Monkey See Monkey Do?

[duveltsje]

About a year and a half ago i started playing poker. The way i was introduced to the game was accidental but i was hooked right away. I loved it. That people could see i was a newbie and therefor ran out of money fast in the first few months didnt bother me. Being called a donkey or a fish didn’t bother me either. Although it made me very insecure at times. I had no illusions about being an instant skillfull player. I was quite happy playing and learning.

And oh boy did i learn. I think i have folded the winning hand quite a bit because of being scared someone had a higher flush, straight, full house, etc. And i remember folding a straight flush for not recognising it as one. I learned something about checking, limping, betting, when to try to get money in the pot, when not to try and build pot, when to fold, when to bet preflop. And to date i dare say i do manage nicely dispite of the occasional donkey, fishy move. And although still an overall losing player i love the game.

When i get my hands i go through every emotion possible. I can yell at the puterscreen, i can cheer for winning a hand, i can be very disappointed, sad even and i can go from “i love poker” to “i hate poker” and vow to nover play again which isn’t going to happen ofcourse since i am now slow but steady making up for my losses and learning from my mistakes.

I learn to disguise my insecurities. I try to make my weak points less weak and my strong points stronger. And some things i will never understand like building pot with AK AA or KK with minraises or why some people insist on being rude and call other people donkey, fish or noob. I will never understand why some people go cussing and yelling in the chatscreen after a hand lost. But sometimes it still gets to me. As it did yesterday.

I am not someone who remembers all the details of a hand but this is a summary of what happened:
SB50 BB100 everyone folds and i am on chair 5 i make a 4x BB raise on QQ chair 7 goes all in with 2000 chips what is also my total stack. Which i have seen him do on all sorts of paired hand except with AK KK AA which he minraises. Everyone else folds and i for the above reasons decided to shove all my chips to the center too. Cards get turned and first thought going through my mind when i saw his 88 was “good read girl, now lets get fingers crossed”. The crossing of the fingers didn’t help because an 8 came out first card on flop and i didnt improve so therefor went out. Mr-hit-his-8 was obviously happy and said omg these donkeys and pokerskills.

Most of the time people calling others donkey lack self reflection so i am pretty sure he meant i was the donkey. Leaving my insecure side wondering: is he right? Did i do a donkey call? Should i have folded? Meanwhile i will not let it bother me. I see it as a learning point and will go on playing and learning. I can’t influence other peoples behaviour nor can i avoid being beat by players determined to shove their chips in on a hand that i would fold. What i can influence is my own behaviour and adapt it to other peoples playstyle.

My question to you is: what would you have done and am i a donkey in this case?

(with pot building i mean minraising 2xBB preflop keeping people in)

[irishpkr]

Ofcourse you played it fine, I'm not folding QQ for 20BB in a tourney, or cash game for that matter. You got the money in good, and he got lucky

[Vito_Nuccio]

No donk move there. You went 4XBB with QQ, a reasonable bet. His raise for 1600 or so more was not that unreasonable either, your call was the right move. BB was 100 so the game is around an hour old, the blinds were starting to catch up.

It sounds like your game is coming along for only a year and a half of play. You had a good read on this player, but they hit a set on you, nothing you can do. Every player in the world would shove their chips knowing they have the larger pockets.

As for the chat, ignore the jerkoffs who berate anyone who would have the nerve to take down 'their' pot. Most sites let you disable chat, do it for the chat donks. Without the threat of popping one in the teeth, people get very brave with their talk online, ignore them.

Building of pots with AA, KK, and AK is what you want to do. If you mean 2XBB raises, I agree with you, but if you mean 3BB and 4BB raises with big hands to build pots, that is good play. You do not want to limp with big hands, it allows the draws cheap access. If raise too much to start you could be scaring off the moderate hand that would play with you. You need to steal blinds and antes to win, but you can not win by them alone.

Bye,

[liladypokerpro]

IMO you played fine...it's just one of those unlucky hands we all run into. Him calling you a donkey was probably just him hiding his sigh of relief when he saw that you had him dominated pre-flop, and he lucked out and hit the only saving grace for his middle pair. Ya win some, ya lose some...it always sucks to lose with the better pre-flop hand, but we always have to remember, it's not the pre-flop that decides if we win or lose, it's the last board card dealt that ultimately decides who wins and who goes home.

[LyndaNova]

Hi Duvel! I suggest turning off chat when you are playing in a tournament. That way you can focus on your game and pay no mind to the ill chatter of others. You seem to have a decent understanding of the game. Do not second guess yourself being a "donk" or "fish"! People say these stupid things to tilt you. Read and learn as much as you can about the poker games you enjoy playing and disregard others' comments towards you.

Best of Luck at the tables!