Bad Call

I made an uncharacteristically bad call on Saturday night. And when I say that, I don't mean it was bad because of the result. And I also don't mean so much that the call was bad because of the card situation (although it was probably bad too). Why it was bad was because of some of the justification I used to make my decision.

Here's the hand:
Villain has been projecting a laggy image during the rebuy period showing down a few bluffs. Blinds are 100/200 and both of us are sitting around 6,500K. He raises to 450 utg and I call with TdTh on the button. So the pot is 1,200.

Flop is Qs3s5h. He checks and I check behind for pot control, to let him bluff the turn, etc. The turn is 7s and he checks again. I figure my hand is best at this point and I can get some value from smaller pairs and protect against hands with overcards. I bet 800 and he says "you bet into me? I'm all in.".

So now there is 2K + his remaining 6,000 out there for a pot of $8,000 and $5,200 to call, so I needed about 39% equity against his range. I put him on a hand like AK with a single spade and decided to call, even though I was left with plenty of chips if I folded.

Why it was bad:

1. My decision was partly influenced by not wanting to look like I was being pushed around. He used a line that really should have been obvious to me that he was strong by saying "You bet into me? You can't bet into me?" That's really kind of a line used on beginners and it slightly affected my decision.
2. Part of me wanted to prove that I am capable of making sick hero calls. And not necessarily to the table, but more to the person since he's been around the poker scene and has an way of talking that is as if he is constantly judging the skills of those around him. The concept that I would want to "prove" anything to anyone is what makes the decision bad. Good poker is played with unemotional decisions and I have nothing to prove to anyone.
   
3. I had rebuy lag. I was still feeling kind of loose and willing to gamble for a big stack since we just got done with the rebuy period.
4. I didn't follow my first gut instinct. I tried to read into verbal and physical tells too much instead of simplifying the situation and using the betting pattern and tournament situation to dictate my decision. I should have just shut off my ears and focused more on what the bets were telling me and not all the verbal chit chat.
   
5. As far as the chips/stack goes, I didn't take the time to really think about how much of an overbet it was. I just kept thinking about my hand and all the hands that I was beating that he could do this with...I didn't factor in hands I was behind in his range.
6. It was one of the first hands after the rebuy period, so even though he had been projecting a really laggy image, he is good enough to switch gears and wasn't going to be putting his stack at risk in a huge overbet situation on a bluff. If he was bluffing, he would have raised an amount that still left him with plenty of chips behind.

So even though it was a good thing that I wasn't afraid of busting out early, I still let a lot of unimportant factors influence my decision on the hand. As always it was a good reminder and a good lesson learned.