Player(s) of the Month ... Calling (yes calling!)

Congrats to Sharkusmanly, who beat out prettypebbles, sachdaddy, irishreigh22, and potroast00 to be the Extreme Tilt November Player of the Month. All five played great. Shark came out of no where, having no cashes before November. Is he a pro who changed names? Anyone know?

It felt like a lot of players were playing strong this month, from fgrtrade to TTTTTTTTTTTTT to P0ker H0 to pinksock (11 $100 cashes, egad!). Lots of great play from scary players. Well done all.

November Top Players

For me, because of my big score early in the month, I had my best month ever for the third month in a row. Let's keep it going! I had four $100 or $200 cashes including two final tables. These numbers are down because I'm playing less hundreds and December will probably be even less.

Yesterday I missed cashing in the afternoon $100 by five places, but I cashed in the $200 last night, finishing 34th out of 344. In that tournament, I was tested any number of times by aggressive plays that forced me to CALL OR NOT for most of my chips. Calling, of course, sucks. All the books say so and all the pros say so. But if you really watch pros play in these online tournaments, of course, they call too.

So here were some of my tests:

I'm under the gun and had just chipped up to 7000 or so. I get AK off. I raise 4 times the big blind (maybe to 900 or so) UTG. UTG +2 calls, then UTG +3 goes all-in for 4k instantly. What do you do?

Almost always I call here because I still have 3000 chips and I want to win the tournament. But my gut said no. I spent all my time on this. A few things caused me to fold. One, the "insta" call did influence me. Two, allin player certainly wasn't showing any respect to my under the gun raise. Three, the guy after me called -- what if he had a good ace? I finally decided the all-in probably wasn't AA but KK was possible and if it was QQ, then the early caller may very well have one of my outs. But I was wrong: early caller CALLED the allin and flipped 10 10, then the all-in player flipped AQ. That was one heck of a play for AQ especailly considering she was still in earlyish position. The board came with a K and Q and I would have won a monster pot (although 10 10 guy said he would fold if I call). I definitely wasn't playing scared here, but I got it wrong.

Later, I called a three times BB bet from middle position with 10 10 and a blind called as well. Flop is rags under 10. BB checks, second player goes all-in for about 65% of my chips. The all-in can, of course, be looked at two ways. One, he's protecting JJ or QQ, or two he has AK and wants everyone to fold. I decided it was JJ and folded and he showed JJ.

Still later a player went all-in with the button and I was sure it was a bad ace or lo. I called with 99 for half my chips and he flips A8, but he catches his three outer and I take a crucial hit. But it was the right play.

I guess I was around a lot of aggressive players because I had at least three more big calling situations. One I folded a middle pair and I don't know if it was right (but I have a feeling it was the wrong play now), second I reraised all-in with AK after missing a flop and he showed a king high straight draw, and the third I reraised with middle pair and I think I also had a flush draw and he showed just ace high (AK or AQ, can't remember which).

So it was a strange tournament where it seems like I was being tested a lot.

One final hand I have to mention, and I'm going to be very honest now that I stopped steaming. For the first 40 minutes I didn't win a hand, then finally double up, then chipped up further. Nice. Next I get AA and raise it up and the blind calls me. Flop is something like 2 78 and the blind bets out pot! I put him all-in, I have him covered and he instantly calls and flips 10 J. He's drawing to 4 nines or some runner runner for two pair. You guess it, he caught the 9. I don't even see this play much in $3 rebuys! He actually went for and got his inside straight.

But, if I'm honest, he's really only guilty of making a bad read. He probably put me on AK. He made a play for the pot after the raggy flop. Got caught. Then was kind of forced to call because he had less chips than me. He probably thought he had live cards. But I did steam for an hour.

Congrats to PSP1 who made both the $100 and $200 final tables yesterday, and to klslcz who finished fourth. He too did not win a hand for close to an hour. Well done.