Playing aggressively with a large stack

[jimmer]

Sorry the post is so long, but it is all relevant to the story. I would really appreciate your thoughts-especially you guys who regularly play MTT's.

I'm sat in a 180 seater $4.40 sng. For the first 45 minutes, I hardly play a hand. Then within two hands I increase my stack from $1k to $5.5k and then get moved to another table. The player sat to my right has $7k, everyone else has between $4k and $0.9K.

Over the following 45 minutes I hit the table hard raising quite often preflop. On two occasions i raise with nothing and get called. On both occasions i hit two-pair on the flop and call the other players all-ins. When the cards are flipped over, I obviously get abuse in the chat box. I build my stack to $12k (1h 30 minutes played 55 players left, chip leader has $16k, I'm 4th)

I then get moved to another table with a few players from the last table. I loose a few hands early on and then get this hand;
PokerStars Game #21078568320: Tournament #113291873, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/10/10 10:32:56 ET
Table '113291873 9' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: rick1051965 (8042 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: PRoEPoker (6915 in chips)
Seat 3: gsknyk (6225 in chips)
Seat 4: jbdb3 (10368 in chips)
Seat 5: gajdy1982 (4117 in chips)
Seat 6: berghuizen (6984 in chips)
Seat 7: chbu007 (8552 in chips)
Seat 8: saavangie (4880 in chips)
Seat 9: thehammer111 (7090 in chips)
gsknyk: posts small blind 100
jbdb3: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jbdb3 [As Kh]
gajdy1982: folds
berghuizen: folds
chbu007: folds
saavangie: folds
thehammer111: folds
rick1051965: folds
PRoEPoker: raises 400 to 600
gsknyk: folds
jbdb3: raises 1600 to 2200
rick1051965 has returned
PRoEPoker: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [3s 7h Ac]
jbdb3: checks
PRoEPoker: checks
*** TURN *** [3s 7h Ac] [3c]
jbdb3: bets 1600
PRoEPoker: raises 3115 to 4715 and is all-in
jbdb3: calls 3115
*** RIVER *** [3s 7h Ac 3c] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jbdb3: shows [As Kh] (two pair, Aces and Threes)
PRoEPoker: shows [Ah 9h] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
PRoEPoker collected 13930 from pot

Now, ProEpoker afterwards admitted he only called my preflop re-raise because I had been playing so loose and aggressive. (That's fine, I can accept that. Indeed that's just what I wanted him to think when I'm holding AK!).

However, I then drop to $3k and am suddenly holding on for my life. I sit tight for around 3 rounds and don't play a hand. (Luckily everyone folds around to me a few times when I'm in the-BB which helped), but then over the next 30 minutes (and with an M of between 4.5 and 6 I raise all-in preflop with AJ, QJ and T9 suited. On all three occasions, at least 2 of the other players write comments like "Bluffing again" and "If you wanted to enter a lottery buy a lotto ticket" etc etc. (btw-despite the comments, I never got any callers!)

So, although my game totally tightened up when I was short stacked, the other players around the table still perceived me as a manic.

So although I built my stack to $12k by playing very aggressive in the middle stages, it looks like it had a negitive effect after I took that bad beat.

The question I have is this; Did I play too aggressive too soon. After all, it looks like I've drawn so much attention to myself it kinda back fired.

(Incidentally, I finished 26th which is my highest tourney finish ever! I know it means nothing when I'm not in the money, but I'm still happy with that).

[Ciso_B]

Why has it backfired? But for a 3 outer on the river you'd have alot more chips. As for when short stacked, I think it's best to shove pf against low stakes mtt'ers. They often make errors folding hands where they're given great odds etc.

To conclude ,no you didn't play too agressively too soon.The part where you say "I raise with nothing and hit 2pairs" concerns me a tad if it's at a stage where the blinds and antes are miniscule but overall looks like you got unlucky, played the short stack wisely and couldn't get a break.....welcome to mtt poker! lol

[MrDarling]

When ever you can get your opponent to put all their money drawing to 3 outs you know you did something good.
Not that I necessary like how you played the hand post flop.

Also, from what you said its seems that even though you had a bad image you still managed to steal blinds and ante with crap when you had a short stack, so again, no problems here.

[jimmer]

Thanks for the replies.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset about losing on the river. Until that last card I must of been 85-90% favorite. The fact that he only called my re-raise because he thought I was bluffing makes it all the more sweeter.

I'm just concerned i hit the table a little too hard too early before this which probably drew unwanted attention later on as I must of stood out a mile.

[Muck]

(and with an M of between 4.5 and 6 I raise all-in preflop with AJ, QJ and T9 suited. On all three occasions, at least 2 of the other players write comments like "Bluffing again" and "If you wanted to enter a lottery buy a lotto ticket" etc etc.

This is suggestive of players who don’t understand short stack play or the M concept. These sound like he kind of people I see limping with an M of 3 then folding on the flop. When you get criticism from someone at the table you respect or see playing well give that your attention.

As everyone has said already your problems here didn’t come from your early aggression. Although I personally like to play my deep stack a little differently, if the table’s feeling tight I make pre-flop raises but back off when I encounter resistance, the continuous collection of blinds with these little 3xBB raises seems to work well because people often fear big stacks. I think it’s partly because you have them covered but they also assume if you’re new to the table that it might be because you know how to play thus tighten up a little.

[miaowmiaowchowface]

When ever you can get your opponent to put all their money drawing to 3 outs you know you did something good.
Not that I necessary like how you played the hand post flop.

Also, from what you said its seems that even though you had a bad image you still managed to steal blinds and ante with crap when you had a short stack, so again, no problems here.

.

[mortaleclipse]

Cant be result oriented, got what you wanted with him shovling his money in basicaly drawing dead. Good job.