$500 Bike NL hand. QQ OOP

[shaniac]

level 4 or so, blinds 100/200 with 25 ante, in the $500 NL tournament in the Bike. 350 runners, we're probably down to 150. My stack at the start of the hand is ~8K and my opponent, who is a competent (tight agressive) Asian player, has about 10K. We're the table chip leaders.

My image is probably a bit TAG. I've shown down some good hands but also displayed a willingness to gamble with less-than-premium hands.

I raise QQ utg to 600. Villain makes it 2000 to go. It's folded back to me.

State your case for calling, raising or folding here. If you want to call, what's your plan for the flop?

I'll post more later.

Edit: I meant my imagine is "probably a bit LAG." Big difference.

What position does villain make it 2000 with here?

[shaniac]

I was in the 4 seat, he was in the 9.

i push. with you both being huge stacks, i don't see him wanting to "gamble" with you with AK, but he could definitely call you with something like 99-JJ. if he had AA-KK you're gonna be toast anyways.

folding really isn't an option here due to villain being solid and giving you credit for a lag image.

[woodguy]

I think with these stack sizes, if you re-raise it should be all in as a reasonable re-raise will be over 1/2 your stack.

If I had AA or KK in LP with a lag opening I'm not sure I pop it up to 2K here, as I can expect you to bet if I call and I have position.

Maybe I'd raise KK to keep a cheap Ax in the blinds from coming along, but not AA. Why chase you out PF?

If I think you're a lag I'm raising AK,AQ, maybe AJ if I think I'm better than you, KK-TT,. so I think you are well ahead of the range.

So if I go with my read that this *may* be KK, but I'm ahead of everything else, I flat call and check/raise all in any non-A flop. If he has KK I go broke.

If an A flops I lead for 2K and fold to a re-raise.

edit: even if he thinks you gamble with iffy holdings, why push him out PF if you think you are ahead of his range?

Regards,
Woodguy

Hey shaniac I've played against you a number of times at pokerstars. Anyway, I'd call. For only $1400 more it's hard to lay down Q's, especially since there is only a 1-11 chance the other person is holding K's or A's at a 9 person table. If the person is TAG then they have either A-Q, A-K, or a high-medium pair, J-J, T-T, is my guess. If the flop is clear of an A or K go with it. Otherwise, it's not that hard to let go. 6k at 100/200 is enough play. On the other hand I wasn't sitting there, so who knows. Exactly how tight was he again? lol.

I'm interested now, what actually happened in the hand?

[shaniac]

Woodguy,

This is more or less the reasoning I went with. I would guess that if I pushed the only hands he calls with are AA, KK and probably AK. I think he'd actually get away from all the other hands in his range, since a push would indicate inarguable strength. At the same time, if I push I loose all his action with hands that he would fold preflop but might commit more chips with on later streets, still behind.

The downside is that some of the time, he'll outflop or outplay me when the board comes with overcards or otherwise scary and I will have dumped 25% of my stack, but I think that's offset enough by the times I'll be able to do the same to him.

In this case it worked out well. I called and saw a 567 or 678 rainbow flop. I checked and when he immediately pushed allin, I didn't think he had AA or KK so I called. He had JJ and I won a crucial pot.

[woodguy]

Nice hand.

How did the rest of the tourney work out?

Regards,
Woodguy