Thoughts?

Iago

I'm looking to get some thoughts from people on a few hands that I've been involved in lately. I'll outline the scenario and if you could post how you would play it and why I'd appreciate it. I'll also post what actually happened and cover it with spoiler tags. Feel free to comment on those as well, but keep them in spoilers so that others can come to their own conclusions..

First up;

You're heads-up against a relatively inexperienced player, you've 40K in chips and he has 32K. Blinds are 1.5K and 3K, you're on the BB

Player raises to 12K, you look down and you have QQ, what do you do?

Probably a self-evident one here, I went all-in over the top which he called. He turned over ATs against my Qc Qs. Flop was 3 clubs inc. 2c3c, turn was the 4d and river was the 5h giving him the bottom straight and pretty much destroying any chance I had of winning the tournie.

I'd do the same everytime here, but should I have flat called and pushed on the flop?

Second Hand:

Playing in a MTT, top 27 get paid, there's 33 players left and you have 6.5K, you're currently 25th in terms of chip stack, blinds are 400/800 and about to go up.

7 players at the table and you're in late position UTG flat calls and the rest fold to you. 1 player left to act and you have AKs, do you fold, flat call, raise or go all-in?

I decided to go all-in here, at this point I felt I needed to take a chance on a 50/50 or slightly higher shot. As it turned out the BB called me with 99 and they held up knocking me out. Should I have waited for a better hand, flat called and pushed if I hit on the flop? throwing them away to any bet if I didn't?

Once I have less than 10 BBs I start to look for a hand to double up on, or steal the blinds with. Maybe though you can afford to wait for a better opportunity. If I went the entire round without winning a hand I'd lose 1,200 leaving me with over 5K still enough to make a stand with right?

Hand 3;

Heads up again, you've 50k and your opponent has over 100K blinds are up to 4000/8000 and you have TT, flat call, raise or push?

I raised here, opp went all-in and I called, he had JJ but I hit TT on the flop for quads... nice if you can get it. We did a deal a few hands later when the stacks had balance themselves out and it became obvious that it was going to end up being luck that turned out to be the deciding factor

4th Hand;

MTT with 5k, blinds at 500/1000 and you're first to act on a 9 player table, you have KQs, fold, call, raise or push?

again I ended up all-in here, because again I really felt that I was out of time and needed to make a move or get blinded away. Again KQ didn't hold up, called by A9s hit a K on the flop but an A came on the turn.

Last Hand;

MTT early position KTo flat call preflop and the flop comes down TT4, BB bets 200 from a stack of 2.5K and you have 3K. What would you do?

I flat called and tried to slow play, raising him all-in on the river. Unfortunately he also had a T and the river was the 9 to match the one in his pocket and I went out.

Should I have played it more aggresively? I tried to milk him and paid for it, but I'm not sure I did anything particularly wrong or that he would have folded whether I played it differently or not.

I think my problem in the main with each of these hands is

the question of when to put your chips in. The standard answer of course is, "get your chips in while your ahead and in the long run you'll make money" as well as "once you have less than 10BB's you need to start making a move to double through on any reasonable hand"

Good advice in cash games where you just get more chips and play on waiting for it to pay off, but in a freezeout tournie does it still apply? Are you better playing more cautiously before the flop and then making a move on the flop if it hasn't reduced your chances of being ahead? Particularly when it comes to headsup I think I get a little impatient and tend to push in once I hit a good hand, anyway, all thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

henbane

QQ - push. You're only behind 2 hands and if he is as inexperienced as you think he is, he's highly likely to call with a much worse holding.

AKs - don't fold here. Push or raise half your stack and push on any flop.

TT - depends on the opponent and what is the least suspicious move you could make but you want to get money in the middle with this one.

KQs - push. You're UTG and about to be eaten by the blinds.

KTo - raise 2/3rds the pot. If he's got a ten, he's coming with you, if not you're unlikely to make any more.

Hectorjelly

Ok, the 1st hand if you call will create a pot of 24k and he will only have 20k behind, if you think he is stupid enough to fold on the flop then by all means try it but it really makes very little difference as very few people will fold there (and they are right not to).

The second hand I would make it around 2500 to go, call any all in preflop and get all in on the flop no matter what happened. AK is far too good a hand to pass up with that size stack, you cant fold and wait for a better spot because there might not be a better one. Sometimes you need to win those 50 50's.

Once the blinds are more than 1/10 of your stack you should be pushing with any pair, TT is a monster here.

With KQs utg I would push, but its marginal. I much prefer making a stand here rather than possibly having to fold the BB. I assume your far from the money.

KT shouldnt really be played in early position (or any position really), but once that flop comes I would play aggresively because I think thats the easiest way to get money in from people with underpairs and so on. Since you both had trips it would take a strange sequence of events not to get all the money at some stage

Shortstack

Iago wrote:

I'm looking to get some thoughts from people on a few hands that I've been involved in lately. I'll outline the scenario and if you could post how you would play it and why I'd appreciate it. I'll also post what actually happened and cover it with spoiler tags. Feel free to comment on those as well, but keep them in spoilers so that others can come to their own conclusions..

First up;

You're heads-up against a relatively inexperienced player, you've 40K in chips and he has 32K. Blinds are 1.5K and 3K, you're on the BB

Player raises to 12K, you look down and you have QQ, what do you do?

