My boneheaded play

[aaronsd]

I have been playing for about 2 & 1/2 years, mostly on the internet, few games with friends & a few live casino games.

Sat down at a $1/$2 NL cash game at my local casino with a small buy-in of $70.

I wait a couple of hands for the blinds come around to me before posting. In this time I witness the player to my immediate right play a couple of loose hands with very weak holdings, in fact felting an opponent with A6o (after he raised all in for about $25) with Q4o when he hit the Q4 on the turn and the river. He has a stack that is probably $250 and appears to having a run of luck from what I have seen in the couple of minutes I have been sitting there.

My BB hand is uneventful with the flop coming trip aces and is checked down to the river, no one willing to bet.

Next hand in the SB (my second hand at the table) I am dealt AJ of hearts. Everyone folds except for a player to my right on the button who raises to $15. I think for a bit and although I know it is probably incorrect to call a pre-flop raise with AJs under the gun I can't bring myself to lay it down against this loose player. So I call the extra $12 and so too does a person in middle position.

The flop comes J 4 6 with one heart. First to act I bet $10 which in retrospect I feel is a bit on the low side. The middle position player calls and much to my surprise (no really, I didn't see this coming) the button raises all-in. This stops me in my tracks. I hear him saying he is only went all-in because he is holding his favourite hand, which something tells me is not a premium holding. Don't know why I have this read, though I certain that he is not holding AA, KK, etc. I feel for all the world like he is trying to push me off my hand knowing that there is no way I will call.

I think for probably 20 seconds, decide although it is a loose call that I am somewhat pot committed already having bet half my stack into this hand. Also, I think that the middle position player will lay down his hand. I call and although I don't close my eyes, everything goes a bit blurry from here. Middle position makes the call, we turn over our hands and the button has small cards (as I thought) and honestly, I didn't see what the middle position player was holding. The button player makes two pair by the river, again I can't completely confirm this as I it all seemed to happen very quickly, all I know was before I knew all the chips were being pushed to the button ($150+) and I was rising from my seat. I think the player in middle position had a high pair though being sort of tucked in behind the dealer I couldn't see it properly. He did sound frustrated though like the button player had got away with another move.

I walked out into the sun after no more than 5 mins at the table. I vowed to play tightly, thought I had a good read and was wrong.

Here are my questions/thoughts over the last couple of days:

1) should never call a pre-flop raise in early position with AJs, regardless of how loose I perceive the player to be
2) rather than call, if I was going to play this I should have raised all-in (although this would have felt very reckless)
3) should never have thought I had a read on an opponent after only watching him play a couple of hands
4) feel like all & all it was a bone headed play but I can still see why I made it
5) at the $1/$2 NL limit game I am giving opponents too much credited for bluffing
6) the button's pre-flop raise and his all in bet should have signalled danger
7) I feel very concerned that ultimately I didn't know how the hand actually ended, definite lack of inexperience there
8) I have been trying to not look at my cards, preferring instead to watch my opponents look at their cards. In this case it probably made me over-value my AJs holding thinking it was stronger than it was as I felt rushed to make a decision
9) am feeling for all the books I have read, the time I have spent thinking about the game that it can all go wrong for me very quickly given a difficult decison at the table
10) it's probably mostly a lack of live experience, but I feel as though calculating pot odds, etc. is well beyond me in a live environment
11) although I enjoy it, I do not possess the natural tendencies of an an excellent player and am considering giving it away

Your thoughts please.

[kickflip252]

i'm a little confused, but it sounds like the reckless player sucked out on both of you, but you personally would have lost the pot in any case as the other player had your jacks beat.

but i sympathize with you. it seems like loose reckless players who just push all in at strange times are always on a lucky streak the times when i'm ahead pre-flop and on the flop. i know in reality that these things even out over time and the loose player is going to lose lots and lots of money if they always play that way, but when you're the "victim" of their lucky streak the days can get long.

my first piece of advice for you would be to NOT make any absolute rules about the hands you're holding. every single hand at the table is situation sensitive. always folding AJs can also lose you money. in all honesty, i think you should have bought back in and picked a spot to bust that dude. but it might have just been his night and that's what keeps the donks coming back to the juicy games.

better luck in the future, but if you find out how to deal with a maniac on a hot streak, then let me know ASAP