A run of good cards isnt always a good thing!!

Had an amazing run of cards in a SNG.

Already had a good table image and was playing tight and letting players donate chips to me.

Then a really bad thing happened.. Got AK, QQ, KK, AA, AA and AA!!!

It destroyed me!!!

Virtually every time I raised .. everyone folded but 1 caller (not the same guy) and when I bet out (small) post flop he would fold.

So I gained very little from this.

But on my 6th and final hand (AA) I had a reraise... I went over the top and all in {at last Im going to get some value}

Got called by.. wait for it.... 89s
and he made trip 9's by the river!!!!

I swear the only reason he called me was that my run of good luck looked like I was bluffing!!!

So the stratagy here is... be careful of how often you win and if its more than 'the norm'... show them your good cards!!

I've seen the same thing a time or too!!

But everytime that it happens, I can't see that it is happenning. I'm sick of be'ing donked by stupid hands like yours that beat aces. If he had another pocket pair I could see why he would have called but not 8-9. I just wish that people that do play like that could understand that they were just lucky not skilled.

Pretty much that very thing happened to me in a tourney last night. I was playing quality hand after quality hand with a couple marginals here and there along the way (these proved successful nonetheless with the image I was carrying) and then on practically consecutive hands I see KK AA QQ JJ JJ. The AA was me on the BB --- no callers --- grrrr, while the KK QQ garnered small potatoes at best.

The first JJ provided a decent return but I never got to a showdown with any of the other hands. On the second JJ, one all-in opponent went to the river where he/she drew the winning flush card and took all and more of what I had pulled in on the previous 6-8 hands. Distressing to say the least.

I don't know if revealing some of those hands would have altered anything but next time this situation arises (soon please! ), I'll be giving showing greater consideration.

people just said nh

but honestly.. if he were sat next to me I would have strangled him with his own mouse cord.

Not because I was angry... and cretainly not because he got lucky... its just people like that shouldnt be given the oppertunity to breed LOL

89s!!! grr

but seriously I think my table image had gone from hero to zero because noone could see that I had had such a run of good cards.

You don't want to strangle him, but your right that they shouldn't breed. Thats why I have always said that we won't see another two time wsop winner, because of people like that, who play crap hands like that.

I hate getting a great run of cards, and I definately hate playing them right. You know the only reason that guy battled with 89 is because he figured you for a bully, He must have been full blown tilted to battle all-in. I've called a raise with suited connectors but never an all-in, with the exception of maybe AK suited, but dont like doing that often. Thats why, I know its probably not the greatest Idea, but I'll limp w/ a good hand if I've been getting All AK, QQ, KK AA...stuff like that. Just so I don't tilt the other fools. And as long as I don't overplay my hand when I know I'm probably beat, you can possibly stack an opponent or 2.

While it surely sucks that your hand didn't hold up. I wouldn't start showing hands just because of that. You got exactly what you want with AA, action from a trashy hand. I'll take that all day, even if they get cracked once in a while.

True but how does this effect the rest of the session. If playing a run of big hands correctly causes people to tilt so much they will call an all in with trash... how does that effect my game when the big hands dry up???

The lesson I take from this is to pretend you have a run of big hands with your betting pattern and when the good cards do come you will get callers with weak starting hands. If you increase the times you get bad calls you will win more of them based on the odds. Its all about your table image. Know it, use it.

Have had smaller runs (yours is pretty exceptional), and after two I normally lead with much bigger bets to look like a bluff. Inevitably I get a caller and normally double up.

I'm inclined to the opposite, most of the time...

You don't profit from your cards so much as you profit from the mistakes of other players. The more information they have they're less likely to make a mistake.

Based on those conditions, you're more likely to be called.

Jayson745 was right on the money. You got what you were looking for, it just didn't work out THAT time. Don't start switching things up because of one bad result.

Gary Carson has written some great stuff on table image. His baic stance is; don't worry about your image but be aware of what it is and adjust accordingly.

If you've raised more because you're getting good cards people will think you're more LAG than you are until you showdown a big hand. So, you might want to bluff less and value bet more. If you've been folding a lot people will think you're more tight/passive. You might want to take some shots.