Strategy early in a multi-table tournament

[mrmazoo]

Playing in a 200 entry tournament. Still 130+ players. Table is pretty much full (9 or 10 handed). The blinds are 20 and 40. A guy who has been steamrolling everyone the last few hands and is the table chip leader at ~2400 limps in in early position. Everyone folds to me (I'm one from the button with ~1300). I hold TT and raise $100. Everyone folds to the limper who re-raises all-in.

Since, like I said, this guy has been steamrolling over people lately, and basically bullying people around, I felt pretty sure he did not have a large pair. I put him either on a pair lower than JJ or AK. I called all-in.

He had AK.

The flop came K4Kxx.

At first I felt ok about it because I figure I read him correctly and TT is a favorite over AK. But then I got to thinking that if I would have just called pre-flop I would have seen the flop cheaply. I then would have had an opportunity to release the hand. Raising against an aggressive player who happens to have almost twice as many chips as me put my entire stack in jeapordy.

What would you have done? Do you think I played correctly?

[ohkanada]

When someone limp re-raises I would not normally put them on a low pair. I would normally put them on QQ+ or AK. If you fold you still have 1200 or so.

Now you did say he was aggressive but had he re-raised all-in and showed crap?

Ken Poklitar

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I think the mistake you made here was raising with a hand that you really didn't want to call a big reraise with. Now in a ring game, I would have liked your play. You got even money as a 6:5 favorite, you read him correctly, you had the best of it. However, in a tourney, you can't rebuy, and once you're out, you cannot win any money. Therefore it's really not worth it to make this play, even if you knew for a FACT that he had AK, and you were a 6:5 favorite. Taking a huge risk when you're only slightly ahead is wrong in a tournament.

I pretty much don't raise with TT or lower in the early phases of tournaments. You don't want to be reraised, and you really don't want several callers either, so it's hard to make a raise that prevents both from happening. A big raise will usually be reraised if it gets any action. A small raise won't drive players out very effectively. This is why I usually just limp, hoping to flop a set (or some other strong hand), or get out of the hand cheaply.

Of course in the late stages of a tourney, it all changes.

al

[Sarge85]

I think your raise on the button with TT was fine. But I wouldn't take TT All-In pre-flop. On a side note, I think the Limper shouldn't have re-raise so much after your raise -I'd definately raise back at him, but not that much...

[img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img] Sarge [img]/forums/images/icons/diamond.gif[/img]

[youtalkfunny]

You've got pocket tens. You're opponent just moved all in.

If you call, you're either a tiny favorite, or a huge underdog.

I'd wait for a more attractive oppurtunity to put my chips into play.