Play A Hand With The Triple Threat (Pre-Flop)

[grandgnu]

That's right folks, I value myself more highly than I should. As such, I'll be presenting you with a tough spot that I played the very first hand of a recent MTT on PokerStars. Here is the setup (I'll be doing this similar to Play A Hand With The Masters, although I certainly do not consider myself a Master)

POKERSTARS $10+1 MTT
641 PLAYERS (TOP 63 PAY)

BLINDS: (10/20)

BUTTON Seat 1: anonymous1 (1500 in chips)
SMALL BLIND Seat 2: anonymous2(1500 in chips)
BIG BLIND Seat 3: anonymous3(1500 in chips)
Seat 4: anonymous4(1500 in chips)
Seat 5: VILLIAN(1500 in chips)
Seat 7: anonymous5(1500 in chips)
Seat 9: HERO(1500 in chips)

anonymous2: posts small blind 10
anonymous3: posts big blind 20
pot 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to HERO [Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]]

anonymous4: folds

VILLIAN: calls 20

anonymous5: folds

HERO: ????

Please explain your line here, call or raise, how much, etc?

I will then present future threads with the flop, turn, etc.

[grandgnu]

I promise it gets more interesting from here. I know pre-flop is pretty standard, it's post-flop where it gets fun. So everyone just make your standard comments so I can move on to the fun parts, w00t!

He's a Villain for limping? I bet 200, donkeys at the table will call (or raise) with any two. This is a prime opp. to double/triple up versus Ax. If they're all competent players, and I price them out of the hand, well, that sucks. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[gobboboy]

[ QUOTE ]
He's a Villain for limping? I bet 200, donkeys at the table will call (or raise) with any two. This is a prime opp. to double/triple up versus Ax. If they're all competent players, and I price them out of the hand, well, that sucks. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

What site do you play at? 10x bb raises are horrible and stupid. They overly commit you to hands that you need to lay down. Max you want to raise here is 5x the bb. On stars I like a 4x bb raise as standard + 1x the bb for each limper (at least early on, later at 25/50 blinds it goes down to 3x+1x).

So raise to 100. After that, play poker.

Raise to 100-120, 60-80 is too small for that level and will get callers, and anything over 120 is committing too much to the hand (especially if an ace flops).

[Slow Play Ray]

Okay, I'll play.

Hero raises to T80 or T100 - with no reads whatsoever, a standard 4-5BB raise will do.

[Sam T.]

Raise to 100. At this point there are enough calling stations that if you raise less, you'll wind up playing this five handed.

[Jbrochu]

I raise to t100 here. I usually raise 3xbb + 1bb per limper. The only time I deviate from this is early on when the calling stations are still in the game.

I agree with everyone above - this is a raise to 100 without much thought. From the title, I suspect you raised too little (or 100 was not enough!)and ended up playing this against three others which could get ugly. Incidentally was there a blank in seat 8 or have you forgotten him?

[madmisha]

Raises to 100, but I would adjust it upwards, if that is what is needed to avoid playing it against 3 or more other players.