Live tourny about 4hrs. ago

[jlocdog]

I think you guys have valid points on all fronts.

First: This ws a read dependent hand and asking you to give advice as to what you would do is difficult since you can only use tangible facts (stack size, pot size, my hand, blind structure, and so on). My decision to do what I did primarily was on my read and thus hard for you to decipher if it was a smart play or not.

Second: I definetly did not mean for this to become a "great laydown hand" or to in any way brag, show off, or pat myself on the back. If that is what it became than I was not as articulate in my posts as I would have liked to have been.

Third: The fact that I narrowed my foes hand down to minimal holdiings was because I know this player and what he is capabale of (and what he isn't). When he called my raise, my range was still broad. KQ,AQ,AJ,KJs,All PP down to 66, and for good measure, KTs,QJs,QTs. AK was debateable as it was on the cusp of him reraising, but I definetly didn't fully rule it out. Any hand better than these (AA,KK,QQ,JJ,maybe AKs) I am pretty sure he reraises (as would most of us in this forum) and anything less than the hands stated he would not mix it up with. When the flop hit and he bet into me, this represents extreme strength as far as I was concerned. It wasn't a typical "probe" bet in the sense that he wanted to take the lead or see where he/I was at. This is not his style, nor in his bag of tricks. So when K Q 4 hits I can immediatly eliminate all PP except the 4's. Even 4's though seems TOO strong a hand for him to bet into me. Especially since he probably knows that I'm going to come out firing. Because of all this, I have to deduce that he has AK,KQ,KJ,KT.

My problem therefore lies in the fact that I smooth called. In hindsight, like I stated earlier, is that maybe I should have raised (even if I am confident that he has me beat here) In hopes of buying a free card on the turn and being able to see the river which would have supplied me with 12 outs to win.

And lastly: There definetly might be something to be said about going up against another big stack when I felt like I could still do well while avoiding him. It is a fine line between picking my spots and playing well and playing a bit timid with him around. I did bring it on myself by enticing him to come into the pot. As for the BB I wasn't worried much cause if he wanted to play, then yes he pushes all in which equates to pretty much a "standard "raise anyhow. Plus I do have AA. In hindsight I wish I just did the standard raise. He told me later he probably dumps to 3x the BB seeing as how he was OOP with a midrange hand and against me the CL.

As for the quote of "You should try to win more than the blinds everytime you raise", I wholeheartedly disagree with this. There are many times when you are on the steal or make a raise with a questionable holding (PP of 7'sand below, QJ etc..) where you are very happy not to have a confrontation or even a flop. With AA I didn't want this at the time. But now after thinking about it, I should have played it like any hand worth raising from the button and let it unfold as it may.

Thank you all for your responses. I do aprreciate them and you help me to be a better player. Again, I am sorry if I came across as bragging about a good laydown. As we can see, even if you do make a good laydown, there still may be mistakes made throughout the hand.