A Donkey move

Let's face it--nobody is perfect. That is especially true when it comes to poker. I make mistakes every time I sit down at the table. I just try to minimize the amount and magnitude of the mistakes. I normally post about hands that I played well. This was a hand that I did not play well but ended up getting very lucky for a split.

I was in my regular $1/$2 no limit hold 'em game and picked up 9-9 in early position and raised to $10. After one caller, a tight and solid player raised me to $35. Normally, this is a very easy fold for me as I am quite familiar with the way my opponent plays. However, something told me that he was making a move of some kind. He had recently won a few pots and built his short stack back up to a respectable level. My read was that he had A-K at best. I also knew that he knew that I knew his game. This made me a likely target for him to try a bluff. Since I play a solid game as well, he knows that I can't call a raise unless I have a big hand. Since he knows that and he also knows that I know he is a solid player, my logic should tell me that he has a monster when he reraises me.

I over thought the hand. It was as simple as that. I was sitting on about $300 and my opponent had about another $100 after his raise. I reraised all in and was instantly called. Whoops. I made a bad read. He turned over Ah-As. I had 9c-9h. The flop came with 3 diamonds. The turn was a diamond. The river was a 9--the 9 of diamonds. We chopped the pot. In retrospect, this move wasn't as much of a donkey move as you might think. A donkey would certainly not be thinking on the level that I was. I made a bad read and followed through on it. You have to have the courage to follow through on a read if you think your opponent is weak. I did that and was fortunate enough to split the pot. I kidded with the dealer that I made my set on the river as she was splitting up the pot.