The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Continuing from my "Know what you want to hold and what you want to fold" article, I want to talk specifically about not being predictable with your raises and calls, and demonstrate that your instincts can provide the best course of action for you to follow. My experience here came from playing in the Ottawa Sun poker tournament back in May of this year, and there were two hands that I played that taught me about listening to your gut instinct: one good, one bad. Each one will demonstrate to you why you shouldn't always play by the book when deciding which pots you want to try to enter and win. Let's start with the bad one first.
It was a full table (nine people, including myself), which generally means you should only play strong starting hands. I was two players away from the dealer button. One or two callers had called the big blind and then it came to me. I looked down to Ace-Seven unsuited. Normally, this is an automatic fold for me, as it's too likely someone is playing an Ace with a higher kicker at a table this size. But the possibility occurred to me that since no one had raised, it was unlikely someone was holding Ace-King at this point, and I can probably see the flop for cheap with my ace high being a decent hand in this situation. The problem though, is that I didn't listen to my "inner-monologue". It was burned into my head you must always fold Ace-Seven at such a large table. I didn't have as much experience to realize that in late position, with only a caller or two, this actually might be a hand to call with or maybe even try a raise. But, I ended up folding. The next two players folded their hands and both the small and big blinds were in without raising. And guess what the flop was? x-7-7. I would have made three of a kind with the best kicker possible, and would have won a decent-sized pot. I rolled my eyes at my total distrust of my instincts. But I learned something here and it helped me later on.
At this point now, I'm somewhat just below the average stack size at a full table of nine players. The first person to act folded, and then something interesting happened. This elderly lady, I would guess in her 60s or maybe 70s, decided she was going to play. She hadn't yet entered any pots since she moved to our table but when she decided to take a shot at it, everyone sure knew about it. Grabbing a fistful of chips, she pounded her hand solidly against the table three times and announced, "Raise!" and threw her chips in the middle. Wow, she meant business! The dealer hastily counted her chips and she had tripled or quadrupled the big blind. The next three or four players folded and then it came to me: I had Ace-Queen offsuit. With just one raiser, I would normally call, but after those theatrics, I thought twice about it. This quiet old lady, who hadn't played one hand, was now staring everyone down, almost daring us to try and play. I put her on Ace-King, pocket Kings or some other high pair, and although Ace-Queen usually merits a call, not this time. I fold. One player called her. I can't remember exactly what the flop was but it missed my Ace and Queen and was all low cards. After the flop, she immediately returned to her stack, and just like the first time, slammed her fist three times against the table with her mittful of chips and announced, "Bet!" and then rudely splashed the pot. The other player folded without much hesitation. I tried to entice her to show us what she had but this lady ignored me as she collected her chips and proclaimed loudly to the dealer "Thank you!" I will never know what her hand was, but if she was bluffing she certainly would have showed us to rub it in. But I don't think so. She had a monster hand and milked it for all it was worth. If she was bluffing, hey, I have to thank her for being so bold, because since no Ace or Queen hit the flop, I would have folded and lost had I decided to call her pre-flop bet anyway.
So what am I trying to say here? A theory is just a theory; listen to your instincts to tell you if you should put it into practice, and I'm certain you'll enjoy more success than not.