Adventures vs. guy who played me at two-tables, part two: he returns for more!

I told you yesterday about the guy who I played HU against at two different tables. He was only playing two-tables, and joined the waiting list to play me on a 2nd table so we were both only playing two tables - both HU against each other. I took 6 buyins from him.

Well, last night, he returned. I was going to play just for a 15-20 minutes, but out of curiosity searched his name prior to sitting down. He was not playing. So I start a new table, and some random donk joins. After 5 minutes, though, the donk leaves, and who should sit down but the guy I beat the night before for several buyins. I am stunned at this point. It has been 5 minutes and he was not playing before. I felt like I was being stalked. I checked my other table, and he was on the waiting list there too. I asked him if he thought I was so bad that he had to put me on his waiting list. He said no, he just wanted to win his money back from me.

Looking at this choice - it is clearly bad. There is no reason why he should have been playing me unless he thought I was really bad. There are dozens of people playing, the reason to waitlist someone is if you think there is a reasonable chance they are the best to win money from. Vengance generally is not a good trait to have as a poker player. He eventually joined the 2nd table, and we were off. He was playing a bit better last night. He was reraising me PF from the bb more often (he almost never did before this) and was value betting more often. I was down about a full buyin at one point. I considered leaving, figuring he might be good, and there is no reason to play a neutral EV game. I started winning back some funds, however.

This was one of the points where I decided to play a game that was not exceptionally positive EV, but was playing because I think this player was playing pretty well and it was good practice. I actually told the guy that he was not good for making profits against tonight, but good practice for playing well and we started chatting about the previous night. He seems like a good player and a nice guy who just had some bad luck the previous night and started tilting just a bit. We were about even and I stacked him for 1.5 buyins with KK vs. QQ. I won another 1/2 buyin for a total of 2 buyins that night. We chatted friendly most of that session, and he said he did not want to play me again.

It was fascinating to chat with him, though. He said, I know now that you are a good player, but last night I did not think so. (I recommended Taylor and Hilger's Poker Mindset). He also said he was very frustrated by my aggression throughout the match and by the very thin value bets that I made against him on the river. When he mentioned the last, I knew he was a serious player. He studied the hands after we played and made a good effort to come after me again. I give him credit for ambition, but more credit for realizing he does not want to play me anymore.

It was a pretty fascinating experience, and I am glad I came out on the winning side again. But long after I remember the money I won I will remember playing this guy at 2-tables two nights in a row.