Another frustrating beat, what did I do wrong????

[HighRolla81]

I was playing in a multi-table tournament with the top 10 places getting paid (150 total entrants). Down to the final two tables, fifteen people left, I am fifth in chip position with 30k. I get dealt the cowboys (K-K). There are four people that call the blinds, i raise the blinds from 1600 to 3200. Three people call. Flop comes 10, 7, 2 ... first position bets 8k, other two people fold and it comes to me. I raise all in thinking he is playing top pair. Flips them over and he has trip sevens and I am out of the tournament. What did I do wrong? Was my preflop raise to little? Was it a correct play to put him all in and assume he was playing top pair? Thanks in advance.

With much frustration,
Justin

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
I was playing in a multi-table tournament with the top 10 places getting paid (150 total entrants). Down to the final two tables, fifteen people left, I am fifth in chip position with 30k. I get dealt the cowboys (K-K). There are four people that call the blinds, i raise the blinds from 1600 to 3200. Three people call. Flop comes 10, 7, 2 ... first position bets 8k, other two people fold and it comes to me. I raise all in thinking he is playing top pair. Flips them over and he has trip sevens and I am out of the tournament. What did I do wrong? Was my preflop raise to little? Was it a correct play to put him all in and assume he was playing top pair? Thanks in advance.

With much frustration,
Justin

[/ QUOTE ]

You priced him in to hit his set, then you paid off like a slot machine. I don't think you could have played this hand any worse.
Your preflop mini-raise gets you exactly zero information. You should definitely have raised more preflop. Probably somewhere in the range of T6400.
It may not have changed the outcome, as the 77's may have called or gone all in anyway, but you made it pretty easy on him with the mini raise.

For punishment, you now have to write the following 1000 times on a piece of paper with a purple crayon:
"It is almost NEVER correct to raise the minimum before the flop in a NL tournament"

Good luck. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[DougBrennan]

You also chose to go all-in against one of the four players who had you covered and could put you on the sidelines, not a good idea if it can be avoided.

And yeah, your pre-flop raise was too small.

Doug

[cferejohn]

[ QUOTE ]
You also chose to go all-in against one of the four players who had you covered and could put you on the sidelines, not a good idea if it can be avoided.

And yeah, your pre-flop raise was too small.


[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting order of advice. I think point 2 (preflop raise too small) is *much much* more important than point 1. Point 1 is something I only pay attention to when I am very close to or in the money (and even then it's a minor point unless I am at the final table or it is a super-sat).

In point of fact, I think players who play for straight-up chips EV in these situations have a pretty sizable advantage over players who start worrying about getting to the money too early.

[DougBrennan]

I absolutely agree with you on the order of advice. I only wrote it that way because the previous poster had already mentioned the size of the original bet, but I did think that advice deserved emphasis, so I repeated it in my closing.

Doug

[cferejohn]

fair enough.