What should I have done differently?

Throughout the first hour or so of this 7 person tourney, my cards were running bad; I made some good bluffs and maybe 1 hand, but overall I was being dwindled down. Soon, I was dealt Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] in MP and I raised (not 100% sure how much it was, a good-sized raise though, narrowing down hands to something like high pocket pairs and AK-AJ). There was 1 caller, the player right after me, rest were folds. The flop came 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 10 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. I checked, he raised around 1.5 what I raised preflop, and I folded. I was short stack, it was really all-in or fold and I put him on an ace. Later in the tourney I was very short-stacked, went all-in preflop with JJ in SB, and someone in MP called with AA, and of course I lost.

Now I don't need a bunch of replies saying you suck just play better, I know these probably weren't the best plays, but if I could just get some insight on alternative methods in this situation, keep in mind I didn't have the dough to get some more reads with raises.

There's really not much you could've done differently.

If he has an ace, there are 3 left in the deck (assuming nobody else folded one), just bad luck he flopped it.

And the jacks, well, you can hardly wait for a better hand to move all in with. Again, just bad luck running into aces.

[RIDGE45]

You might consider a stop and go here. That way for him to call you on the flop he is probably going to have to have an A, but it eliminates him calling your all in preflop and being able to see all 5 cards...

You said you were short stacked so I think you should have considered playing this hand for all your chips.

[Niediam]

If you are sure that your opponent in the queens hand would only play Ax and big pairs there isn't a thing you can do. If he is a normally player who might call with medium pairs or a donk who might call with KQ or JTs then you could have made a probe bet instead of just giving up on the hand.

[Shandrax]

Kinda sarcastic that you folded the queens and went out with jacks.

You should have bet on the flop. Q-Q is good enough to justify that. If he re-raises you have two options:

A. Fold with the knowledge that it wasn't a bad fold. He had you beat.

B. Re-raise all-in. For that let's look at his possible hands:

A-K would have re-raised you pre-flop
A-Q is unlikely because you got the queens

A-J is possible, but this is where he might fear to get outkicked. He is facing a tough decision. You could have something like A-K, A-Q, T-T. He cannot exclude any of these hands. If you had enough chips to hurt his stack, maybe you get him to laydown A-J. Risky play of course, but a good chance to get back into the tournament.

[KramerTM]

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If you had enough chips to hurt his stack, maybe you get him to laydown A-J.

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You don't play online poker too much, do you?

[Shandrax]

Oh well, I forgot that they don't fold in online play [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[Rudbaeck]

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Oh well, I forgot that they don't fold in online play [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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If you fold top pair decent kicker against a short stack in this situation I want you in my live tournies. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[spaminator101]

i would have pushed before the flop
the thing is that with big hand you win small pots and lose big ones and that is exactly what happened to you you lost a big pot if you had pushed pre flop it eliminates tough situations personally i dont like big pairs for this reason i dont like to play big hands like AA KK QQ but then an argument could be made for not moving in because if you are called you are at best a small favorite and probably a huge dog and so there is really no right decision still it sounds like you could use some chips so i would move in if its been going for and hour the blinds have gone up few times and you could use the free round sooner instead of later

[bkfizz02]

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i dont like to play big hands like AA KK QQ but then an argument could be made for not moving in because if you are called you are at best a small favorite and probably a huge dog

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I usually find that if I get called allin in a short stack situation with these hands you listed, I'm usually a huge favorite and sometimes just a marginal favorite (AK vs QQ for example).

What hands are going to call you that make you a slight favorite or huge dog?

Don't pass on these hands...