5 all ins in a row - your thoughts on the plays

[spoody]

Ok, Live NL tourney. Started with 4K in chips. 2 hours in, I have not been able to do anything...blinds are up to 1K I find myself in the position of having only 5K and moved to a new table with monsters on either side of me...I am in 8th chip position at the table.

1st Hand: AKs 3 from the button. One of the smaller stacks with 3K moves all in UTG, I move all in and all fold. He has AQo and of course hits his Q and I am now the small stack with 2K

2nd Hand: 55 all fold to me, I move all in, one monster reraises all in, all fold...he has AQ. I win the race, actually I hit my set and wish I had limped, but that would have looked ridiculous limping with a 1K blind, leaving me with only 1.5K. So I am back up to 5.5K

3rd Hand: AKs all fold to me, I raise all in, called by the BB who is small stack with only about .5K left after his blind. He shows QT and I win the race and am up to 7K

4th Hand: AQs - all fold to me, I raise to 3K (dumb, probably, I was not sure if I should move all in, limp, double, whatever, but that left me with about 4K left...but I was out of position 6 from the button) Guy next to me moves all in, all fold, and I call another 3K (dumb again, but i sure felt pot committed there getting better than 3-1 on my 3K call) He shows AKs and I dont hit a Q and am down to 1K

5th Hand JTo - 2 from the blind, I call all in and pray. Run into KQ and both hit a pair, but I am out

crazy since they were all in a row.


The hand that bothers me is the AQ hand. I guess I could muck it, but Im not sure I could have avoided what happened, unless I had limped, or only doubled the blinds and then fold to the big reraise.

Any thoughts on any of these hands? Should I possibly have limped with the AKs either time sice I needed chips? I almost never limp, so unless I had AA there, I just cant bring myself to limp with AKs.

Thanks,
Spoods

[DeathDonkey]

No way should you limp with AKs. You might get a small pocket pair to fold preflop and avoid the coinflip. You were still pretty shortstacked when the AQs hand came up. I think you were going to lose it all no matter which way you played the hand. IMO I don't think you could have folded to a big raise even if you limped or played it any other way. You didn't have enough chips to do damage and you had a strong hand. I probably would have pushed first since you at least then have the chance to take it down uncontested, but its a weird thing when you push so many in a row, they may call with less. Too bad you ran into the AKs and didn't get karma from yours getting beat by the Q earlier

-DeathDonkey

[Greg (FossilMan)]

Your only apparent mistake was the one raise that wasn't all-in. I just don't see raising almost half my stack, when I've got a hand that would prefer everybody fold. Plus, just so it doesn't become obvious, I also would raise all-in with AA here also.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[jwvdcw]

[ QUOTE ]
Your only apparent mistake was the one raise that wasn't all-in. I just don't see raising almost half my stack, when I've got a hand that would prefer everybody fold. Plus, just so it doesn't become obvious, I also would raise all-in with AA here also.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[/ QUOTE ]

I see what you're saying, but imo sometimes your bet causes more fear when you make a bet that makes you pot committed but don't go all in...because it makes it look as if you want callers.

[DeathDonkey]

I think your line of thinking here will cause you to outtrick yourself. You have a big hand, you will be happy to take down the blinds, you will be pot committed if called, make the all in play. If someone raises me I don't care if they want callers or not, if I have a hand worth playing for the price they are giving me, I'm going to play it. Make that price as high as possible and hope for the best.

-DeathDonkey

[spoody]

Its funny, my thinking was a combination of 2 competing feelings.

1. I HATE AQ. I have busted out of more tourneys with AQ than any other hand. The hand kind of freaks me out.

2. I knew I was going to be all in, but since I had been all in 3 times in a row already, I did think that possibly a normal 3x raise might buy me the blinds...this was dumb but I was thinking they might respect this raise more than all in...like I said, dumb.

I was going to lose no matter, since AKs was calling my all in no matter what...I guess he had sat there for like an hour not playing any hands just waiting for anything to play (this was a new table for me). He told me that he wouda called the biggest stack at the table. But I would like to play these hands better, and it looks like the best play is to push all in right from the start.

Spoods

[ThaSaltCracka]

what a crazy run, I may have folded AQ just to take a breather. Sounds like a bunch of tourney fun. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Greg (FossilMan)]

[ QUOTE ]
I see what you're saying, but imo sometimes your bet causes more fear when you make a bet that makes you pot committed but don't go all in...because it makes it look as if you want callers.

[/ QUOTE ]

There is some truth to what you're saying, but don't assume that most opponents are going to understand this. You need a sophisticated, experienced opponent for this to be so.

Most players: "It's only two more big blinds to see the flop? I've only got T8, but they're suited. Hmmm. I call."

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)