I forgot to add, in my last post, that one reason this is so interesting is because of his horrible bet on the end. This is the absolute epitome of betting when you're going to get called by hands that beat you but not by hands that don't. If I had A-K or A-Q and was continuation betting the flop and firing a second bullet on the turn, there is no way I am calling the river bet.
In fact, there are no hands here that I could imagine calling with where I would be losing to his hand. On top of that, his bet was way too small to move me off a better hand. If he had decided to shove, I would have a very hard call with a lot of hands that beat his. That could make his bet at least defendable. But it would be defendable mostly because of the fold-equity and because it gets a lot of better hands to fold. But this isn't a great board to shove, because if I did happen to have a 9, then he's getting called and going broke. So even though it's a move that can be defended, it's not the best move. It still would have put me in a very ugly spot.
With a hand as marginal as he had, but one which might win in showdown, you never want to turn down the opportunity to check it down at the end. This is basic knowledge for most people. You don't bet a hand which is only going to be called by better hands but may beat hands which would fold.
I honestly believe, if he had checked behind like the smart move was... he would have felt less devastated than losing that extra 1,000 and would have been less likely to throw the game away like that.
When I described this hand to someone and they heard the results... they were blown away that he would bet a hand that good, and yet that marginal, at showdown. There's a fine middle ground where you should be very happy to just check. Obviously, with the worst hands that have no chance... you might want to bet in an attempt to bluff the pot off the other player. And with a really strong hand, you want to bet to try and make just a little more. But, and I am repeating myself here, when you're only losing money by betting and never making it... please don't do it.
The player I told this hand to has insisted that I call him the instant I see this player at the tournament again. Because he'll be on his way to get in no matter what is going on. Even if he will be 15 minutes late and has to deal with his stack being blinded down. He lives to play people who make mistakes that costly and then go on tilt when faced with the results.  |