KK help

[Fmonti]

Stars $20.00 Tourney 821 players. Down to 200 and I'm dealt KK. Blinds are $100/200 with $25.00 ante. UTG + 1 raises $200.00. In EMP I raise $1400. Everyone folds and I take down the pot. At this point in the Tourney I had $2600.at the begining of the hand. High man in the tourney had about $20K. Should I have just called hoping to get a few others involved or just raised another $200.00 trying to build the pot. I raised $1400 because I didn't want to see an Ace on the flop. But after I took down the hand I felt I blew an opportunity to possibly win a big pot and put myself in a better position. What would have been the best play?

[crockpot]

your goal with a big pair preflop is not to build a big multiway pot.

if you want to reraise somewhat smaller hoping for one or two callers, that's one way of playing the hand. but i think with this money position and with so much money in the pot preflop, your primary concern should be to either a) win the pot without a showdown or b) get UTG+1 all in. both of these are best accomplished by an all-in reraise.

it would help to know UTG+1's stack size.

[JayKon]

No, I think you did about right. With the blinds there was $700 in the pot before you acted, more if there was an ante. Your raise to $1,400 was, if anything too small. He folded on a pot offering him about 2:1 on a call. Enough to entice most, but not enought odds to usually justify the call.

Like I said, you played it about right.

Jay

[Cigwin]

I agree with the others. You have an opportunity to increase your stack by 25%. Don't get greedy.

[Rickfish]

The amount of your raise was 1400 which left you with 800 chips? (400 + 1400 + 800 = 2600). What was the point of keeping back the 800?

Assuming this was NL I would either have gone all in or raised a bit smaller, say about 600. It depends what I was trying to achieve. If I looked around and decided that I was too low on chips and needed to take some risks then I would have gone for the smallish re-raise which is very likely to be called by UTG + 1. He may have something like KQ which is a great hand for you to suck in and will double you up if he hits a K or Q.

[Fmonti]

I guess at the time I felt that if I did get called and lost the hand I would still be in the tournament. However my main point in the post was dosen't there come a time when you have to gamble if you want to get into the fray? At the time with $2600 in chips I was probably in the low 25%. If your going to gamble wouldn't KK be a prime hand to do it with. I'm not looking for a multiway pot but maybe 2 or 3 callers so that I can make a big score...Maybe a small raise of 2 or 3 hundred would have been the best bet ?

[JayKon]

[ QUOTE ]
However my main point in the post was dosen't there come a time when you have to gamble if you want to get into the fray?

[/ QUOTE ]

First of all. I don't think the 25 percentile is that bad when your still ~120 players from the money and I still think you played it right.

However, if you beleive your table is passive enough, or you have an over-aggressor still to act (translate - whats your read of the table) and want to risk going busted for the chance at the higher money payoffs - yes KK is a good hand to do it with.

Jay

[Greg (FossilMan)]

I would've raised to about T1000 total. That's enough to keep out the weak Ax hands, but not so much that this UTG player will likely fold. When the flop comes, be prepared to put in the rest of your money.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)