AQo hand at $20 live final table

Kevin West · #1 07-20-2005, 04:35 PM

Hi, I ran into what I thought was a pretty tough hand last night in a $20 buyin live tourney. There were about 30 people who entered, and we all start with 2000 chips. The players seem to have a decent understanding of the game, but will still make very poor decisions and big mistakes often. I'm going to post this as well formatted as I can, but since it was live I will have to be approximate with chip stacks. The average stack at this point (10 people) is about 6k. I have just a little under that. No one is an overwhelming chip leader (at most about 9k), and no extremely short stacks.

We had just combined to the final table a few hands ago, and I'm SB. UTG+1 limps (he has a little over 6k). MP2 limps as well (also average stacked). Both limpers were at the other table, so I do not have any reads on them. It is folded to me in the SB, and I look down at AQo. What is my plan for this hand?

I want to hear people's plan for this hand and advice preflop before I move on to the flop action.

Edit> I forgot 2 important things:

Blinds were 300/600.
Top 5 pay, 10 remaining.

TheTimeIsUp · #2 07-20-2005, 04:39 PM

What were the blinds?

Kevin West · #3 07-20-2005, 04:43 PM

Edited main post, but blinds were 300/600.

kyro · #4 07-20-2005, 04:46 PM

Under 10BB. I push here with a solid hand. Hopefully they're not trapping.

Blindcurve · #5 07-20-2005, 04:52 PM

You've got about 10BB's, no one has shown any aggression. Push and punish the limpers. Worst case you race 88.
(Caveat: this is my play when I reach the final table in my home game, and invariably someone has limped AK. This shouldn't dissuade you; it's still the right play. I just tend to bust out doing it.)

FOITNOF,

-D.

TheTimeIsUp · #6 07-20-2005, 04:53 PM

These blinds will add about 1/3 of your stack. A push is fine here, and you won't be too dissatisfied if you get a call.

locutus2002 · #7 07-20-2005, 04:56 PM

Easy push.

There is T2,100 in the pot (alot of dead chips and 33% of ur stack)
It's very unlikely that second limper has better than AQ or a midpair.
You have < 10XBB left.
If you get called and win you will be in a strong position.

Kevin West · #8 07-20-2005, 05:15 PM

Alright, it seems that so far it's a clear push. Looking back on the hand I think pushing is probably the best option, but at the table I felt like I didn't want to risk my whole stack preflop against two early position limps. I still think there is probably something to be said for raising here.

Whatever the case, I'd like an opinion on how I played the rest of the hand. It's obvious that I didn't push, so here's what happened:

SB raises to 2400.

I know this is pretty much a pot committing raise, but many people at the table understand this, so I wanted to see early position would do in this situation. If he raises, I think I can fold to the limp-reraise in this situation, since I'm almost surely behind. If they fold, great. Unfortunately I didn't have a good plan for a call.

BB folds. UTG+1 thinks for a long time, then calls. Middle position limper folds.

Flop comes
3 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

Assuming you somehow got into this position, what is your play here? Feel free to berate my raise amount, I want to hear your thoughts.

Black Aces 518 · #9 07-20-2005, 05:32 PM

I think this is exactly why a push is needed preflop. Now you have 3600 chips in your stack with 6000 in the pot, and you're out of position. If you push now, he only calls if you're beat (I assume, maybe he lays down AK). If you check, and he pushes, you can either fold what may be the best hand, or call all your chips off with A hi. If I was dropped into this situation, I guess I would push, and hope to get called by AJ or make AK or 66 or 88 lay down.

Kevin West · #10 07-20-2005, 06:04 PM

Well I guess there are no more replies to this thread. I ended up totally misplaying the hand, and only betting out some of my chips, intending to call any raise which reduced my fold equity. Whatever the case, I'm not convinced the raise preflop was a bad play.

This is a weird situation for me because the chip stack distribution was so flat that I didn't feel pressure to pick a hand and push, especially not in a situation that could easily be a trap. I thought my raise would help clarify things for me, but I got a call. I think that call is generally an unlikely event.

Does anyone like the raise as opposed to a push, and if you do like a raise, what amount would you raise it to?