An AA hand from the Friday Special

[Harv72b]

The patented Harv Fish Flop. It's too early in the tourney & I'm too new to the big MTTs to have firm reads on either opponent, but both had been playing pretty tight & solid poker up to this point. UTG+2 had bled me down to my current stack size a couple orbits earlier with a nice slowplay of a turned nut flush. As tight as the table had been playing I wasn't expecting any other callers when I initially re-raised, hence the minimum preflop bet. When the button (who had been playing extremely tight) did call, I immediately put him on a medium PP 77-JJ.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (10 handed) converter

MP1 (t510)
Hero (t710)
MP3 (t2275)
CO (t1190)
Button (t815)
SB (t1045)
BB (t770)
UTG (t845)
UTG+1 (t1280)
UTG+2 (t1330)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 raises to t60</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t120</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, Button calls t120, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, UTG+2 calls t60.

Flop: (t405) 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
UTG+2 checks, Hero thinks for several seconds and pushes for t590....

The question: in the early stages of a tournament, am I going to be called by a worse hand often enough to make this worthwhile? It seems like I often am, but I don't know if I've just been spectacularly lucky so far. I figured that anything I bet tied me to the pot anyhow and with the drawy flop I didn't want to risk a free card by checking...correct thinking?

[Ryan11]

Raise more preflop, you want to get heads up and hopefully he will push to your reraise.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
Raise more preflop, you want to get heads up and hopefully he will push to your reraise.

[/ QUOTE ]

As tight as this table was playing, I was pretty confident that if I raised more I would end up winning t105 for my trouble. I think we'd had 1 pot so far larger than t300, and that was the one I lost (straight vs. flush).

[TheTimeIsUp]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Raise more preflop, you want to get heads up and hopefully he will push to your reraise.

[/ QUOTE ]

As tight as this table was playing, I was pretty confident that if I raised more I would end up winning t105 for my trouble. I think we'd had 1 pot so far larger than t300, and that was the one I lost (straight vs. flush).

[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't mattter. You HAVE to raise more pf here.

[Pat Southern]

So you'd rather give him the correct implied odds to stack you with a lesser hand? Raising more preflop not only cuts down his odds, it allows you to make a normal sized push on the flop.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
It doesn't mattter. You HAVE to raise more pf here.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you explain this a little further? In this instance I estimated that I had at least an 80%, probably closer to 90%, chance of getting HU with the miniraise on this table. I'm not kidding about how tight this table was--tightest I've ever seen in an MTT, and that's including final tables. The 105 chips I'd usually win with a bigger re-raise are pretty much meaningless, as I'd still be well under the average stack size. And the raise still gives UTG+2 the opportunity to come back over the top if he's underbetting his own premium hand.

I know I'm offering pretty decent pot odds to other players (120 into a 225 pot for the first overcaller), but if I don't think anyone will take advantage of those odds is it still worth it to raise bigger?

[TheTimeIsUp]

The reverse implied odds you have are huge. Min raising this flop is representing AA or KK, so this is a very beginner's type of play. You have to raise more than this and not scream of AA, and you have to make them pay more to see this flop. I don't care if this table had a vpip of 2, you must raise more.

[Harv72b]

[ QUOTE ]
The reverse implied odds you have are huge. Min raising this flop is representing AA or KK, so this is a very beginner's type of play.

[/ QUOTE ]

Point taken &amp; accepted. Thanks. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

But....getting past the preflop play, the flop push--good or bad in this instance?

[Ryan11]

I'd say it's fine. With the size of the pot the amount you have to bet will commit you so might as well move in now.