What is my mistake here?

[SixMile]

Ok so I am in a 39 person Satellite at the MetroPokerClub in Detroit. I have 2500 in chips. Its the third round and the blinds are at 100-200. The table has loosen up alot. I get AJs in middle position. I raise to 400. I get re-raised by button to 1000 so it's 600 to me.

I call. (is this the error)

The flop comes A J x so I go call in. He immediately calls and shows AKx

Ok now the fun then comes Q T and he scoops and I am done for the night. He had about 3000 in chips to start.

Any Advice?

[Dentist]

you made a number of errors here:

1) it is almost never correct to make a "mini-raise" to 400.. that does not serve to do anything.

2) you can't Call that raise. you do not mention the other player's stack, nor any possible reads you may have.

3) you bad-beated him on the flop, and he in turn bad beated you on the river.... suck city.
Furthermore.. i thought your flop all-in was bad.. since you were committed to the pot, why not check to him and let him bet your hand for you.

I mean, let's say he has QQ or 10 10 there... maybe your bet gets him to fold (which given the results of the hand would have been a good thing)... but you don't get a chance to get his chips.

You check to him, he bets, then you can go all in... since after seeing that flop you were committed to seeing the hand all the way though, at least give your opponent a chance to make a mistake.. it turned out he did have a hand though and could call... but you wasted some potential profit there if he had not had an ace in his hand.

[SixMile]

Great that's what I wanted to hear some good hard stuff. So should I have raised more to open the pot? Or re-raised him? He did have about 3K in chips.

[Dentist]

Raising to around 550 there pre-flop give you a chance to define your hand, and someone else's hand.

when you miniraise if the big blind has ANYTHING, they'll give it a shot, you have a very small chance of winning pre-flop.

Also, it forces your opponent to come back over-the-top with a larger raise which can then define their hand better.

Still though... calling that raise was fairly poor... unless you have a read on the player, you are likely to be a coinflip at BEST.

Given that you did call though... consider the merits of checking that flop.

I made a similar play last night with AJ that also had disastrous results.

I raised to 3X the BB with AJ
player to my left mini-raised my raise.

1 player cold-called... i called with huge pot odds.

Flop was A J 3

I checked, raiser bet, other player folded.. i called.
I was committed to seeing the pot through the river.

Turn blank

I checked again hoping the player would again bet with an inferior holding.. and he did.. he went all-in.. and i called.

He had QQ...

River = Q

So, i lost the hand... but if i'd bet it hard or check-raised i lose the opportunity to make huge money as a big favorite... you can't always be results oriented.

[SixMile]

Thanks for the info. I was mistaken the blinds were 50-100 so I did raise 4x BB to start off.

With a re-raise would a fold been a better play?

[pokerraja]

Not much more to add as far as the play is concerned. But im curious as to what this pokerclub is all about. Im also from the metro detroit area. I play at the motor city and greektown casinos a couple times a week. But I never heard of this club, is it a public room? what kind of games/tourneys? location? thanks in advance.

[SixMile]

Check out www.metropokerclub.com for some info.