I need help analyzing this hand please

[dmoney]

pokerroom.com 5$ buy in, 255 people entered. 43 people left. im about average stack with like 7k or so, I was just moved to this table the hand before so no read on anyone

Blinds are 200/400

i get ace jack offsuit on the button. its folded around to me i raise 2x BB. small blind calls (hes the chip leader with 25k. BB folds.

flop comes 5,3,3. we both check. Queen of clubs comes out, He bets 2k. im thinking, honestly, its unlikely he had a queen, It just feels like hes trying to bully me and make me fold by overbetting the pot. im like, nah, he could have ace ANYTHING and just try to bully me. so i call. river is a blank. he puts me all in, I think till the absolute last second and call cause it just feels like a bully tactic. So i call. yup, u guessed it. he had ace 3.

Anyone give me any insight into how i played this.

Should i have folded post flop to any bet? just played it safe? This same kinda thing often happens to me regularly later in tournys, i can Almost always get down to final few tables (usually farther then 43) but hten ill make one bad mistake, think someone is bluffing when they arnt, or make a bluff and get called etc.

HELP is basically what im saying [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks folks.

[TomHimself]

You cant mini raise preflop. I think it was obvious he had a 3 once he bet the river. I highly doubt your ace high was good. You have to fold the turn IMO

[dmoney]

what should i have raised ?

Im thinking I should have raised like half my stack just to push him off (BUT then im kinda stuck on the hand if he calls and hits anything.)

he has Substantially more chips then me could i have pushed him off with anything less then a large amount of my stack ???? what do u think?

[cadillac1234]

I would've raised 3xBB pre-flop and fired a continuation bet of 1/3 pot on the flop...Checking turn unless I pair (which means I'm dead anyways due to the trap).

A call with a bet on the turn or raise post-flop makes me dump

[ZootMurph]

Your raise looks REAL weak. I'd have raised to 1200-1500. Since he is a big stack, probably nearer to 1500.

[PokerGoblin]

what was the stack of the BB?

raise more before the flop. You're lucky the BB didn't come along getting 5-1 pot odds.

Why did you check this flop? If I am the SB in this spot it looks like a blind steal attempt gone bad.

What are you afraid of on this flop? It is highly unlikely he has any piece of it (even though he happens to, you don't know that). You generally should make a continuation bet on the flop hoping to take it down there. I'd bet about 1k on the flop here. If he calls you can check behind on the turn and try to catch an ace or Jack on the river. If he raises you can safely fold, knowing you are behind. Without a read on your opponent, go to the default play.

When you checked behind he can reasonably put you on two high cards rather than a pocket pair. You're asking to have the pot taken from you on the turn.

On the turn, he could be trying to buy it, but the way you got here you have to let it go. The exception is if you truly think you have the best hand, push it all in on the turn.

On the river, you still have 4k in chips, which is not a ton but enough to survive for a while longer. You are not pot committed. What can you beat at this point? Nothing except a total bluff. The river is an easy fold IMO.

PG

edit: No one had replied at the time I typed all this out. I didn't mean to be redundant. I guess I need to move faster.

[TheDrone]

It's only a $5 tournament, but in general people are bluffing much less than you think. Especially when you have no read on the villain, you should be factoring in a bluff no more than 10-20% of the time on that turn bet. You certainly don't want to call off your stack on the river with Ace high unless you are really sure that he is bluffing with a worse hand, and how confident can you be of this fact when you just moved to the table?

Another point I'd like to add: Picking off bluffs correctly is one of the more difficult skills in poker and it requires a ton of experience to get good at it. With that said, you are much better off trying to do it when you are still left with a workable stack if you are wrong.

[TheTimeIsUp]

Yea. You have to raise this 3bb pf. He will call with a large variety of hands if you give him such a good price.

On the flop, you should throw out a continuation bet and check/fold to any resistence. The Q on the turn card should actually be a scare card for you. Not sure why you played it like you did.

[tom441lbk]

you are never going to steal the bigstack's blind with a 2x raise, so I'd raise higher, and fold to a blank flop and action. And i'd also lead out into the pot to find out where i'm at.
I'd be more inclined to try for a steal when he wasn't in one of the blinds. After you miss you need to protect your chips and not call them away
I play the small tournies on pr alot too(tom441)
see you on there sometime soon

[JC_Saves]

(blind post)

First off, min raising the big stack is a bad move. You need to throw out a serious raise at least 1200. You have a pretty good hand to play heads up against a random hand.

Secondly, if you would have bet this flop when it was checked to you like half the pot , you would have gained valuable information when he called you or came over the top. As it was you have no idea if he is trapping.

I think the single most important ability to master is the ability to let a hand go after the flop comes. If you do this then you will go even further in your tourneys with more chips.

Dan Harrington once said that often a bet is just what it appears to be. That is very true. Yes we all know that the person on the button usually bets when it is checked to them and lots of times they win the pot. We all know that they do not have a set most of the time when there is a pair on the board, but you have to respect it. Sometimes they will have paired the other card, or maybe sitting on two monster overcards

After the flop came you had nothing, after the turn came you had nothing. Easy fold to a 2K bet. I play a set just like that guy did. Check it around hoping that someone will make a play and then I drop the hammer, or just call depending on the flush possibilities on the board.

What if the Q did help him. You are now drawing to 2As if he paired the Q, and drawing dead if he has an A. Easy fold to his bet out.

Why, oh, why would you call a bet putting you all in on the river with A high? If you can only beat a bluff, you need to fold.