No excuses for this [censored]

[SNOWBALL]

Mp openraises. I 3 bet with red Aces, because the players behind me will often come in for 3 with most hands they would play for 2. Button, SB, and BB call. Mp caps. We all call.

Flop T44 no flush draw. Mp leads. I raise so I can get value out of a ten behind me, and out of MP's probable overpair. If the flop was different. I was planning to call flop, and raise turn obv.

All fold except button, who makes it three. I've played with this guy a bunch, and there's just no way on earth he doesn't have at least a 4 here. He probably has T4. Maybe TT.

MP calls. I call, because I am getting odds for my 2 outer. Turn is a Q. Mp comments to the button "I don't know if I believe you" and leads.
MP has QQ here like 100% of the time here, right? MP KNOWS that button has at the very least a four.

At this point I do something I'm deeply effing ashamed of. I just call down. Both streets. Like...it's a goddamned parlay of astronomical size that I'm ahead, and the pot is seriously shorting me for my outs.

I call what I did "shutdown"
It happens when I'm pissed off. I just freeze all my thought processes and decide to go to showdown.

I've been noticing this process in other areas of my life too. Sometimes, it's fairly subtle. It's not like I visibly steam or have to be in a bad mood beforehand. It's like, I lost the last 4 or so multiway capped pots with AA, and just say to myself "ok I'm unlucky and powerless" and wash myself of any personal responsibility for playing my hand correctly.

Sorry if this is too much psychology. PJ, feel free to move if you want.

[private joker]

[ QUOTE ]
PJ, feel free to move if you want.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, it's a good thread. I like when hand strategy posts are accompanied by thought processes -- even though I think it's weird that you felt the need to justify 3-betting AA PF, I like that every decision (even if standard) was backed up by reasons. More people should do that, as it's instructive both to the reader and often to the poster... in fact I think you're learning just by writing these posts.

If you'd posted the hand without reads, as just as Flop T44, MP bets, I raise, button 3-bets, we both call. Turn Q, MP donks, I call down... well I think most people would be like "fine, but you might be able to fold the turn."

I don't think calling down is a big leak at all -- it's a big pot and there's a tiny tiny chance QT thinks he's ahead of you. But caught between two players it's a tough spot. Anyway, losing 2BBs on the turn and river isn't as big a mistake as you're making it out to be.

[andyfox]

Tommy Angelo called this "entitlement disease." We get pocket aces and we assume the pot is rightfully ours. We are entitled to it. We see aces as a much, much better hand than kings. If we see the distance between kings and queens as one unit, we see the distance beween aces and kings as a hundred units. We're going to have an overpair no matter what flops. Case closed; pot over.

We've all been there, done that; we'll all be there again. Good to remember another thing Tommy once pointed out: in the ranking of poker hands, one pair of aces is still below two pair, three of a kind, a straight, a flush, a full house, quads and a straight flush. It only beats no pair. And aces will lose about a third of the time we have them.

I'd be willing to bet that the guy who once folded them preflop was thereby cured of entitlement disease. If he ever had it.

[ssmallz]

4 bet the flop and go from there. As played I don't mind calling the turn and river as raising and eliminating button doesn't really gain you any extra bets when ahead but certainly loses some when behind and you get 3 bet. Don't forget that button will have to call 2 bbs cold and prolly won't do that w/just a T

[Captain R]

I get the same feeling as Snowball sometimes, it usually happens towards the end of a session when I'm tired and have been getting my skull pounded in by retards, so you start making the automatic play whereas you should be making the good play.

Missed 2 BBs of easy value-betting in a ginormous pot today, but was just happy to win after 3 hours of mind-numbing retards and so just checked it down.