Lost Sleep Over This - HELP

[Magician]

NLHE $20 Sit 'n Go, single table

Down to last 4 players, I am shortest stack with about 2,900.

Payouts are:

1st: $90, 2nd: $54, 3rd: $36 - all gross of buy-in
Blinds are $100/$200.

Dealt Q9s in the BB. Folded to SB who raises to 400 (200 for me to call).

I call (leaving me with 2,700 chips).

Flop is Q 6 3 (two of a suit) - neither suit on the board matches the suit in my hand.

BB bets 800 (pot-sized).

What do you do?

[Guy McSucker]

I raise all-in and bust on the bubble for the 94th time this week. Nobody needs a pair to make the play SB is making here. You can't bust him and he knows it.

As the shortest stack, you don't have the luxury of waiting for someone else to bust out. Make a play. Sign up for another tournament.

I am probably wrong on this. I have been getting these bubble decisions wrong all week.

Anyone else?

Guy.

[fnurt]

If you can't put your chips in after hitting a Q, then you shouldn't have called the preflop raise.

[Magician]

I moved in on him, Fnurt.

[DaNoob]

I'd do the same thing here, and if I lost, although it would stink, I'd definitely not lose sleep over it.

One suggestion, as an objective bystander: I've seen a lot of your posts recently about rising losses at the NLHE Sit & Go's, and then I read about $20 buy-in SnG hands.

It might make sense for you to stick to the $5 and $10 tables until you are beating those consistently, and then move up. I would argue that the experience will be just as valuable and this will help to protect your bank roll until you start improving your ROI.

Take my advice with a grain of salt, as I've been playing at the $5 S&G's for over 4 months now and still get a kick out of winning/losing.

Regardless, best of luck on the tables. I hope your luck and overall fortune turn around promptly.

[Magician]

After I move in, he calls and flips over AQs - he has top pair, top kicker + the nut flush draw.

I bust out on the bubble.

[nicky g]

I'm not sure about moving in. You have enough chips left to keep playing despite being the shortest stack. You have a strong hand short-handed but are unlikely to get called by a worse one if you move in, unless he has a medium pocket pair. I think it;s a slightly trickier propisition than the others, who all seem to think it's a clear move-in.

On another note, you shouldn't really be losing sleep over these types of hands. There's an awful lot of luck in tournaments, and you often have to gamble. Some of these hands just play themselves (despite my agonising about losing with KK to AQ /images/graemlins/tongue.gif). If you can't cope with the losses you need to move down. Think about alternate ways to play them, and analyse your strategy over all, but don't automatically assume you must have done something horribly wrong every time you bust out with a decent hand.

[fnurt]

Right, and what I am saying is, since you already called the pre-flop raise, your decision to move in here is the only reasonable one. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[punkass]

I don't like calling the raise with Q9s. Sure, it looks like a steal...sure, you want to defend.....sure, you're the chip dog and have to get more chips. But with 2700 chips, it seems like you weren't a huge chip dog. And at blinds of 100/200, you still have some time left.

When in doubt, be more picky about your hands when on the bubble.

I don't think your move was horrible. But I think I would've folded to the raise/steal attempt.

[Magician]

Fnurt what would you have done pre-flop?

[DKNY]

How big was the SB's stack? What type of a player was the SB? Was he capable of a steal? The 200 raise was pretty weak and plus you had position.

Before you make the call pre-flop. You should ask yourself if you're willing to put all your chips in if you flop a pair of 9s or Qs. If you're not comfortable, then fold pre-flop.

What you do depends on the SB and his stack and your image at the table, so how you play will mostly depend on that.

From what I've gathered, that looked like a weak steal attempt. If he had a big hand and wanted to trap you, he would've just called. So I would move in here.

D

[Magician]

I did move in - he called and flipped over AQs (matching the suit on the board) - giving him top pair + top kicker and the nut flush draw - and I busted out on the bubble.

I felt really bad about the $36.

[jon_1van]

Magician,
Here is what I might have done preflop...and why..

1. If I am pretty damn sure he is stealing I would put a reraise into him preflop. You are not holding terrible cards so you can justify this. If your opponent is on a pure steal he will fold. If your opponent has a premium hand he will go all in and hope to kill you right there. If your opponent holds something similiar to what you have (a not too bad hand..but nothing to go to war with) he might fold or call. If he calls you are almost forced to call any remaining bets due to the size of the pot. Because of this a hand similar to yours is probably not going to call your reraise because of the high chance of a show down (which he wont want).
I believe you can afford to make a reraise that will force him to call 400. You will still have enough cash to survive for a little while if you are forced to fold because he comes back over top of you.

2. If I don't really know he is stealing I would fold. You have enough chips that you shouldn't feel ANY sense of urgency to move. You should be getting prepared for it but you shouldn't be so ancy as to go crazy with Q9. You might..might be able to do this with Ax.

So in short I probably fold. If I don't fold I make the opponent pay 2x BB to keep going (I really do believe you need more info...here is how to get it).

I don't mean to sound critical but I used to have this same problem. I would try to defend my blind against someone who might be stealing. I got too aggressive with things like JT or QT and I always regretted it. Plugging that whole help alot.

[fnurt]

I probably would have just folded and looked to take a stand later or do some steals of my own.

If I felt like playing for whatever reason I think I would go all-in preflop as a resteal. If I get called, oh well, I'm hopefully not a big underdog and I need to get lucky sometime anyway. I'd be a lot more inclined to try this if SB was in 3rd place and I had a shot at crippling him.

As a general rule, when I call a raise shorthanded, I like to at least have a shot at having my opponent dominated. That's just so unlikely to be the case here.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I felt really bad about the $36.

I try to adopt the attitude that I'll just go make it back playing 3/6 at Party. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[curtains]

I'd go allin here....too likely you have the best hand, and the money in the pot is extremely important to you.