AA played poorly?

[paytosee215]

Hello all, I am a new hold em player, i have been playing for about 4 months with fairly good results. I have a question about my play in a NL tourney tonight.

Halloween Massacre on Pokerroom
10 + 1 buy in
My stack: 5500
Average stack: 8400
Blinds: 300/600

I am dealt AA in late position, there are a few callers in front of me. I raise up to 1200 and get 1 caller. The flop comes Q 8 5. I bet 2000 and am called. Unfortunately I dont remember the turn card, sorry. I bet the turn and am called. I bet 1500 on the river and am called. The river comes a 5, and I bet and get pushed all in. At this point, I had around 1000 chips. I call the all-in only to see that I have lost to a set.

I feel like I really played this hand wrong. Should I have gone all in pre-flop instead of my miniraise of 1200? I dont think I would have been called, (my 1 caller had A5 os). However, he did have a fairly large stack of 12000 (average was 8400), so maybe he would have. He had been somewhat aggressive at the table, and was catching his cards.

Any help please...

Jeremy

[The4thFilm]

You have less than 10x the BB so all in preflop.

[Lurshy]

And if you are not all-in preflop, then you should be all in on the flop.

[Copernicus]

first, a couple of minor nits. You say you bet 1500 on the river, and then push all in on the river. Your 1500 was on the turn. Also you lost to trip 5s...a set has two of the three cards in the pocket.

As far as the play goes, I disagree with going all in preflop. You need to maximize your return, and I like the minraise here.

On the flop with multiple opponents I think its a clear all in to narrow the field. With only 1 opponent it is tempting to drag him along but put yourself in his shoes, unless he has a set that you are going to lose to anyway.

"He's betting weakly, my 5s may be good but he could have a higher pair or two overcards to my 5s, in which case hes got good drawing odds to beat my 5s anyway. If a blank hits on the turn I probably have to fold to his all in."

Thus, if hes any good, he is going to fold now or on the turn without a set. Making him pay for the draws on the flop makes the most sense to me, since you are committed no matter what, and he may not pay you on the turn unless you are beaten.

(The short version of the above is analagous to "fold your small pair if you dont have a set")

[Lloyd]

I would play this slightly differently than what has been mentioned. There are lots of things you can do when betting that should look suspicious to someone who has experience. A mini-raise is one, and not going all-in when your shortstacked is another. But I think either of these bets will work just fine at this level.

I don't like the mini-raise because 1) it allows people to stay in the hand fairly cheaply because you're giving them good odds to call; and 2) you're not getting enough money in the pot pre-flop. What happens if the flop is horrible for opponent? All you're getting is the blinds and a little extra. Make a normal raise will both narrow the field and get more chips in the pot.

What I would probably do is make a normal (not an all-in) raise here - somewhere between 1800-2800. I would normally raise around 2800 given the three limpers but would consider a smaller raise to entice more to enter. And then I would push all-in on just about any flop. You might get called and drawn out on but your getting more chips in the pot pre-flop which is a goal with aces, and you're making them pay to see the turn and the river.