Did I play this hand right late in large tournie

Hi all. I am brand new to NL and NL tournies. (I have played a lot of BM low
stakes, cash, limit holdem since the good 'ol days however and have finally
done some reading on NL and want to make the switch). I played my
first large online tournie yesterday and busted on the hand I want to discuss.
I want to know if there was a better way to play it, or if I was just suppose
to go broke. This was a $30 Party Poker tournie with 520 entries. first
place ~ $3700. We are down to 32 players and the payout is $85 for 31-40
and $102 for 21-30, but I would think this irrelevant as I would like to get
to the final table, (as I would think anyone would). I had played extremely
conservatively the whole tournie. My seen flops was 20%. I am now at my
4th table and on hand #37 of the 4th table and have only played 1 previous
hand which I'll discuss later, but for now here is the hand. Note I have
~10k and average ~16k, so I'm low, but i don't think critical, (yet). All the
maniacs seem to have been weeded out and there are some PF all-in no calls
going on and generally not a lot of showdowns. My table observation skills
are not very good yet but on this hand, (for whatever reason), I didn't really
feel/fear a high pair. In fact when the cards were shown, ATo is about what I
would have expected.

1) Did I play this right in my situation, especially if i thought the hand
was exactly ATo.
(ie was it correct to push ai with 88.)

2) Was he correct in calling my all-in or should he have folded?

3) If I just call and the flop comes as shown, [ 5s, Tc, 4h ], what do I do?
ie check, or bet out. And can I get away from this hand in any event.
ie if i check, and Ato bets, say 4k, do I fold, call, (or raise all-in), with
the T showing on the flop?

4) Does my play change if our chip stacks are exactly reversed. ie i have
him covered. (In that case I think I push, right?)

(I am Hero with 88)

NL Texas Hold'em Trny:14367623 Level:12 Blinds (500/1000) - Friday, July 29,

21:21:35 EDT 2005
Table Multi-Table(407934) Table #3 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: aa2313ron ( $16511 )
Seat 3: Hanifan ( $18290 )
Seat 4: JBDenaro157 ( $16174 )
Seat 6: CambodiaSlic ( $16664 )
Seat 8: strokeracejr ( $3465 )
Seat 9: Hero ( $10549 )
Seat 2: NEEWBE ( $9105 )
Seat 10: CUMGETSUM13 ( $4379 )
Trny:14367623 Level:12
Blinds (500/1000)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 8s 8d ]
CUMGETSUM13 folds.
aa2313ron folds.
NEEWBE folds.
Hanifan raises [2000].
JBDenaro157 folds.
CambodiaSlic has been reconnected and has 6 seconds to act.
CambodiaSlic folds.
strokeracejr folds.
Your time bank will become active in less than 20 seconds. If you do not want

it to be used, please act now.
Hero is all-In [9549]
Hanifan calls [8549].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, Tc, 4h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ As ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
Hanifan shows [ Td, Ah ] two pairs, aces and tens.
Hero shows [ 8s, 8d ] a pair of eights.
Hanifan wins 21598 chips from the main pot with two pairs, aces and tens.
Player Hero finished in 32 place and received $85.80
Hero has left the table.
Game #2445589663 starts.

---------------

For those of you with further patience, there is one more thing to add and
I don't know if it makes any difference, but it brings up some questions
of its own. As I mentioned the main hand in question is hand #37 of my
current table. I had only played one other hand, #26. I had basically
been sitting there folding but at 7K, (average then ~14k), with this hand,
I still had the bb covered. I went 3x bb to 2400. The bb goes ai and I
win the race. I can't remember any chat whatsoever going on at the table, but
on his way out over the next 30sec or so, the guy leaves these 3 chats:

xonixo1: kj...what a dork
xonixo1: i was short so it was worth it
xonixo1: at least i know u wont win much, playing like that

Note there was no response by me or anyone else, so the 2nd line looks kinda
weird, (like some sort of self-confession). I presume the guy was just
frustrated, (but at least from my point of view, what did the guy expect if
not at least a race with pocket 4s).

1) Does this hand affect my table image at all and if so, does it have
any bearing on the fact that the guy called my ai, (with ATo on the main
hand above). ie do any of your answers from above now change?

2) Does the fact that the guy called me a dork stick in the minds of anybody
for later, but as I have said, up till now at this table, that was the only
hand I played in 37 hands.

3) My thought on this hand is I would play it for 3x, hope to pick up the
blinds, and fold to an ai bet that had me covered. Was this reasonable?
Would you expect the bb to fold here with not much, or would you expect
to get call from the bb in this case most of the time, and is it still
a good bet.

(I am Hero with KJs)

#Game No : 2445524109
***** Hand History for Game 2445524109 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:14367623 Level:11 Blinds (400/800) - Friday, July 29,

21:11:06 EDT 2005
Table Multi-Table(407934) Table #3 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: aa2313ron ( $16574 )
Seat 3: Hanifan ( $4645 )
Seat 4: JBDenaro157 ( $6458 )
Seat 6: CambodiaSlic ( $8832 )
Seat 7: mikewinner1 ( $11082 )
Seat 8: strokeracejr ( $11023 )
Seat 9: Hero ( $7094 )
Seat 2: NEEWBE ( $20495 )
Seat 5: xonixo1 ( $4555 )
Seat 10: CUMGETSUM13 ( $4379 )
Trny:14367623 Level:11
Blinds (400/800)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ Kh Jh ]
CambodiaSlic folds.
mikewinner1 folds.
strokeracejr folds.
Hero raises [2400].
CUMGETSUM13 folds.
aa2313ron folds.
NEEWBE folds.
Hanifan folds.
JBDenaro157 folds.
xonixo1 is all-In [3755]
Hero calls [2155].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qs, Jd, 5d ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
Hero shows [ Kh, Jh ] two pairs, jacks and threes.
xonixo1 shows [ 4s, 4h ] two pairs, fours and threes.
Hero wins 9510 chips from the main pot with two pairs, jacks and threes.
Player xonixo1 finished in 39 place and received $85.80
xonixo1 has left the table.
Game #2445529302 starts.


---------------------------------------

Thanks for your input.

[lange101]

First thing: When you post you should usually not post results until later. People can't help but give biased answers when they know the results and what your opponent had. Just give stacks sizes, blinds, reads, important people involved in the hand, people left in the tourn, when youw ill be in the money and action.

With around 10bb in a tournament you have to start making moves so that you can double up. I don't really mind pushing with 88 there at all. You most likely are involved in a race and sometimes you might even get him to fold. As to whether he should have called you or not... he could have been a good player willing to take a race. I do'nt like his call because I don't know many hands that push back against a raise without a pretty strong hand unless someone is restealing blinds. His call is marginal.

As for your KJ hand, push preflop. You are wasting chips if you are willing to fold to someone who has you covered and who puts you all in. KJ isn't a great hand but when you have less than 10bb, you have to push it. What would you have done if someone just flat called your bet and you got that same flop? are you checking, betting? You might as well get it all in preflop. Either you will double up, win blinds, or bust. But you can't sit around waiting for premium hands when you are this short stacked. The guy with 44 is just pissed because he busted. I can't tell you whether or not the KJ hand caused the AT to call you later. For the most part, people are not paying enough attention to remember the way you played hands.

I guess I'm kind of rambling. Hope it helped somewhat though. Good luck

101

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate the help and your comments on the KJ hand. Good Luck as well.