I'm trying something new. I'm part of a poker site that has taught me a lot about playing SNG's and MTT. It's Poker X Factor and it's radically changed my game. I'm definitely winning a lot more than I'm losing and their training videos have been invaluable. As part of the service, I'm able to upload hands and have people evaluate my play. Here's an interesting hand:
I posted this hand in the forums and wanted to get peoples opinions. About half of the responses said the guy was bluffing and the other half said he had a hand. Let me tell you my thoughts during this hand.
First, in playing this hand, I had a good chip lead and I was playing real tight up to this point. I'm on the button and I thought I would attempt to steal the blinds and A-rag suited is not a bad hand to do this. Otherwise, I would never raise A3 suited unless it was a steal attempt.
I was called by RARuiz. This guy has been playing very loose aggressive. He likes to see flops and he likes to attack weakness.
So now we see the flop and it's 3h-10d-9s. RA bets and I'm thinking maybe he hit the flop, but a min bet in this situation is usually a probe bet, so I'm certain he didn't hit the flop. Plus I'm getting odds to draw, so I call. Then the Ace comes on the turn. RA bets and I'm feeling that this is a continuation bet, so I reraise to basically tell him I have an Ace. He then repops me.
Now I'm stuck. I'm basically faced with the decision of whether he has a better ace than me. All I know if this if I continue with this hand, I'm putting him all-in and risk crippling my big stack. At this point I decide to fold and congratulate his loose play.
It was hard giving up this hand, but I wound up winning this SNG and meeting RA heads up to do it. I basically used his aggressive style against him. The turning point in the match was me having pocket Kings and playing them very weak. He shoves me and I cripple his stack to ultimately win. If you're going to be aggressive, be smart.
Alan Ng
