1500$ Daily, 2 key hands

[chipzilla]

I like to share 2 hands that I thought was important while I was playing in a NL tourney with 300 entrants. (Keep in mind that 30 out of 300 will get paid.)

1) There were 60 players left with blinds 100/200. I had about 4000 chips in front of me where I dealt pocket queens in BB. UTG (an aggressive player and he wasn't afraid to go all-in with mid pairs) raises to 600 and everybody folds to SB who has close to 5000 chips and he immediatly decides to move all-in. What is the best play here considering that UTG also has about 4000 chips remaining in front of him.

-And what if somehow you knew that SB hold AK, would that make any difference in your final decision?

2) This second hand dealt while I was ITM with 25 more players. I had 7500 chips and the blinds were 300 and 600. Everybody folds to Button (a solid player) who makes a standart 1900 raise. SB calls the raise and I was in the BB holding AK. Keep in mind that at this point I had covered the initial raiser by 1500 more chips but SB has covered both of us holding more than 10000 chips in front of him. So what is the best play here?


(My decisions for these two hands: The first hand I folded thinking that I didn't have to gamble with two queens since I had good enough chips in front of me to play (actually above avarage) and the two players that I was involved in the pot have just enough chips to eliminate me. The second hand however I moved all-in and button called with his pocket nines and SB folded, and I end up losing the pot.)

So, what would you have done?

[locutus2002]

1) Hand 1, I call. Usually a push is a hand/player that doesnt want to play a flop OOP. I would discount AA and KK for that reason as well as the size of the raise. I think you're ahead.

2) Push. You probably have at least 1 player dominated and are getting great pot odds.

[Isura]

1) You have to call call here. AK is more likely than AA and KK because of card frequency and the fact that he pushed instead of reraising (to keep the original raiser and you in the hand). At this level, you cannot rule out JJ-TT and AQ and a complete junk, and that makes calling really easy.

2) Looks like an easy push. It's a squeeze play situation, because button could be opening with anything here if he's good, and SB is loose but his call will certainly scare button due to SB's stack size. You have a lot of folding equity here, and if you're called, you've still got AK. This is a great spot to put your money in. Sorry you didn't win this time.

[BoneCollector]

Hand 1

Assuming that 4000 is an average or slightly above average stack, I will often lay this down being that close to the bubble. The best case scenario is they are both holding a big ace, killing each others outs. If one holds AK and the other holds a small pair, you are about 60/40 favorite. I think that with a resonable stack this becomes a close decision, one you dont need to make at this point (without seeing a flop anyways). Something tells me you called this and took it down tho.

Hand 2

Definately push this and you will probably take the pot uncontested. Button is probably on the move, SB has a reasonable holding (KQ or small pair). Neither will want to get involved here for that much with out a very strong hand.

[citanul]

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 1

Assuming that 4000 is an average or slightly above average stack, I will often lay this down being that close to the bubble. The best case scenario is they are both holding a big ace, killing each others outs. If one holds AK and the other holds a small pair, you are about 60/40 favorite. I think that with a resonable stack this becomes a close decision, one you dont need to make at this point (without seeing a flop anyways). Something tells me you called this and took it down tho.

[/ QUOTE ]

With 60 players remaining and 30 paying, you are nowhere close to the bubble.

Passing up what you read to be a 60/40 edge at this point would be pretty terrible. If you are able to put them on a range of hands that you are even better against than 60/40, folding becomes increasingly bad.

citanul

[SossMan]

you have two easy pushes.

In the first hand, you would have to put him on being a very tight player to be able to get away from QQ there. In the second hand, you are in a perfect spot for a squeeze w/ the caller from the SB.

[smurfitup]

I play hand 2 the same. Hand 1 I push... a read on the SB would help, but assuming that he's been paying attention to the fact that utg is aggro, he could be pushing a lot of hands that you kill... i really cant find a fold in that spot...