New to online tournament play

[DannyP]

and hopefully this is just to verify that I'm thinking correctly.

$30/$3 NLHE single table, a few rounds in. I'm in last place with about $600, against 4 other players who range from $1500 up. Blinds are 15/30. I don't know anyone and don't have much of a read on prior play, except it has been tight with not many seeing the flop.

UTG I get pocket Js and raise $50, hoping to build a pot to get callers if I flop a set or get out against overcards. BB raises $100 (he has about $1500) and I call putting him on a solid A or Kx suited. (With a bigger pair than JJ I would expect a bigger raise from him?). I call. Flop is Txx 2 suited and I figure I have top pair. At this point with $450 I go all in leaving him what I think is short on drawing odds, and expecting a fold. He calls with KQo (K matching the 2 suiter on the board)and he wins with a runner runner flush. Argghhh.

My play? His call of the all in, with 2 over cards and back door straight and flush draws? (Please don't say it was a good call!)

[cferejohn]

I usually standardize my raises before the flop. Pretty consistantly 3 or 4 times the BB (depending on the level, usually 4x in the first two rounds, then down to 3x, then back up to 4x if an ante comes into play). I would have made a bigger preflop raise. That said, when the flop came with no overcards, going all in is the right move, since with QQ, KK, AA (and probably AK) he would have reraised you pre-flop. His call is pretty damn horrible, with six outs and backdoor str8/flush possibilities. Try and play against this guy in the future.

Why do I make the 3-4x BB raise no matter what:

1. In no limit, the concept of 'bulding a pot' is quite a bit different. When you have a strong hand (with the *possible exception of AA*), you don't want more than one caller. You don't have to worry about getting in lots of people so you have better odds when you draw. If you can hit a big hand and get one other person all in, that's more than odds enough. When you make a small raise with JJ, if you get called by 3 or 4 people, you are pretty much screwed if an A, K, or Q comes on the flop, whereas against a single opponent, you stand a good chance of winning the pot with a pot-sized bet on the flop.

2. It disguises what you have. Your opponents will have no way of knowing if you are raising with AA or stealing with J5o.