Becoming a target of another player

You did it perfectly.

When a player bullies me it is usually a personality thing. He doesn't like me talking. He doesn't like what I say. He felt offended by a joke. It could be a lot of things. Then he comes after me. I have to brush it off and understand that he will be over bluffing against me to get me to fold. I will ignore him whatever he is saying. And in the end I will make a call like you did. You probably had about a 75% chance of knocking him out.

I don't limp preflop. But if somebody else limps I have then limped with AA twice and both times somebody raised (once with KK and once with 55) and I jammed and they both called (and I held). Because it looks like I have 88 or something like that.

Against bullies I always check a flop when I have top set with a pair below so they can then bluff as if they have trips. Same with AXX when I have an A (where XX is the same card) so they can bet as if they have X. This is especially effective against a BB call of a preflop raise. I also check back on the turn if I flopped top pair and they called the flop. So they will bluff the river. This is especially effective in WSOP circuit events where people want to double up or buy back in. Same with the WSOP Colossus $500 multi day though ironically not as many people are like the WSOP circuit people...

But bullies are tough in that they overbluff. Like today at the Venetian in a Super Senior multi day tournament. The bully was actually a nice guy but he would bet pot on the turn to take it down. So I raised preflop with ATo and he called in position against me. The flop was A98 so I bet my preflop sizing and he called. The turn put 3 hearts on the board and I had the T of hearts so I checked and he bet 15,000 which was about 75% pot and I c/r jammed with 31,000. He tank folded but he did not have a heart and I think he didn't even have an A (could have been a draw or second pair).

The point though of nasty bullies is they want you to tilt and overplay. Just don't let them get away with that. Understand that they are *******s that will behave badly. In these situations I try to ignore them. Once in a big event somewhere (I don't remember where) I made a joke when I sat down and the guy to my left didn't like it. So he was overtly nasty to me for about 4 hours. After like 10 minutes I just put a finger in my left ear (well closing my left ear) and turned to my right and spoke to him exactly zero times. I did talk to the guys near him when they spoke to me (they all loved my joke) but would not at any point respond to the bully. Nor did I raise pre flop with any hands that I would have to fold to a 3 bet. And eventually he got knocked out (not by me).

I get your frustration. On some level I feel it is a bad beat story. I wonder if you would have posted the hand if he did not hit trips?

At the end of the day it sounds like you kept your cool and got it in good at the final table. The poker gods weren't kind on this occasion, but you won the EV battle. I would look forward to facing him again.

I vary my play a lot, though almost never limping with KK and AA. I do remember one time with Kings and no one raised after me! I flopped a King and won a big pot with a full vs two pair.

Nice play.

I basically only talk when someone talks to me or to say nice hand, ect. People get so easily offended. Did you ever play with these people after?

I would have posted it because I am interested in the strategy part of it. I had never seen any one act like that before, or push 25+BB on a flop. It would seem odd to only post he pushed all in on me a bunch of times...

I do look forward to facing him again because he is extremely predictable. My only question is, is he going to keep up with this?

I have basically never played with a bully again with regards to tournaments. The bullies were typically one timers.

I played a lot at Foxwoods and twice there were super nasty bullies in tournaments. The first one was a guy who was picking on a woman when they were in a hand together. When he bet the river and she called he would start asking her what she had. As if he didn't have to show his cards first. Now this was before the rule change where if he had mucked his hand she wouldn't have to show. But still he wanted to know if he was going to win the hand before having to show it. So finally I told him to knock it off and he got verbally vicious with me. So I called the Floor over. And basically the Floor told him to either show his hand or muck it. He also told us both to stop talking to each other. Which happened. The second bully was drunk. And he started verbally abusing players at the table. Not me but I told him to shut up and knock it off. So then he turned at me and started screaming. Which brought the Floor over and he got a warning that if he continued to be verbally abusive he would be removed from the casino. Which was awesome. So he continued to drink but didn't pick on anyone again.

For me I grew up in an Alcoholic home where my father was verbally abusive on an almost constant basis. I handled it as a child by basically removing my soul from my body when it was going on. Like I was watching everything from the ceiling. I was also numb so I didn't experience any feelings. The beauty of this experience is that now bullies can never get to me. I have been in Al-Anon for over 40 years so I do have feelings in the moment. But when I feel attacked by someone I will always protect my inner child. And they will never get to me. I also had a little brother and I would constantly get between my father and him so my father couldn't bully him. This explains why when there is a nasty bully at the table who is picking on somebody else I will get between them and try to put a stop to it.

Thank you for the reply. Alcoholism is horrible. Sorry to hear about that.

I saw him again today and he came over and gave Me a fist bump before the tournament began. We were at different tables and he was knocked out before me. So who knows what his deal was last week.

Weird. You played it perfectly in the moment. I personally probably go all in rather than call but whatever—irrelevant.

The fist bump makes me think he was either coked up or had a domestic problem that day. I’d forget about it, and not conspicuously avoid him, but not engage him much either. I’ve had somewhat sorta similar situations a couple times, as mentioned you probably won’t see him too often. The whole thing had nothing to do with you.

If you obtain a big stack in a tournament you should become the table bully. The easiest way to handle an overly aggro opponent is to just bluff catch lighter, play more aggressive preflop/post with marginal hands - they will rarely have hands so either you out aggress them or make a hand and watch them bluff away. The downside to players like this is the variance can be high - here you got it in really good against his second pair and he got lucky. Nothing you can do - you played it very well and he played that hand poorly.