Did i need to make this move?

[the sicilian]

In Luton £200 Festival event.....

Been playing with the same guy all night (watches me play 2 hands in 3 hours ..my image is granite)..i see him as solid and good..we get moved to the same table and he watches me outplay greek jack in two different hands for all his chips and then take 2 others out...im one of the chip leaders..my buddy knows my opponent and says he is a regular stealer...

pot is unraised to him one out from the cut off.. he makes a standard raise..his made this same play twice before..i call on the button with 10 7 o/s...to me at this point my cards are irrelevant as i have position and i see him stealing... flop is raggy 9 7 2...he continues and i call looking for weakness on the turn..turn is a blank and he checks..i move him in..he insta calls with AA...  fair play to him as he has outplayed me totally..the bet check totally fooling me...

Should i A)  got involved at all with a long clock..chip lead and 3 tables left?
and b) should i move him in on the turn like a mad skandie or make a more regular bet?

[AlexMartin]

In Luton £200 Festival event.....

Been playing with the same guy all night (watches me play 2 hands in 3 hours ..my image is granite)..i see him as solid and good..we get moved to the same table and he watches me outplay greek jack in two different hands for all his chips and then take 2 others out...im one of the chip leaders..my buddy knows my opponent and says he is a regular stealer...

pot is unraised to him one out from the cut off.. he makes a standard raise..his made this same play twice before..i call on the button with 10 7 o/s...to me at this point my cards are irrelevant as i have position and i see him stealing... flop is raggy 9 7 2...he continues and i call looking for weakness on the turn..turn is a blank and he checks..i move him in..he insta calls with AA...  fair play to him as he has outplayed me totally..the bet check totally fooling me...

Should i A)  got involved at all with a long clock..chip lead and 3 tables left?
and b) should i move him in on the turn like a mad skandie or make a more regular bet?

Hi buddy. What are you representing here? Thats why you got insta called.

I dont mind the play at all, but id rather check the turn back at him and hope a 79108J lands so i have more rep equity.

[the sicilian]

hi Alex

The rep is 10s' or jacks and no more cheap cards for him to hit his hand. i ve put him on ak or 5's or 6's...basically ive smelt weakness and ive made a bet he cant possibly call.. which if he didnt have A A he couldnt ..even with a lesser hand that he might think was winning could he possibly call for his tournament ...

my real question i suppose in the tourney position I was in should i have even bothered getting busy..should i sit back?... i basically had at that point almost FTable chips..do you advocate using your stack ?

[Bongo]

You have a pair, isn't there some value in getting to a showdown?

I think I'd check behind and call the river - if he's stealing he could be tempted to fire again on the river.

[AlexMartin]

Hi again mate, dont ever consider locking up your chips for a final table. Even allowing that kind of attitude to set in is imo a disaster. You trusted your read and went with your gut, a sure fire way to hone instincts and improve. Just ul you walk into AA.

[MANTIS01]

Two ways to improve.

Firstly, and with regard to your oppo...

YOU SAY...

i see him as solid and good

YOUR BUDDY THEN SAYS...

he is a regular stealer

NEXT...YOU GET INTO A POT WITH HIM AND YOU SAY...

i see him stealing

There is a bit of conflict there and so sticking to your own personal instincts on any given day is better.

Secondly, in this tournament situation and with the chips you have there is really no need to enter pots passively. As a first choice you want to open the betting yourself and take down small pots uncontested. Your tight image will make this a doddle and you will be able to edge forwards without jeopardising your position. In this hand you do indeed have position and chip power so if you "smell" weakness then USE these weapons to bump it up pre-flop. Seeing flops, playing down the streets and getting involved deep into a hand is not something that you need to do right now...so why do it?

[AlexMartin]

Two ways to improve.

Firstly, and with regard to your oppo...

YOU SAY...

i see him as solid and good

YOUR BUDDY THEN SAYS...

he is a regular stealer

NEXT...YOU GET INTO A POT WITH HIM AND YOU SAY...

i see him stealing

There is a bit of conflict there and so sticking to your own personal instincts on any given day is better.

Secondly, in this tournament situation and with the chips you have there is really no need to enter pots passively. As a first choice you want to open the betting yourself and take down small pots uncontested. Your tight image will make this a doddle and you will be able to edge forwards without jeopardising your position. In this hand you do indeed have position and chip power so if you "smell" weakness then USE these weapons to bump it up pre-flop. Seeing flops, playing down the streets and getting involved deep into a hand is not something that you need to do right now...so why do it?

I tend to argee with the majority of your posts Mantis, but i hate this. If we are better than opponent, we want to be in as many floptastic situations as possible, not sticking to the tried/tested/stale ram jam preflop bs.

[MANTIS01]

I know it's a simple strategy but it's the best one for this particular tournament situation. As one of the chip leaders chip preservation is more important than chip accumulation right now and using your stack to out-pressure rather than out-play your shorter-stacked opponents is by far the best policy. Using your stack aggressively means you can steadily accumulate chips without much risk. Pressuring opponents NOT to play your stack/position and pushing them out of your way is much better than risking more chips by inviting them in. Why get tricky and call chips away just to see flops? A solid player is always following up with a c-b and you're mostly going to be faced with a decision you don't like. You will be thinking about risking more chips with nothing hands and you really don't need to.

If you call here and one of the blinds pushes it will highlight another way to just leak chips away.

sicilian...calls pre-flop...calls on the flop...and pushes the turn. Risking small chunks of your stack pre-flop and on the flop is a better way to play a big stack than risking the whole stack on later streets. The extra pressure the threat that you COULD use the big stack carries is a better weapon for you than ACTUALLY risking all your chips.

I wouldn't buy the 10-10 J-J story either. Flat-calling the flop to trap/quite happy to give a free card....straight to push the turn NO FREE CARD....this doesn't look right. Just my opinion though.