returned to on_thg
*** FLOP *** [2h Jh 6h]
*** TURN *** [2h Jh 6h] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [2h Jh 6h Ad] [5h]
on_thg shows a pair of Aces
hoyazo shows a pair of Sevens
on_thg wins the pot (3,120) with a pair of Aces
KillinKegz: gg
hoyazo stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,120 | Rake 0
Board: [2h Jh 6h Ad 5h]
Seat 1: on_thg showed [As Qc] and won (3,120) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: NavyAMDO didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: GottaWinSum folded before the Flop
Seat 4: KillinKegz didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: 6722 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: jamyhawk (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: jl555 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: hoyazo (big blind) showed [7d 7c] and lost with a pair of Sevens
Seat 9: gorilla_rc24 didn't bet (folded)

We're nearing the end of the first hour and I have gotten exactly zero traction - I'm down to 80% of the starting stack. Anything I've raised has taken the blinds. Mostly, I've folded junk.

Donkey thought #1: Hey, I've got a pretty good hand here, I might win a pot.

All of my raises thus far have been of the 3x BB variety, so this is no different. I get a call from GottaWinSum, who I've never seen until this tournament. His stack has been up and down and he's in a lot of pots, but I haven't seen any out of line play.

Hoy shoves.

Donkey thought #2: Holy overbet resteal, Batman!

Okay, I have this bet covered. If I went to war with Hoy and lost, I'd still have 1,000 chips left and I feel like I wouldn't be in much worse position than I am now. What does he have?

I don't think he shoves AA, KK or AK there. More likely a smaller pair, which would be a coin flip. Or it could be any two cards, which would make me a favorite, albeit not a dominant one.

I feel like I need chips. I'll take a flip or better.

Donkey thought #3: Who is my opponent?

I didn't give enough consideration to who my opponent was. I've played some with Hoy, but not all that much. I should know more about his game than I do. Let's just say I put him a little further right on the resteal spectrum than I should have:

These things happen when you're not really thinking.

Donkey thought #4: I need to get the other player out of the hand, therefore I shove.

I have no idea what GottaWinSum is holding there, but I'm not afraid of AA, KK or AK from him either. It's a big step from committing 200 chips to committing 2400 chips, so I think he'll fold anything worse than QQ in the face of two all-ins.

Especially if I insta-shove, representing a monster. I did raise first after all.

Incidentally, it does make a difference to me whether there was 1 player left to act vs. 2 as Hoy recalled. This donkey thinks it would be suicidal to take on two, while I felt I knew and had just enough to get the one opponent to fold.

Donkey thought #5: This is Full Tilt, where there are 14 aces in the deck.

Okay, I didn't think that, but I have before.

Post-game donkey thoughts:

That's the kind of shit that makes me say what I say about the level of play of the bloggers as a whole.

I thought the prevailing wisdom was that bloggers are weak-tight nits. I certainly am, this play notwithstanding. That's probably why I so rarely get to play big stack poker.

Finally, this was a $10+1 tournament. The level of play can't be expected to be comparable to a $100+ buyin event. Especially among those of us who spend the entire time repeating, Rain Man style, "I really should be sleeping. I really should be sleeping."

Hoy has had a lot of success, so maybe he's right. Maybe he's not. I'm not good enough to be the judge. Even if he is right, does that mean I won't do this (or something comparably stupid) again?

Hell no. I'm a donkey. And the Full Tilt RNG is exacting payback even as I type this, courtesy of Kat's Friday Night donkament.