Question on a hand

[WarDekar]

Everyone says I need to post hands to get better, so here's one I wasn't sure what to do. Critique both PF and flop.

5-handed $20+2 SNG at Party, no read on players. 100/200 blinds. Relevant stacks:

I'm in SB with 1995
BB has 870
Limper has 1990

Get dealt JQo, I limp from the SB. BB min-raises to 400, limper calls, I call. Flop comes 46T rainbow. I check, BB pushes for 470. Limper folds, 470 to me with 1200 in the pot (plus his 470 for 1670). What's my move? I have 2 over-cards, and decent pot odds. The question is, what does he have? A min-raise sometimes means it's a weak steal from what I've seen on these tourneys, but he's also really short stacked. What would you do here, and why? Would you even call pre-flop?

[WarDekar]

Hate to do it, but bump...

[Phil Van Sexton]

Pre-flop, I don't mind the original call. Calling keeps the pot small and since I act first on the flop, I have a good shot to buy it cheaply by betting out on the flop.

Once the BB raises, I think you must fold though. This min-raise shows real strength (or stupity) since it's unlikely that the 2 big-stacked callers will fold for only 200 more. He wants calls.

Since you are getting 5:1 on your call, it appears that you should call despite this. Those are some very good odds.

Unfortunately, your effective odds are much worse. The BB is almost certainly going to put the rest of his chips in. So realistically, you'll have to call 470 more on any flop.

In addition, your chances of betting out and buying the pot on the flop are now nil.

Anyway, you called and he pushed on the flop. At this point , you must fold. Again you are getting good pot odds. However, your hand needs help to win, and may be drawing almost dead against AA-QQ. 470 is just too big of a chunk to risk from your stack.

[wiggs73]

I limp / fold pre-flop. After the flop, I fold. QJo is not too strong a hand, and you have 2 indications of strength before you pre-flop (the raise and the call of the raise), so I think this becomes an easy laydown at that point.

After the flop, I have to think the bb is holding a pocket pair of some sort, probably smaller than 10 but possibly larger. Either way, you're a dog after the flop. Even a king or ace high bluff have you beat. Easy fold.

[WarDekar]

That's what I figured, he showed me AA and I was glad. How about this one:

Blinds 50/100. I have 1705, only other relevant stack is the BB with 1100. 5 players left at this point, I'm UTG+1. I'm dealt AKo, make it 400. BB flat calls. Flop comes Q89 rainbow. I bet 400, he pushes the rest of the way (300 more), I call obviously. Shows AQo and I lose the hand. How would you have played this? Can I realistically expect to get away from that? Should I have just pushed preflop and hoped to steal the blinds?

[wiggs73]

On first thought, I think you played this about the only way you could. The continuation bet is quite a normal move and I see nothing wrong with it.

There is one thing I thought about that would justify a pre-flop push though, and possibly move him off the AQ. When you get the AK, think about the hand as a whole... you're going to bet 400 pre-flop and call or re-raise any raises and then bet 400 more as a continuation bet after the flop. That's 800 of a 1700 stack that you know you're going to bet, at a minimum. So maybe a pre-flop push would be justified?

I'm still thinking the way you played the hand is correct, but I'm interested to see what others think.

[syka16]

If I or the BB has 10BB or less then I'm pushing AK. In this case the BB had 11BB which is close enough to err pushing. You need to see 5 cards.

[Big Limpin']

How do you determine that the only relevant stack sizes are yours and the BB? When you are UTG+1.

[WarDekar]

I just meant relevant because everyone else folded. UTG folded. Then there's me, the button, SB, and BB. I can't remember the stack sizes of the button or SB, but they were higher than mine if I remember correctly. I guess relevant was the wrong word to use, but his stack was the only one concerned with my biggest question (what to do on the flop).

[adanthar]

If the BB is reasonable I check behind.

This is a Q98 board. Unless you're putting him on exactly AJ-AT or an underpair, he has a piece of it - and an underpair will frequently check the turn, where you can make a decent bet to make it look like you have a set.

This makes you more susceptible to bluffing, but the stacks are so shallow that I'd rather give him 400 on a horrible flop (which is why you should've made it 275, incidentally)than bet into him again when it's highly unlikely he's folding.

The other play is to push. But that one kinda sucks - if he called 400 with QJ he's not folding it now.