QQ early in tourney

[sofere]

Stars $11 blinds 15/30

Sorry no HH, hopefully memory serves me well. No reads on individual players (multi-tabling), but table was very very LAG (already 7-handed)

Villain ~T2000 in UTG+1
Hero has ~T1500 CO-1, dealt QQ

Villain raises to T150, folded to hero.
Hero smooth calls. Everyone else folds.

Flop: 9-7-3 two tone.
Villain pushes, hero????

At any higher level, this is probably an easy fold for me this early in tourney, but the tone of the table was maniacs a-plenty.

I put villain on AK-AQ, 88-AA or a set, but quite possibly a wider range due to table read.

Any thoughts??? Bout 1-month ago I woulda pushed preflop in a heartbeat but now I don't wanna risk a coin toss against AK or risk goin against AA-KK this early.

[RobGW]

You are only losing to AA, KK, or a set. If he had any of these, would he push on the flop to collect a $300 pot? I think you would be ahead here the majority of times especially with a maniacal type table. All it takes is one or two maniacs and everyone seems to want to join the fun. I would reraise preflop depending on my read of that player. You are only behind 2 hands and a coin flip against AK. If he is a loose raiser make him pay.

[sofere]

[ QUOTE ]
If he had any of these, would he push on the flop to collect a $300 pot?

[/ QUOTE ]

I almost always do in these situations. Its kind of like bluffing a bluff. At these levels people love to call overbets with any piece of the flop because they think your just trying to push them off the hand. If I had AA, I'd probably push for two reasons (1) get the draw out of there (pot sized bets don't usually do the trick this early, and (2) Any overpair (such as mine) or TPGK will call.

Its very early in the tourney, and, since I feel I'm much better than the rest of the field, if I fold I'm still very healthy and can build my stack on the bubble. If I call, I'll be either way ahead or way behind. If I win, I double up but have only slightly increased my chances for first. If I lose, I'm done.

Edit: KK, AA I instantly call, TT-QQ I think its pretty close

P.S. Maybe I've just been reading too many of Gigabet's posts /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ericlambi]

A couple notes about your post:

A) After the flop comes without an A or K, you are much better than a coinflip vs. AK (unless he has a 4-flush).

B) No offense, but if doubling up only slightly increases your chances of winning, you aren't much better than the rest of the field as you claim.

PS. I would call.

[sofere]

[ QUOTE ]
After the flop comes without an A or K, you are much better than a coinflip vs. AK (unless he has a 4-flush).

[/ QUOTE ]
I know this...if you reread my original post, I was talking about why I wouldn't push this preflop.

[ QUOTE ]
No offense, but if doubling up only slightly increases your chances of winning, you aren't much better than the rest of the field as you claim.

[/ QUOTE ]

There were many discussions about this, sorry I don't have links. IMO you should be pretty damn sure you have a dominating hand to risk your tourney life on a call to double up early. Especially when stacks are so deep, the chip lead won't necessarily give you a lot more in steal opportunities, and you already have a healthy stack if you fold. If either I or the villain were shortstacked, this is an easy call. I would be a lot more comfortable pushing this than calling it.

The villain in this case played the hand almost exactly how I would play AA or KK, but because of the table image I discounted that a bit. I guesstimated there was a 50% chance I had him dominated (against smaller PP or AQ), 15% chance he had me dominated and 35% chance he had AK.

Results: I reluctantly called, he turns over 66 and I have him dominated. I wound up losing, but I woulda posted this hand anyway as I am curious from some thoughts on the call.