Too aggressive, too early?

[AndysDaddy]

Last night I placed in the money at a one table SNG at PS for the first time after about five tries. OK, no big deal, but still somewhat satisfying. A couple hands after the 4th place busted out in my euphoric state I played this hand. Too aggressivly, I think now:

Blinds are 75/150. I have ~T1400, SB has T9600, BB: T2450. I get A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] UTG and raise to 600. Only SB calls. Flop comes J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]10[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. I bet all in thinking the BB has either a small pair or moderate overs. With a small pair he should fold, with KQ or some such I'm the favorite. With most anything else I'd have expected a reraise BTF. He calls and shows AK and I get 3rd place money.

I think I still like my BTF raise, but not the all-in. I'm not sure what I would have done had I checked and he bet large. I'm still new to this game and I sometimes have a difficult time evaluating a situation afterwards without focusing on the results. Any comments/suggestions/harrasments are welcome.

[jon_1van]

I disagree with 6x BB preflop. I'd scale back to the 3/4 range.

The blinds are still pretty low. It won't hurt to wait for a better situation. You can also wait for the 2nd place guy to die (or win a little...putting the pressure solely on you).

Just a little observation I have made. Some people will play premium hands quite timidly when it gets shorthanded. People seem to think it is easier to trap a player when you have AA then getting him to call a raise.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Just kidding.

Three handed, A8 is certainly worth a raise. If the blinds were higher, say the 200-400 with $25 ante level, it would be an automatic all-in for me with a stack of only 1400. As it was, your raise was fine with me.

The flop was problematic for you with no pair. WITH a pair, your all-in would have been fine. Without, you might want to just check behind instead of bet. After all, your opponent did call a fairly decent raise, he's not nearly as likely to give up now. This is especially true given the pot odds your all-in offers him: 1350:800, or slightly better than 3:2.

al

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I think the preflop raise is the mistake. Or rather, not the raise itself, but the size. You commit over 40% of your stack, you might as well go all-in right there.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

When I first replied I fixated on your statement that you were UTG, which made me forget you were 3-handed. Thus I edited my first reply. Since the relevance of position is where your are relative to the button (as opposed to the blinds), your post would have been more accurate had you said you were on the button, as opposed to UTG.

Just a nitpick because I had to edit out an irrelevant sentence from my first reply [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[AndysDaddy]

Thanks for the comments. A quick follow up question: When it is said "I raised 4x the BB" What exactly does this mean? If the BB is 100, and I'm not one of the blinds, if I open-raise to 400 is this a 4xBB open or 3x? Thanks again...

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

BB=100, 4xBB=400

[Bozeman]

This is often incompletely specified, people can give either the number they raise to, or the number they raise by. Thus putting 400 in the pot with 100 big blind is raising to 4xBB, but raising by 3xBB. Generally, though not always, people use the first convention.

Craig