2000 NL WSOP Hand

[threepines]

First round, blinds 25 and 25. All involved are about par except the cutoff who has about 2500. Solid cutoff-2 brings it in for 75, cutoff-1 calls, cutoff calls, button folds.

I look down to see JJ in the sb. What's my move? I am near certain that the two callers don't have much.

I raise 250 to 325 total to try to pick up the pot.

To my surprise, the raiser folds but the cutoff calls. The cutoff is a good, tricky, aggressive player who plays a lot of pots.

The flop comes A 9 2 rainbow. What's my move?

I make a continuation bet of 300 and he comes over the top for 1000 total. I think that he may be making a move but still fold. I lose a third of my chips on the hand.

I have no regrets about my bustout hand (my qq vs ak who agonized about calling my all-in bet before the flop). However, the JJ hand I think I should have played very differently.

[billyjex]

I probably play it the same. You have to make that continuation bet and fold to his reraise; there's no point in risking your whole stack w/ an underpair.

I might just limp in on the SB and try to flop a set and win a big pot. That's the only other way I would play it.

[mts]

i hate it, hate the flop bet amount. He knows you can only continue with the hand if you have AK. Unless your PF raising standards include raising AQ in that spot. (i dont think they do). Its easy to say PUSH when its not my 2k.

[MrJinx]

This early in the tournament, with 3 callers and deep stacks relative to the blinds, I think the better play would be to just call the raise and hope for a set. By making the reraise from the BB, you're setting yourself up to play a big pot with JJ out of position, a very tough spot. Basically, you're just opening yourself up to get outplayed. Even if you just take down the pot, you only pick up about 250 in chips which will not make or break your tournament.

On the otherhand, calling the raise offers big implied odds as you will most likely get action if you make your set...especially early in a tournament where many weaker players will go to the felt with top pair.

[sirio11]

In the 1st round of the tourney, I prefer to just call in your position, in the 1st round you should be thinking in playing monsters; if you flop a set, you can bust somebody, but if you raise, most probably you're winning a small pot or losing a big one.

[threepines]

In hindsight, I should have done what most of you recommended - called before the flop. Raising from the sb put me into a position where I could be easily outplayed after the flop.