The Hand -- An Ace-Queen Problem Part I

[schroedy]

Harrah's has a Friday morning single re-buy tournament (with a waitlist for alternates that turns it into a multi-rebuy structure of sorts). By the way, they also have a great overall physical setup for their cardroom, far superior (in terms of physical setup) to any of the other rooms in Vegas (lots of room, enclosed smoke free room, etc.), IMO.

The tournament is some kind of $50 buy-in in total (my wife paid my entry) and a $40 rebuy. Each of the entry and the rebuy gets you $1500 in chips.

We are at level III (minutes 30-45) of the tournament, blinds are $75 and $150 and I have a pretty good read on what the players on my left are doing. In particular I have a read that Villian, who has accumulated a lot of chips and still has his rebuy left, is playing the "I am the big stack and I am going to use it to pressure you" game. A couple of hands earlier, I exercised my rebuy when I still have approximately T1500 in chips in front of me and when someone asks about it, I say that some stacks are getting big and I want a big stack so that when I get all in with an edge against the big stacks I will win a LOT of chips. I then wave my hand at Villian, in a gesture by way of example only because his was the nearest big stack. Although I did not intend this, it slightly hurt his feelings, and he winces at my gesture (I really thought nothing of it, except that I was sorry to use him as an example of my intended strategy).

I am the small blind and UTG limps, Villian limps, four more players limp and I look down at AsQd.

Question #1 : Now what?

Consideration #1: The pot is big and if a big move could win it right here that would actually be a very good to great result.

Consideration #2: Hard (for me) to imagine an UTG limp that AQ is ahead of.

Consideration #3: Hard for me to believe that a big move will get me isolated with a worse hand (although this was a flash decision and may be as a result of having more experience at cash game limit than tournament no limit).

Consideration #4: To some extent I am afraid that reopening the action with a raise is going to cause Villian to reraise "on principle" in keeping with the kind of game he has been playing -- hoping to isolate me and use his stack to intimidate me.

Consideration #5: If I take a long time to process all this I might as well announce that I have AQ or 88-JJ (although this may be giving the opponents too much credit).

Part II to follow in a day or so.

[MLG]

[ QUOTE ]
Consideration #2: Hard (for me) to imagine an UTG limp that AQ is ahead of.



[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a typo? Seriously.

has to be a typo. i hope.

MLG -

What do you do here: push? raise pot sized (say T1200)w/ intent to push on any flop if called?, make a more normal sized 4x/5x raise and play post flop? fold out of concern of the UTG limper? (last option's a typo!) other?

I'm pushing since I believe I have sufficient fold equity and I'm concerned that anything less is likely to be multiway and I wouldn't want to fire post flop into multiple pot committed opponents if I whiff. If I get called it's likely by an underpair and I'm getting compensated for racing that off.

[FrogMouth]

I'm familiar with that tourney, and I know you must start accumilating chips. Ante's kick in very soon, and 30 min levels (i'd be willing to bet they're 20 min) You really need to accumilate chips at this point. Grow a set of nuts and push that shiznit. Your not up against AK and the chances of AA-QQ are slim. You may be called by some donkey w/66, spike the A and tell him to rebuy. This is a VERY powerful move, and it will pickup the pot the majority of the times no doubt!!

Point is that the blinds in these tourneys move so fast, and you get so few hands that you must make a move with any edge you have. You can't sit back at this level.

[schroedy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Consideration #2: Hard (for me) to imagine an UTG limp that AQ is ahead of.



[/ QUOTE ]

Is this a typo? Seriously.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not a typo. The guy was tight. The texture of the game was such that no one had a right to believe that they could get away with a limp with T9s (in fact, I am pretty sure that this was the first unraised pot of the day).

Maybe I am giving him too much credit, but I would think AA is more likely than T9s, but that most likely of all is 88 followed in order of probability by the pairs surrounding (99,77,TT,66 . . . at the point of JJ I would expect the raising to start).

wow, you will get nowhere if you are scared of every limped hand. Raise to isolate. Why are you scared of a small pair? AQ against small pair is not a bad hand, and if you miss flop and fail to win from CB at flop, easy enough to let hand go. Rebuy limpers (even when table is playing tight) hands are very often marginal (like suited gappers,connectors or small pairs).

[erc007]

I don't think that you have to worry about anyone other than UTG, unless any of the other limpers have very short stacks. I think a listing of stack sizes is vital here, in order to properly analyze this situation. You might be concerned if there is a very large stack in the pot as well. A large stack, who has seen you make a move before might look you up here. If UTG had limped marginal hands in the past, or if he had folded after limping from EP, then a big raise here might be +EV. The other key factor here is your table image. You sound like a good, thinking player, but what matters is how the table sees you. Have you raised aggressively before, and if you had, have you shown down any strong hands? If you have a tight table image, you will probably take it down right here. One other consideration, if you raise and take it down, you will have to play extra tight for a while, as your good opponents will see this as a move.

[schroedy]

There were two larger stacks than mine involved in the hand.

Villian had around T4000 (plus his rebuy ticket) and another player on the far end of the table had around T3300 (with no rebuy ticket) or so. The UTG limper had rebought and had T2000 or so. Everyone else was between T800 and T1500 (most with rebuy tickets in reserve).

I left out precise and individual stack sizes because there were so many opponents. As to the small stacks, I am very willing to play AQo against a small stack pushing in or calling. In fact, if I am a significant chip leader at the table, I think that a big raise is an auto-response. I tried to indicate that Villian was the critical stack, in my mind, both preflop and as it turned out, ultimately.

As the small blind, I merely completed because it seemed too overwhelming to try and analyze all the other possibilities. This is a pretty typical weakness in my NL Tournament play -- I get lazy and make a play without fully analyzing the consequences because I can foresee that making a different and possibly better play can also put me to a hard decision later (an example of this type of "lazy (one-decision only) play is pushing all in pre-flop with TT and plenty of chips so I don't have to agonize over what to do about a reraise).

When I just completed, it was because I felt my hand was weak, I was out of position and I had a tricky opponent with a lot of chips in the hand. I wanted to see what the flop brought for a minimum investment. I am pretty sure that this was not a good decision (in retrospect) but it was the one I made at the time.

[mlagoo]

i complete here. i see no reason to think you're behind the UTG limper, but OTOH, i see no reason to build a big pot with AQ out of position.