Early stages of tournaments

[sapster]

In the first level of an ultimate bet mtt i pickup AQ late and make a 3.5bb raise. I get 2 callers and im 2nd to act on flop. What is the general strategy when the flop comes QQ8 rainbow at this stage?

[xmrstyle]

A. under bet ( 4bb)
B. bet the pot
C. c/r

These all are options depending on what you believe your opponents have, how frequently they will bluff at it, and how bad(good) a free card could be. No standard play that I know of, but I would lean toward bet the pot 75% of the time at an early level because you may get called or raised by KQ or something like JJ.

[BacMan]

I personally would not try for a check-raise, but instead underbet the flop and hope someone comes over the top. If they commit by comming over the top then push. If they just calls make a pot-sized bet on the turn and hope to get called or raised.

BacMan

[drdre2001mm]

Well I hope this isn't criticized but assuming your not giving them a card to draw do(at best they have j10 for a gutshot) I would check the flop and make them think I absolutely misssed it. YOu as well as I know many online players overplay there cards so the past couple times I have done this I have had enormus success. I've had people push loads into the pot and then I'll call the bet then on the turn they push practically all in and I call and win the pot. Give it a try but don't do it if you think your opponent has flush draw or open ended straight draw. Good luck.

[slogger]

I would lean toward betting out. Ideally, if you're playing with thinking opponents, you want to bet a percentage of the pot that you intend to use both when you flopped well and when you intend to bluff at it.

If you're feeling greedy, perhaps you could make what you hope looks like a weak attempt to follow through on a pre-flop steal (bet about 70-80% of the pot - so if the pot's about 150, bet about 110). But I would lean toward betting whatever your standard flop bet is following a PF raise and a favorable flop (FWIW, I generally go with 90-110% of the pot).

I like having the image of a player who will bet strong hands strongly, so that on the infrequent occasions that I make a steal attempt, opponents will consider throwing away marginal-to-decent made hands. It should go without saying that I don't like weak (small bet) steal attempts, even if you're someone who often traps (bets small) with monsters.