AA bustout hand is there any other way to play this?

[drdre2001mm]

45mins into tourney avg. stack is about 1900 I have 2500. I'm dealt AA utg and raise to 200 (blinds are 50-100) I do this because almost every hand the one or two chip leads would reraise from 200 to about 900. I'm hoping both of them reraise big time so I can push and hopefully triple up. However, the one big stack (6k) just calls my raise and its the 2 of us to the flop. Flop comes Q93 rainbow I bet 400 and he raises me to 700 I immediately reraise all in he calls flips over J10 os and hits straight on riv. My main question is should I have just called his raise and cautiously played the rest of the hand. I really had a feeling he had a pair of 9's at best. Any info is greatly appreciated.

[larrymcg421]

You were a 65% favorite when the money went in. Not much you could do here, except make a bigger raise, but he clearly liked to gamble and would've called you no matter what.

[drdre2001mm]

Thanks. I really didn't want to be in the position of check calling the hand down. I felt I had to make the move on the flop. Thanks again.

[BigToga]

I'm not a fan of switching up my PF raising strategy all that often - that's just me. If you are 90%+ certain that your raise will get raised, then raise it up to 350 and let him raise it up to 1000-1200. I just don't like the min-raise strategy here even though others at the table are using it. If *you* have been at the table and haven't been doing it, it seems suspicious to me when you do it...

If you want deception and/or a raise to follow, you could consider just flat calling the BB while UTG is a good move PF if you think someone behind you will raise. Then you can come back over the top and slam 'em. This is very dangerous, I know, but you seemed to be trying to play this hand deceptively, so I mention the obvious.

Your play on flop was great and allowed him to make a mistake (which he repeated by calling your all-in!). I think your numbers are a little off here as he couldn't have raised you from $400 to $700, could he?

[drdre2001mm]

Numbers aren't off. The min raising rules for this tourney was you had to match the bet then raise the big blind (was 100 during this hand). Thanks for your input I appreciate it.

[DapperGent]

If the big stacks at your table are showing a tendency towards raising I would be flat calling here with AA UTG. You might have a raise and a call to go over the top of when it gets back to you.

On the other hand your big stacks could just limp also, in that scenario a big bet with AA into this smaller pot might have made the openended sraight draw look a little less appealling to the player who busted you.

Flat calling with big pair UTG is very dangerous but the situation described in the hand above seems one of the better spots to try it.

[tiger7210]

I think you played it right after the flop. You got ur money in with the best hand against a draw. He just got lucky.

[Prime Time]

Drdre,
You played it perfectly.
You got it all in as a favorite.
He sucked out, thats all.
Many many times the poker gods don't cooperate.

[nightlyraver]

No way - that would be a terrible move. First, I don't like your min. raise UTG. No matter what, I am raising 3x-4xBB with any hand that I am raising with and I'll let the chips fall as they may later on. On a flop like that, I'm betting about 2/3 the pot and HOPING he has AQ or KQ and I get some action. This time you got action from a str8 draw who had only 8-outs at best. Therefore, when he calls your all-in he is paying you off big time 75% of the time. I can't think of a better time to get my chips in, save the AQ or KQ situation. He hit his hand this time, tough break - it happens. But think about all the other times that he makes this call and you double up. It happend actually quite frequently at the lower stakes tourneys especially. Think about it, if I were flipping a coin and said that I'll give you $75 everytime it's heads if you give me $25 for every times it comes tails, would you not take that bet every time?

Also, the worst move in my oppinion is to give him free cards and let him draw out on you.