avoiding confrontations

[Navers]

I play a home game, it's a $5 buy-in (everyone starts with T500) and generally we have 8 players. It's relatively loose. I try to stay tight, but when I get in a hand its hard to avoid confrontational situations early in the tournament. For example, I have pocket tens, raise 3x BB, and on the flop someone with a flush draw will raise to 50 (5x BB). I knew I was up, but I either had to raise a lot or fold, and with loose players sometimes i think it costs too much to protect a hand, but when I end up doing it I lose.


Another example is shortstack goes all-in. I have pocket queens (T450)and knowing he'd go in with a big range of hands, I move all-in and get called by AKo by medium stack. This is when there were 6 players left out of 8. Do I protect my hand? Let it go? Are there any general guidelines about how much to risk earlier in the tournament?

Any comments would be appreciated.

[Nottom]

Balancing protecting your hand while not overplaying vulnerable hands is always a tricky part of tournement play.

In the first example, it is often best to wait till the turn to protect against a flush draw. Now you are putting you money in with a much bigger edge, if he has something like the nut flush draw agasint your pocket TT. Basically call his small raise and make a big turn bet if it doesn't bring in a scare card.

In the second situation, theres no way you are letting those Queens go here. You ran into one of the very few hands you don't really want to see, and of the ones you don't want to see its the one you would most like to see [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Navers]

In hand 1, is it worth it to give a free card and risk the turn flush or overcards? Also, there are two others besides the fish I need to stop from drawing.