AA - I got knocked out

[Ralph Wiggum]

I'm a micro cash game guy, so I need advice with tourney play. I got knocked out in 8th place out of nine. How do you guys play this?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (8 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

MP1 (t1305)
MP2 (t2305)
CO (t1615)
Button (t1400)
SB (t1655)
Hero (t1265)
UTG (t2925)
UTG+1 (t1030)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t50, MP1 calls t50, MP2 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB completes, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t150</font>, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, SB calls t100.

Flop: (t400) 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, 5/images/graemlins/club.gif, 3/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players) </font>
<font color="CC3333">SB bets t400</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t800</font>, SB calls t400.
I thought my flop raise would knock him out. When he called that, I thought he was trapping me with a set (possibly another hand, but a set seemed most reasonable to me).

Turn: (t2000) 2/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players) </font>
SB checks, Hero checks.
I felt handcuffed, I probably should have bet here in hindsight. But I was thinking there's no way he would call my 400 raise w/o a strong hand.

River: (t2000) 9/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players) </font>
<font color="CC3333">SB bets t300</font>, Hero calls t300.
I hand like just over 300 chips left. If I didn't win this hand, I thought I'd be crippled for the tourney, so I felt I had to risk it. Of course this isn't consistent with my thinking that he had a big hand on the flop, b/c then I should have folded. So I now felt I mismanaged this hand. Could I have folded this? I would have had like 300 chips or so, and BB was at 50.

Final Pot: t2600
<font color="#990066">Main Pot: t2600 (t2600), between SB and Hero.</font> &gt; <font color="white">Pot won by SB (t2600).</font>

Results in white below: <font color="white">
SB shows Kc Jc (flush, king high).
Hero shows Ah Ad (one pair, aces).
Outcome: SB wins t2600. </font>

After this hand, I was put all-in by being the SB, and I was knocked out.

[fnurt]

Your raise on the flop was only a minimum raise, even if a lot of chips were involved. There's no point in raising less than all-in here, since you only have T300 left and the pot is T2000 after your opponent calls.

Let me dissect your thinking a little bit. You were surprised your opponent called, you figured he wouldn't do it without a very good hand. But remember, your opponent doesn't know you have AA, he doesn't necessarily have to have a hand that can beat AA. And it only costs him T400 to have a shot at the T1600 in the pot, meaning he's actually got odds to call with a lot of hands.

In this case, with two overcards and a flush draw, your opponent actually hit the flop fairly hard. Even if he knew your hand, he is less than a 2-1 dog and it's an easy call. And if you had something like TT instead he would actually be a favorite.

The point of all this is that I don't think you could have gotten him to fold no matter what, but still, once you were committing yourself to the pot you might as well go all-in. Some people might say that you should have raised a little more before the flop but frankly, you got the hand heads up with a decent amount of money in the pot, so you can't really complain about that.

[poorbus96]

Im going to start replying to some of these just to get in on the discussion. And hopefully when I say something wrong or stupid I will be scolded.

I would have to think either all-in on the flop or at least the turn. I know you're not left with alot of chips but an all-in bet on the turn is like goin down swinging. The way this ended you gave him strike three, or at least a pretty good equivalent.

Maybe Im wrong here but AA wins a good portion because of the quality cards but equally and maybe more important is the pressure you can put on an opponent.

Either way you play it,hes probably calling with his king high flush draw, (I wouldn't but think alot of others do)but I dont think you can go wrong with using all the pressure your chips and cards can provide.

[salty]

Id say this hand was always going to be played out the same way regardless of anything you did.Im not a huge fan of the all in immediatly pre flop approach because if everyone folds you are up T100 with a hand that could double you up,so that means any raise that would get you a caller (ie villain) was going to lose you this particular hand.

[Phil Van Sexton]

Counting your blind, there's $200 in the pot when the action gets to you, and you raise only $100 more. That's just not enough. I'd say a raise to $300 or $400 would be more like it.

In this situation, I want exactly 1 player to call me and then I'll move all-in on virtually any flop. With your small raise, you were very lucky that you didn't get 3 callers. You want to 1 person to call a $300 raise rather than 3 people call a $100 raise.

On the flop, you raised to 800 when you only had 1115 left. Never bet more than 40% of your stack. By betting 800, you've basically committed your whole stack, but without making him commit his. After calling your 400, he still has 705 chips. If he hits his flush, he will take all your chips, but if he misses, he can still get away with his 705.

If you move in, it makes his call very difficult. Does he really want to commit almost his whole stack on a draw? It's a lose-lose decision for him, and that's exactly what you want.