Careful Who You Challenge

Yesterday I was playing some 1/2 NL short-stack tables on Full Tilt while watching Syrcause lose to Butler and chatting on AIM. It's a pretty mindless game and I was basically just out to score some more points for satellites.

I accidentally bad beat a guy when we got it all in on a flop of 5s 6s Jc. I had KsQs and he had As4s. I spiked a queen to stack him and he started flipping out in the chat box about me "playing 18/10 weak tight" and then challenged me to a heads-up game (of course). I checked my FTP balance and saw I had a little under $3,000 so I decided to keep it modest and ask if he wanted to play 3/6.

He of course accepted, thinking I was full of it. I instantly sat at 4 tables and asked him to join all four to which he replied, "1 table". Sure.

386 hands later I'd taken $1900 off of him. My heads-up game is strong. I won't lie. I instantly establish a balanced 3-betting range against randoms and then begin to lure them into the meta-game that is light 4-betting and 5-betting. A couple hands of note:

Hand 1: Approximately 60 hands into the session and I had been 3-betting him with a pretty standard range. I opened on the button for $18 and he made it $48 which was his 3-betting size for all raises. I made it $129. He folded and I showed 72o and asked if we were playing prop bets.

Hand 2: Maybe 20 hands after the 72o bluff. He opened for $18 and I made it $52 with JsQs. He called and we saw a flop of 10c Ad 2s. I led for $62 and he called after some deliberation which initally made me think he had a 10 in his hand. Kh on the turn gave me the nuts and I checked. He bet half pot and I called. The river brought another 2 and I checked again. He jammed and I instacalled. He was strong that I thought with ATo, obviously planning to trap me by flatting my c-bet.

Hand 3: This was near the end of the session and he was getting 3-bet a lot by me and was probably steaming. I had around $1900 and he kept topping off and was sitting on 100 bb's. I opened to $18 from the button with JsJc and he made it $48. I made it $129 and asked if we were still playing prop bets. He jammed and I called. He had 88 and I held for another $600 profit.

This is far from a brag post. I use it as a cautionary tale not only to you but as a reminder to myself

He sat out after that and left about 10 minutes later. Just because someone is playing a certain way at a certain time does not mean that is their normal game and you should never move to a totally different game and play them the same way. He thought I was just some guy who sat and waited for the nuts when the reality was I was simply goofing around while watching a basketball game and not playing anything close to my normal game.

I've made this mistake before and I'm sure I will make it again. I'd just like to think I would realize my mistake before I lost three buy-ins.