Early on, I have top pair, but he won't go away (newbie question?)

[cab4656]

This is in a Party $5 SNG. I know that these SNGs are considered a bad value, but I don't even know if I'm a winning SNG player yet, so that's why I am there.

In this hand, his calling screams that he has something big, probably a set. Did I play it correctly? These types of hands are probably standard to most of you, but I am unsure.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

UTG (t1020)
UTG+1 (t1065)
MP1 (t1335)
MP2 (t580)
CO (t800)
Button (t1100)
Hero (t740)
BB (t1360)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, J/images/graemlins/club.gif.
<font color="666666">2 folds</font>, MP1 calls t30, <font color="666666">3 folds</font>, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (t90) 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 2/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(3 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">Hero bets t100</font>, BB folds, MP1 calls t100.

Turn: (t290) T/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
<font color="CC3333">Hero bets t200</font>, MP1 calls t200.

River: (t690) Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="CC3333">MP1 bets t425</font>, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t1115
<font color="green">Main Pot: t690 (t690), won by MP1.</font>
<font color="green">Pot 2: t425 (t425), returned to MP1.</font>

[willperkins]

I do not claim to be an expert as I too am learning. I am interested to hear how others would play this.

I see nothing wrong with your flop or turn bet.

I assume you checked on the river because you thought he might have AQ? That would be a logical assumption, however, I would have thought he would raise your flop bet if he had AQ.
I would think he had AJ or mayber Ax. Many PP 5/1 players play Ax from middle position.
You have already put 44% of your stack by the time you got to the river, so I would not have shown weakness by checking, I would have pushed.
I realize this may be the wrong play (pushing with just one pair). As I said, I am still learning.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[cab4656]

Well, I didn't really think he had AQ. The way I see it, AQ would've made itself known earlier to avoid being drawn out on. My guess was he had a set. Since he had position, he didn't have to do the betting, I did it for him. When he called the relatively drawless flop, I had a suspicious I was beat. When he called my turn bet, I was certain I was beat. I did not feel comfortable pushing on the river. In fact, I think if there was any proper time to push here, it was on the turn, but I don't think pushing was ever the right play here. But I'm not sure of that, and that's why I posted the hand.

[EnderW27]

When you check the river, other players will take it for weakness.
They'll bet thinking you've just been bluffing the entire hand.
They'll bet with Ax, not even realizing that the only hands that will call them here are ones that can beat them. They aren't thinking that far. They just say to themselves, no bet = weakness = my pot.

I find it a bit convenient that he bet 425 on the end, almost exactly what it would take to put you all-in. He can do that because he has 600 more than you and has chips to spare. Put you to the test and see what happens.

In this case you just have to make a decision and live with it. Push and see what happens, check and call whatever bet he throws at you up to your entire stack, or fold and fight another day. So what to do? Maybe he did have a set. Maybe if you called you'd have lost. It happens.
But not only are you getting 3:1 odds on a call here, but if you call and you're right, you have the best hand, it will give you courage to not be afraid to put your stack at risk when others get so aggressive.

[cab4656]

Thank you.

So do you recommend checking and calling the river here? Or do you think I shouldn't have been afraid and just pushed on the turn?

For what it's worth, results in white:
<font color="white">I actually would've lost. I thought about the call for a while and used my time bank, and he showed me A2 for a flopped two pair. I posted this because I'd hate to get into the habit of making "great laydowns" and passing up profitable opportunities.</font>

[EnderW27]

Granted I wasn't at the table and so I don't have the read on him that you do.

But I probably would have called. And I would have lost. Oh well.

One way you could have gotten to a showdown is to bet, say, 100 chips on the end. You'd only do this if you're willing to call his reraise all-in (for 325 more chips).

I wouldn't recommend this as a standard play by any means. But sometimes an obscene underbet of the pot will confuse your opponents into thinking you have a better hand than you do and they'll be unwilling to pull the trigger for the rest of your chips. Also, some opponents aren't even calculating pot odds. They just know you didn't check.

Sometimes though...you can't argue with results. You made the correct choice on this hand. Whether it was because you were scared to commit your chips or you did have a good read on how the opponent plays the hand is something only you can answer. But you saved money and kept yourself in the tournament.

[ChuckNorris]

I'd play this exactly the same way as you did.

[rybones]

I hope you put notes down for this guy that he plays A, little. You can and should take tons of money from him. he may have won that hand, but in the long term his win there is worth gold to you later. Additionally, At the 5, 10 and 20 level there are usually (imo) at least 5 who will play any ace and at least one who will play any face card. you need to really push your tpgk when you get it and then use caution (as you did I might add) when they call. However, I have the feeling that in this situation again, you should bet on the river. you may looose some times, but more often than not they will call and give you a ton of money with their tpwk. You should also remember that if the board paired another card suddenly his twos are no good and you win.

just my thoughts,

Ryan

[willie]

i don't think it's that shocking that he plays ace little, you see this all the time. and truthfully he may not be such an idiot, he limped it in, and caught 2 pair and played it from there. i don't think that he would get into a war with a deuce kicker, so it's probably just another one of the hands that you get in cheap with and can get away from if you don't really care for it.

i personally wouldn't play that bad of an ace, but it worked for him well.

[poboy]

Everything looks fine on this play except the river. You can't laydown here, you've already put too much money in the pot. There are simply too many players who will call you with Ax or worse in this situation. Yes you will lose sometimes but you will more than make up for it when they are playing a weaker ace. Another way to play this is to check , let him bet at you and then decide how strong his hand is. He may have let you off cheap fearing that you wouldn't call any large bets. And if he does makes a large bet than you can fold before investing too much in the pot. I often get myself into trouble with hands like AQ,AJ,KQ,KJ,QJ and the likes. I've found you would usually be much better off hitting the jack than the ace. Really when I play a hand like that I'm not too comfortable unless I hit at least two pair.