Flat call here and push on the flop if no ace or king. You may still get called though if he is inexperienced.

Iago wrote:

Second Hand:

Playing in a MTT, top 27 get paid, there's 33 players left and you have 6.5K, you're currently 25th in terms of chip stack, blinds are 400/800 and about to go up.

7 players at the table and you're in late position UTG flat calls and the rest fold to you. 1 player left to act and you have AKs, do you fold, flat call, raise or go all-in?

Don't be afraid to commit and miss out on a money spot here, unless it is a big 10k event and you have quailified for next to nothing online. You can't wait forever to get Aces or Kings. Half he time you will double up and have a stcak you can play to a hgher finish. I would rather bubble 15 times and win one than sneak into the money 16 times.

Iago wrote:

Hand 3;

Heads up again, you've 50k and your opponent has over 100K blinds are up to 4000/8000 and you have TT, flat call, raise or push?

TT is hard to let go of preflop heads up. You have to raise here, I doubt many people will let it go if reraised. There are so many hands he could have and you will e favourite against many.

Iago wrote:

4th Hand;

MTT with 5k, blinds at 500/1000 and you're first to act on a 9 player table, you have KQs, fold, call, raise or push?

Similar to AK hand above, you are shortstack and need a double up quickly. with five times the blinds a call is out of the question. If you are happy with the blinds then raise half your stack, it looks suspicious to many and people may fold easier than if you move all in. If called you are going in on the flop whatever. Pushing preflop is good here too as you are only worried tremendously about AK/AQ/KK/AA/QQ. Anything else, and this low stacked it is likely to be something else that calls you, then you are going to be not far off.

Iago wrote:

Last Hand;

MTT early position KTo flat call preflop and the flop comes down TT4, BB bets 200 from a stack of 2.5K and you have 3K. What would you do?

If you raise he is folding all but possibly an over pair. Call him down and raise on the river, you are not going to get outdrawn that often and you want him to commit as many of his chips as possible.


To sum I up don't think you played any of these badly, some you got lucky, others not so. The main thing in tournaments is to get chips and if you keep putting your money in with the best hand eventually you will get a run going that will allow you to play without a hand. The best players often either bust out early or accumulate a lot of chips and go far.

NickyOD

1) The problem here is, is it better to let him see 5 cards or 3. With a raise like this you have to put him on a big ace or a big pair so I think you should flat call and push if no A hits the flop. If the flop is A high then its probably best to check fold to his all in. Otherwise I probably push on the flop.

2) You want to see 5 cards with AK. you only have 32.4% chance of hitting A/K on the inital flop. All in preflop is your best move here.

3) Flat call. If you hit your set you can disguise it easily. If you hit a high board you can get away easily. If you raise preflop you get close to committing yourself to this pot completely. It's too early to push first but if he raises preflop I'd probably limp raise all in.

4) Depends on the stage of the tournament but unless I'm close to the money I'd probably push with almost anything playable from any position, especially if I'm down to just 5BBs and in the blinds next. I don't think I could wait any longer for a better hand here. Push and hope for a coinflip. Even against Ax you're getting more than 40% and I'll take that. Alll in.

5) Think for about 10 seconds then raise to 500. If you flat call quickly he'll put you on the Ten.

Lafortezza

I avoided reading the spoilers or any of the responses.

Iago wrote:

First up;
You're heads-up against a relatively inexperienced player, you've 40K in chips and he has 32K. Blinds are 1.5K and 3K, you're on the BB
Player raises to 12K, you look down and you have QQ, what do you do?

Push, no question. Make it looks a bit hesitant and you'll get called by AJo, TT-77, if you're up against AA or KK then so be it, but an inexperienced player will call with a range of not so good hands.

Iago wrote:

Second Hand:
Playing in a MTT, top 27 get paid, there's 33 players left and you have 6.5K, you're currently 25th in terms of chip stack, blinds are 400/800 and about to go up.
7 players at the table and you're in late position UTG flat calls and the rest fold to you. 1 player left to act and you have AKs, do you fold, flat call, raise or go all-in?

Push, do you want to get paid properly or do you want to barely make the money? You either double and have a chance to make some decent money or go home.

Iago wrote:

Hand 3;
Heads up again, you've 50k and your opponent has over 100K blinds are up to 4000/8000 and you have TT, flat call, raise or push?

Can depend on the opponent, but I'd probably raise to 20k, and push on whatever the flop brings unless its something like AQK

Iago wrote:

4th Hand;
MTT with 5k, blinds at 500/1000 and you're first to act on a 9 player table, you have KQs, fold, call, raise or push?

EDIT: Didn't read the bit where you were short stacked, push!

Iago wrote:

Last Hand;
MTT early position KTo flat call preflop and the flop comes down TT4, BB bets 200 from a stack of 2.5K and you have 3K. What would you do?

What are the blinds? Probably raise to about 600, a sort of "Hi there, I'm checking if you actually have a Ten" kind of bet. Hopefully he has a weaker ten, or is getting frisky with JJ or QQ.

Hectorjelly

Shortstack wrote:

Flat call here and push on the flop if no ace or king. You may still get called though if he is inexperienced.

Folding on a raggs flop there would be almost unspeakably dreadfull for the guy with AT