party $10 NL onthe bubble, KQ unsoooted

[regisd]

I've been playing limit for a while -- reliably beating party 2/4, live game 4/8, and I'm looking to play some NL. I have started playing some NL tournaments to get some NL experience.

Any feedback on this hand? Should I have folded to the all-in bet? Pushed all-in instead of my bet of slightly more than 2 BB followed by a call to the all-in bet?

I was the short stack, and down to 10BB with limits still to go up, so I'm thinking this was a good hand to try and make my move with.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (4 handed) converter

saw flop|<font color="C00000">saw showdown</font>

<font color="C00000">Heroine (t1080)</font>
SB (t3990)
BB (t1355)
<font color="C00000">UTG (t1575)</font>

Preflop: Heroine is Button with K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
UTG calls t100, <font color="CC3333">Heroine raises to t200</font>, <font color="666666">2 folds</font>, UTG calls t100.

Flop: (t550) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
UTG checks, <font color="CC3333">Heroine bets t225</font>, <font color="CC3333">UTG raises to t1375 (All-In)</font>, Heroine calls t655 (All-In).

Turn: (t2805) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

River: (t2805) 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t2805
<font color="green">Main Pot: t2310 (t2310), between Heroine and UTG.</font> &gt; <font color="white">Pot won by UTG (t2310).</font>
<font color="green">Pot 2: t495 (t495), returned to UTG.</font>

Results in white below: <font color="white">
UTG shows Qh 3h (two pair, queens and threes).
Heroine shows Kc Qs (one pair, queens).
Outcome: UTG wins t2805. </font>

thanks for any feedback.

[AtlBrvs4Life]

I think you played this hand fine. Maybe bet more on the flop, but that's really not necessary either. Just a bad beat.

[ScottTheFish]

You should have raised more before the flop. 300 or so. A minraise is not going to fold anyone after they have already called 100. That's almost 1/3 of your stack at this point, so just pushing all-in preflop would not be bad either.

On the flop, you need to be aggressive. You only bet half the pot, begging anyone with half a hand to call you, or try to put a move on you.

If you're willing to call an all-in here, just push all-in yourself. Let him make the tough decision.

This clown probably would have called it and caught his raggy 2-pair either way, but it still would be the better play.

[flytrap]

a good rule of thumb if you want to raise is to make it 3X the BB and ad 1 to the number for each limper, in this case 3X the BB would be 300, so you could make it 400 since there is one limper. Since this commits so much of your stack, nearly 40%, just go all-in instead. Since you didn't go all-in before the flop, go all-in on the flop.

[AtlBrvs4Life]

Didn't even notice you min raised preflop. Definately raise bigger preflop.

[mackthefork]

I think I would push here most of the time, even if you get called you are likely in pretty good shape.

Regards ML

[regisd]

thanks for the feedback.

thinking back, i was pretty sure i should've gone all-in instead of waiting and calling the all-in bet, on the theory that if i'm willing to call the all-in bet i should take the initiative and make the bet. i wasn't sure about my play pre-flop.

[slogger]

Have to agree with the others - push preflop.

If you're going to play a hand at all when you have about 10xBB or less, you should be pushing unless you're trying to trap with AA or KK or something (and even that is not advisable in most situations - because you should be pushing preflop a lot in these stages, you should push with big hands like AA and KK as well because eventually your opponents will get fed up and call or find a smaller pair of their own).