AQs in BB defending vs SB raise.

[RandomFluke]

Hi hi. I've been doing decently in tournies lately, but this hand I have been thinking and rethinking, wondering how(if) I should have done things differently. When I play these tournies I try very hard to categorize players and play the players as much as the cards, and I feel following those reads has helped me a lot.

I couldn't get this hand to work in the hand converter so I'll link pokerhand.org:

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=45598

Ok, on this surface this probably looks like a pretty terrible play on my part. But let me give you my reads then you decide for yourself. The button was a tight and unimaginative player. If he had a big hand like ak or qq-aa he would almost certainly have raised here (And if he had raised I would not have gone all in and played much more cautiously) and patted himself on the back for doing so. I figured he probably held a speculative hand like JTs or a small pp and I was very confident he would fold to my all in.

Now the SB, he is a different story. I knew that he had the same read on the button as I did. Of all the players at the table he was the only one who I could not push around. I was pretty happy with my play throughout this tournament as even though for most of the tourney I had been rather card dead, I had still managed to accumulate chips, despite losing a key pot earlier all in preflop with my AA vs TT.

The SB was a somewhat tight player but very agressive and very tricky. The spot where he was not tight though, was stealing blinds when he was in late position. Every single time it had been folded to him in the SB (3 times so far)he had come out with a big bet to steal, usually 4-6X the BB.

Of all the players at the table he was the only one I didn't feel confident playing a pot against. He was tricky agressive and willing to take risks in order to take someone's stack. I had him on a very wide range of hands but I felt strongly he would not have KK or AA in this spot. If he did he would have just called the bb and slow-played it as I'd seen him do every time he had been dealt AA or KK. I figured he could be on almost anything else. I doubted he had QQ simply because I held a Q but it was possible. AK was the one that worried me the most, but I felt it was a small risk that he was holding that and much more likely that he was on one of his steals and could be holding anything.

The other things I knew about him, that maybe I ignored and shouldn't have: I knew that he knew that I was agressive. I also knew that he knew that I knew that HE was agressive... boy typing that out im not sure it makes sense but that is about the best I can say it.


So I pushed. I was pretty confident that I would get a fold here and steal the blinds... but as you can see I was wrong. Did I make a glaring error here? Was I just unlucky? What should I have done differently? Thanks in advance,


--Fluke

[skoal2k4]

I'm assuming this is pokerstars...

MrSmokey1 on stars is a great player and plays very well. Most people won't be able to push him around. As far as the play, I like it. It looks like MrSmokey1 is trying to take that pot right there and you're aggressively defending your blind.

[grandgnu]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm assuming this is pokerstars...

MrSmokey1 on stars is a great player and plays very well. Most people won't be able to push him around. As far as the play, I like it. It looks like MrSmokey1 is trying to take that pot right there and you're aggressively defending your blind.

[/ QUOTE ]

Another thing to consider: You would've gone broke on the flop anyway. If you don't push and just call, you pull top pair with top kicker vs. the set of 8's. If you act agressive he can just call and call, trapping you, especially when your Ace comes on the river.

I don't believe any choice you made would have affected the outcome of this hand (i.e. you go broke)

[sirio11]

I like your play, depending of the player, sometimes I reraise all in and sometimes 2.5 or 4 times the raise. This is because some players when you make a monster reraise all in automatically they put you on AK, then if you raise to 12000, there's a little chance he can fold. Maybe to 15000 is even better because of his stack size. It is an all in bet for him basically, but you didn't go all in, sometimes this makes a difference.

[betgo]

Definately push. AQs is a good hand for a semibluff push in general. The SB may think you are just defending your blind and call with a hand you dominate. You have to reraise here.

[Simplistic]

this post outlines why you're a better player than I lol. but then again everytime i've been defending my blind with decent cards I run into AA /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
everytime i've been defending my blind with decent cards I run into AA

[/ QUOTE ]

You have to push because it's a raise from the SB. It doesn't even matter about defending your blind. It's more the position of the raiser. If the CO raises and you have AQs on the button, you generally reraise. If you were in the BB with AQs and the raise came from early position, you would have a decsion between pushing, calling, or folding.

[captainzodiac]

i think almost everyone goes broke on this hand when a guy in the sb is willing to play a medium pair for any amount,there was 3 different ways to play the hand,smooth call,reraise or reraise all in,and that flop will break you every time,the river assured you going broke.
the only possible out i see here is if you smooth called the raise and the sb went all in on that flop and basically represented kk to you,it would be a tough fold,but possible.
since he's a quality player,he checks and you still go broke,not much else you could do here.
we've all been caught in the blinds not giving the other guy enough credit for a hand when he raises,because he's in the blind and you are also with a good hand. you say he's been slow playing his big cards,but he knows you know that,so he could be throwing you a curve and raising with a big pair here,since he's a good player he will mix up his play.
this play drives me crazy though,it happens often in a tourney that someone is being aggressive at you and you're waiting for the right situation and you think you have him,and he ends up out drawing you,or you take him on the 1 time he happens to have a hand,timing is a big key here,some of those other times he raised you you probably were a big favorite,but this time you were on a coin toss that he won.
one way i like to get around this idea is forget about him stealing your blinds and make sure you find someone elses blinds you can steal,so it breaks even for you,and the blinds aren't eatin you up

[betgo]

I don't like smooth calling here preflop. It would be OK to smooth call a mid to early position raise with AQs, but not one from the SB. Reraising also defends your blind and may represent a simple blind defence with a lesser hand. You should have the best hand preflop and you are a 7-3 dog to AK, KK, or QQ and a very slight dog against a pair. The reraise may win the pot right there.

You can make a smaller reraise rather than reraising allin, but you are both pot-committed if your opponent calls, so it is pretty much the same thing.

[RandomFluke]

Thanks for the feedback all. I really believed the SB was too good of a player to call an all in for his tourney life on a coin flip. But the more I think about it, he probably figured he was at worst a coin-flip. He knew I knew he had been stealing my blinds a lot and probably figured I had him on one of his weak steals. He also knew I was agressive and capable of making this play with Ax or even nothing at all. He was somewhat mistaken as I would not risk this many chips vs this particular opponent on a weak hand; I had more respect for him than he had for me apparently.

I made this play precisely because I wanted to avoid seeing a flop like the one I would have been faced with here. Vs some players I could have gotten away from this tptk flop, but not vs the SB. He would definately have trapped me, and all the chips would have gone in on the river. I would have bet pot on flop, check check on turn and I would have reraised him all in on the river. I knew if he hit a flop hard and I got a good piece of it I would have a hard time giving him credit for a monster, since he was so agressive most of the time.

Edit: For the person who asked, yes it was on pokerstars. In one of the 25k guaranteed tourneys. Prize pool was right around 45k. I was feeling pretty comfortable at my table and about my chances until this hand, ah well can't win em all I guess.

[betgo]

What's the problem? Your opponent had a pair and you got a coin flip. You are suited, so you have something like a 48% chance. You can't play scared. Are you trying to win the tournament? You are going to bust out of a lot of tournaments on coin flips.

You shouldn't be afraid to play a flop either if it is the right move. Here it is not the right move. Sure, you can bust out that way too.

You can't fold. If you flat called here, you would have busted out with your top two pair anyway.

Villain is going to call, because you might be defending your blind with a weaker hand than his. It is also likely you had a what you had and he didn't mind that. A semibluff push with a big ace is a standard play. All he is worried about is a bigger pocket pair. The good part is he probably would have called with AT or KQ too.