Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

Both of these are from Empire 25+2 tourneys

HAND 1: Good fold? Opponent plays well. He's tight preflop, but does tend to re-raise opponents often. I had seen about 150 hands with him over a couple of tourneys. At this point, there is somewhere between 15-25 players left of 200+. Preflop seems bad to me. What do you think?

No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (9 handed) converter

MP1 (t4120)
MP2 (t39820)
MP3 (t8924)
Hero (t12723)
Button (t4084)
SB (t7394)
BB (t24184)
UTG (t8837)
UTG+1 (t10580)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 raises to t1200</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t2400</font>, <font color="#666666">3 folds</font>, MP3 calls t1200.

Flop: (t5700) A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
MP3 checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t2400</font>, MP3 calls [t6524] , Hero folds.

Final Pot: t8100


HAND 2: Standard play or should I look to dump this? This is at the final table, so each spot is worth significantly more. IMO, Opponent plays terrible. I had seen him for about 50 hands. He played over 30% of his hands and was not very aggressive. He often made min bets. Somehow he got a big stack early and had held onto it. Clearly the re-raise is a cause for concern since he had me covered, but I think my hand is too strong to be folding. Correct?

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1000 (10 handed) converter


MP3 (t5080)
CO (t40457)
Button (t10876)
<font color="#C00000">Hero (t16574)</font>
<font color="#C00000">BB (t37240)</font>
UTG (t21214)
UTG+1 (t45421)
UTG+2 (t9755)
MP1 (t16233)
MP2 (t7150)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">8 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t3000</font>, BB calls t2000.

Flop: (t6000) 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t4000</font>, <font color="#CC3333">BB raises to t8500</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises all in</font>, BB calls

Re: Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

I might have made a slightly bigger reraise on hand 1, but i think you played them both fine. No way I'm laying down QQ against that flop. May I assume he had a set?

Re: Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

Hand 1: WA/WB, check behind on the flop. If he doesn't have an ace, your check is still scary to him.

Hand 2: no getting away from it

Re: Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

They both seem like pretty standard plays to me.

Re: Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1: WA/WB, check behind on the flop. If he doesn't have an ace, your check is still scary to him.

Hand 2: no getting away from it

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry for the ignorance, what is WA/WB?

Re: Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

[ QUOTE ]
I might have made a slightly bigger reraise on hand 1, but i think you played them both fine. No way I'm laying down QQ against that flop. May I assume he had a set?

[/ QUOTE ]

Bigger re-raise preflop on Hand 1, correct? If so, then I agree. I knew right away that it was a mistake. Sometimes, I get over excited with PP and make my raises before thinking enough about them. He actually showed Ah Th, so I know laying down was the right move in this case. I just wanted to see how others would have played it.

In hand 2, I lost to flopped 2 pairs. He had T6o.

Interestingly, ZeeJustin talks about a similar hand in his blog:

"During 3000/6000 blinds it folded to a player 2 off the button who pushed all-in for 1000 (not even enough to call the blinds). I had QQ on the button and raised to 16,000. Only the big blind called. The flop came T65 with 2 diamonds. My opponent checked, and I bet 20,000 into the 36,000 chip pot. My opponent check raised to 40,000. This was a somewhat worrisome bet, but in a button vs. big blind confrontation, my hand was too strong to do anything but push. I moved all-in for 74,000, and he called and flipped up TT for top set. The turn and river blanked, and I was out of the tournament."

Re: Couple of hands: Laying down big pairs
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1: WA/WB, check behind on the flop. If he doesn't have an ace, your check is still scary to him.

Hand 2: no getting away from it

[/ QUOTE ]


Sorry for the ignorance, what is WA/WB?

[/ QUOTE ]

WA/WB = Way ahead or Way behind