Hand Review

[Duece Three]

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) converter


MP1 (t890)
MP2 (t285)
MP3 (t1330)
CO (t710)
Button (t1055)
SB (t645)
Hero (t1450)
UTG (t775)
UTG+1 (t860)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP1 calls t30, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP3 calls t30, <font color="#CC3333">CO raises to t100</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, SB calls t85, Hero calls t70, MP1 calls t70, MP3 folds.

Flop: (t430) A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP1 bets t100</font>, CO calls t100, SB folds, Hero calls t100.

Turn: (t730) 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t175</font>, MP1 calls t175, CO calls t175.

River: (t1255) 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>

--missing info--

t07a09 bets [175].
jamesc1224 is all-In [515]
bayouhoodoo is all-In [335]
t07a09 calls [340].

-end missing info--

Final Pot: t1255

Results in white below: <font color="#FFFFFF">
Hero has Ah Js (two pair, aces and fives).
MP1 has Qd Td (flush, queen high).
CO has Ts As (two pair, aces and fives).
Outcome: MP1 wins t1255. </font>

I feel that I played this hand poorly...

Thoughts on how it should have been played, please...

[kevstreet]

Is this a small buy-in SnG?

Well, this is the type of hand that can get you in trouble because you're really not sure where you stand w/ AJ when calling a raise. Turns out your ace was good enough but I'm guessing you weren't confident on the flop or you would have check-raised which would have definitely chased that backdoor flush that hurt you. If you had trouble w/ this hand post flop, you may want to tighten up a bit pre.

I agree, this is a fold preflop. AJ is a trap hand that should be avoided early on, expecially to a decent size raise.

[brimstone1]

Fold preflop, if you must play, check-raise the flop.

Your hand isn't strong enough to slowplay

Coming out blazing on the turn doesn't make sense, what are you supposed to be representing? Are you even trying to represent anything?

The guy who got the flush was getting 5.1 to 1 to call on the turn, so you're not betting out to block him, thats for sure...

fold preflop again.

When they called your turn bet, you didn't suspect a 5 out there somewhere, and you came out betting again?

If only hold'em was 'river-only' and there were no other streets, this hand would be semi-decent. I mean, calling two all-ins getting 6.7:1 with TPGK is decent. But everything up to that point wasn't as good.

[hobbes9324]

Muck it - what's the rush? It's early, and A-J is the sort of hand that you win a small pot or get buried on. Just toooooooo many bad things can happen.

[Duece Three]

This was a $5 + $1 SnG.

I definitely feel that I am struggling w/NL games.

I typically get blinded off to a point where I need to "push or fold" pre-flop (or at least I think a need to)...so I've been trying to work on staying out of big pots, while trying to build a decent stack (which may be a little more important in a MTT) - maybe I watch a little too much TV poker... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I felt like I had enough chips to take a flop w/AJ.

Looking back at the hand, the flop was about as good as I could have hoped for with my hole cards...I fell like I should only have to worry about AA, AK, or AQ. (all which could prompt a raise from the CO) KK,QQ,JJ, etc. could also be likely...I didn't expect a 5 to be out there with the pre-flop raise (which is probably a poor assumption given the buy-in...

The river bet was a (badly misused?) value-bet? I didn't expect to see a flush, but would not have been suprised to see a better A. Given that they just called the flop and turn, I thought there was a chance I might be good, and also tried to save calling a bigger bet (weak?), which I did anyway...

Another one chalked up as a learning experience.

Thanks for the quick replies!