70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

Hero has JJ on the button. (If hero could sigh without giving away his hand he would.)

Blinds 25/50, chips 5000

3 limpers, then villain makes it $200. I reraise to $500; limpers fold. Villain 3-bets $1500, I call.

(I played in a ring game w/ villain for about an hour prior to the tournament. She didn't have to show down a lot of hands, but she was making some big raises and couldn't always have it.)

Flop is 9-high and villain pushes all-in. I fold. Villain shows AK. Despite knowing she is very agressive, I know it's not proper to put it all at risk there when I may be way behind.

Later I gained a lot of info by watching her play. She actually 3-bet all-in w/ K9o against a smaller stack who was pot-committed w/ JJ. She misquoted HOH to justify her horrible play talking about her odds against random hands (and ignoring the fact that when a tight player reraises you his hand isn't random).

If you know the above tidbit, does it change the decision above? I'm thinking I should have just mucked the JJ to the reraise, but I gave her enough credit that she would slow down if she didn't have an overpair to me and I called.

By the time I busted out, she had donked her way to a pretty big chip lead helped by some amazing catches.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

On the first hand I'd play them like any other small pair, for set value. Call the raise and see a cheap flop.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

I agree. If you know her to be aggressive and you are not willing to call a very big post flop bet by her (including a possible all-in), then why reraise before the flop? Just call the raise and hope for the set. Sounds like you weren't willing to go much further without a third jack.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

I reraised, because I thought her raise was an attempt to steal limps and because I didn't know that she was a maniac who would atart a rasing war out of position with a drawing hand. The original plan was to take the lead from her and c-bet any overcard if it came. Knowing more about how she plays, that is the wrong way to go.

I do like the call line better now that I know how she is. She could easily stack herself to a set given the opportunity, no need to get the money in before I have the monster.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

If you are calling pre flop and then folding when the flop comes 9 high, then you're basically limiting yourself to only calling when a Jack hits.

Pre flop you call 1,000 on top with the re raise and you are not getting the right odds to hit, winning the pot means increasing your stack by less than 6,000 and you are 7.5:1 (ish) to flop a set. Not sensible play.

This early, as already said above, if you're going to play the hand for set value get in cheaper and just flat call pre flop.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

When you call the preflop reraise you have committed 30% of your chips to the pot. I think that means you have to push (or call a push) on any "safe" flop. Calling the 1000 and then playing for set value makes no sense. Just calling the 200 is fine if the villian will to lose a lot of chips when you flop a set.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

She remembered how you played pre-tourney too

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

[ QUOTE ]
She remembered how you played pre-tourney too

[/ QUOTE ]

With most people this is true, but I think you give her too much credit. If she watched me in the ring game, she would have known she was behind preflop. Also, I'm not exactly a nit, so I'm not easy to push off of a good hand. (I really don't mind variance and I'll call a big play for value if I think I have any edge in the long run.)

She's just a scary player (when you don't know her) because she doesn't really understand the real value of her hand (or her odds of winning in different scenarios). She just believes she will win. Marry that with aggression and she can be intimidating when you first play her. It's only when she has to show some things down that you realize how easy it should be to take advantage of her.

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

Your line is so bad

Re: 70 players $300 buy-in first hand
 

With any read whatsoever that this villian is 'off,' I think this is an easy flop call given your prior line.