Hi cardschat community...
One really strange hand happened to me today at the tournament.
I targeted the player who was calling machine, calling a lot of players with nothing.
I was cutoff, he was button. Everyone folded before me.
I raised with Q8s x4 BB, he called, he was the only one. Flop A and two small cards and I did continuation bet, he called. Turn 10. I did again continuation bet, he called and I was pretty sure that he didn't have an A because he always reraised with A preflop.
River small card, didn't change anything in my mind so I go allin, my stack was 10% weaker than his and we played maybe 30-35% of the stack before the river card.
He called me with Q9o and he won because of the kicker... It doesn't matter who won the hand, the thing that I didn't understand how and why he called? I played tight before that, I didn't bluff at least not seen bluff and I played Premium hands pretty much.
I can't grasp how he made that call. Can anyone explain? Is that some new poker that I don't understand or? Please help!

kkkkk sometimes a crazy like that just because he has a bigger stack to be paying the bets just to see if something hits, as it happened in that hand and even then he was lucky to win, but I thought you were also a little crazy for continuing to bet even if I didn't hit anything I would have just called.

You learned a valuable lesson, something we all paid money to learn. Don't try to bluff calling stations! You can exploit them all day long when you have a hand, just stop when you don't.

You learned a valuable lesson, something we all paid money to learn. Don't try to bluff calling stations! You can exploit them all day long when you have a hand, just stop when you don't.

Fjarri hit it pretty on the money here. He may have been playing in a way that got you off-kilter, but you shouldn't let that get to you. Hardest part about poker is learning how to play against yourself.

Yeah sometimes pure logic doesn't work in poker and the hardest thing for me is to learn not to be logical sometimes because I rely on math, logic and reads of the hands but I have to read the players better.
Yeah I know that I made the mistake with my continuation and I'm aware of that and my biggest mistake was that I was sure that I made the correct read of his hand but I didn't read him as a player correctly (even though I was targeting him because of his habits to call everything) but as you already said its school.

Apparently You had the same logic. And it read your actions down to the weak kicker. But seriously, I don't think it was worth playing on the stack in this hand.

The prize of some tournaments (Specially free tournaments) is not important for some guys. So they ruin the game as much as they want

Originally Posted by 1nsomn1a

Apparently You had the same logic. And it read your actions down to the weak kicker. But seriously, I don't think it was worth playing on the stack in this hand.

Nah I'm just thinking loudly but I'm not playing like that, I'm patient and mixing up tight game with few bluffs here and there after I establish reputation as a tight player at the table, and ofc positions are very important as well. Don't worry, I just reversed way of thinking in order to figure out why they play as they do.

You have described one of the biggest leaks that I had, overplaying hands (eg betting on multiple streets) unless u have something as there are plenty of people who will call.


As others have said, if he is a calling station, see the flop HU as cheaply as possible and either value bet or fold - simple.

some players have no self control when it comes to betting, and are actually stronger when you only expect them to be weak

You should've done this in a better position with a better hand.

The player played not at all logical and even strange. As if this is a newcomer who decided that poker is a complete bluff.

It happen to me, especially in knockouts mtts. players tend to call with bottom pair hoping to hit 3of a kind in the turn or the river. sometimes my hand hold, sometimes they catch up and hurts my stack or bust me out. they are maniacs that like to gamble. but when you connect realy strong with the board ex: set or better you'll knock'em and double up. so just take it easy, don't bluff them just wait for a hand.

For me the only explanation is that he didn't know what he was doing. There's no way for any poker player to call that with nothing. Yeah I know that I made the mistake, it's not the first or the last time for sure, but I'm in the process of learning right now and I can say that I have improved my game for a LOT from the moment I registered here. I'm entering the money in 50% of all tournaments that I play and I'm now still making big mistakes, for example now I'm not patient enough. Let's say that I'm in top3 with the stack and I'm already in the money but I'm not patient enough to get to the top prizes. That's the thing that I'm learning now.