You Can't Bluff A Bad Player

Won my third straight $5 SnG today in as many days. Wish I could say I played spectacularly, but the truth is that I hit a good hand early in the game and tripled-up. Here's how it went down: I limped with 33 in late position into a multi-way pot; the flop came KQ3, with two clubs; UTG player raised half the pot; I re-raised a pot-sized bet; a third player then pushed; the UTG guy pushed; and I was left with a decision. My bottom set was probably good at that point, but the clubs scared me; I called and found I was up against UTG with two pair (KQ in the hole), an A8 clubs, and some bozo playing Q2; no clubs, kings, or queens fell, so I took the whole shebang.)

Boy, is that a nice feeling. Not only did I knock two other players out of the game, but I also built a huge chip lead early in the game. It's questionable whether I should have called two all-ins with bottom set, but it worked out.

Now, I know what you're thinking: I then started to bully the table, right? Wrong. Instead of wielding my big stack, I went into super tight mode. We still had six players left, and in keeping with the guru's philosophy of "take the hill" (i.e., make the money above all else), I decided my best course of action was to sit back and let the others kill themselves off. Fortunately, it didn't take too long. Two other players died a brutal death, and suddenly we were four on the bubble.

This is when I clearly should have gone deeper in tight-turtle mode, but I had temporary amnesia and instead I played a few marginal hands. I bluffed a few times against one guy in particular, and each time he wouldn't go away. He was the proverbial calling station, oblivious to the board texture and what my bets were saying. You simply can't get those kinds of guys to back down. Fortunately, I woke up to aces heads up against him and quickly took him out. From then on it was smooth sailing. With my 3:1 chip advantage over the other two players I was able to start swinging that billy club. Again, I'd taken the hill, so now it was time to attack. It's amazing how differently one is supposed to play, depending on whether there's 3, 4 or 5 players left...

All-in for now...
-Bug