Getting to the final table.

[John_Manley]

Lately, I have been playing some online tournaments. I have had some success. I have made it to the money rounds several times this month but never to the final table. My demise, I believe has been that I have been playing to conservatively then eventually the blinds get me. For this reason, over the last week I have become considereably more aggressive before anyone has raised usually betting 3-4 x the BB. I have had great success early on. Infact, yesterday I was 3rd in chips after the first break. I then opened in late position with blinds of 100 with a 400 raise and was called by another player in middle position who I assumed limped in. On the flop this guy made a sizable bet and I folded. No biggy. Well two to three hands later I had Q-10 on the button with only one caller. Guy in the mini-blind was the chip leader for the table. I made a 400 chip raise and was called by the minblind and the guy in first position went all-in. All rags hit on the flop. Then on the turn a queen hit. I decided to go all-in and was called by the mini-blind. Actually another queen hit but it did not matter because he had the KQ and he beat me with his kicker.
My rational was that if the mini-blind had AK or or Ax then I did not want to give him the change to beat me. With his large bank roll he would have to have a nice hand to call (which he did) when I went all-in (5000). Was that too aggressive? What would have been the best play?

[gunboat]

Best play was to muck that piece of cheese pre-flop. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Open-raising 4x the blind is one thing, but raising 4x the blind after someone limps in is quite another. You will usually be called if someone has already limped. This is a very important thing to realize, as you don't want to be playing QT against someone who's withstood a raise. When someone has already entered the pot, it's pointless to try and steal anything, as you will very rarely be successful, unless you want to raise it considerably more than 4x the blind.

The best play on the QT hand would have been to limp pre-flop. After that, you may or may not have been able to get away from the hand, but the SB with KQ would have almost certainly bet, instead of checking to the raiser, and you'd have been faced with a totally different situation.

al

[John_Manley]

Good point. I thought he called because I had stolen so many blinds. No matter what, It was a stupid bet and I should have assumed he had a better hand. Maybe I should have thrown out another 400 chips to see what he would do instead of go all-in. Appreciate the input.

Manley