A Promise To Call Pt. 2

PezRez on 16th August

Just in case you weren’t convinced by my post on the Promise To Call (20th April 2010), here is another example of the same phenomenon.

PokerStars Game $36+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200)
Seat 2: Villain (2660 in chips)
Seat 3: Hero (3890 in chips)
Seat 5: Player 5 (2450 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 100
Hero: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [As Js]
Player 5: folds
Villain: raises 600 to 800
Hero: raises 3090 to 3890 and is all-in
Villain: calls 1860 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1230) returned to Hero
*** FLOP *** [2s 7h Ah]
*** TURN *** [2s 7h Ah] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [2s 7h Ah 5s] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain: shows [Jd 8c] (a pair of Deuces)
Hero: shows [As Js] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
Hero collected 5320 from pot

Even as the middle stack on the bubble, the Villain calls off his whole stack with J8o, for no other reason one can imagine other than that he raised to 4x the blind. If this situation seems familiar (and you’re the Villain), you would do better by thinking about whether you will call an all-in before you raise. If the answer is yes, but you aren’t happy about it (for instance if you have J8), it would really be a much better idea to just push in the first instance.

PezRez