A QQ hand

[ilya]

Very early in the tournament, blinds at 10/20. Don't have a good read on the players yet.

Hero in the BB with QQ.

UTG folds, UTG+1 (1447) calls, UTG+2 folds, MP1 (1085) calls, MP2 (1440) raises 110, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button raises 180 (ALL-IN), SB folds,
Hero folds.

Too tight, considering the re-raise was an all-in from a small stack? Or good, considering I have no reads on the two callers and the first raiser?

[fnurt]

I am going to go out on a limb and vote too tight.

[cferejohn]

Umm. Yes, way too tight. You have the 3rd best hand possible. With very few exceptions, play it like you have the best hand. I think the only question here is whether to raise to isolate the all-in or just call and try to get more chips off of MP2. I'd probaby put in some kind of raise because I really don't want MP1 coming along as well. I'd raise to ~400 and go from there...

[ZootMurph]

I'd put in a raise as well... what was your stack size?

[SossMan]

I'm assuming the starting stacks were T1500 (that's what it looks like, anyway.) If you have somewhere around that, I would raise to T350-T400.

A fold is pretty bad. Another option would be to just call to invite the original raiser to read you as weak and attempt to isolate the all in player with a big raise (which you gladly call).

I like making the ABC play here, though. (Raising up to about T350 or so.)

[ilya]

The starting stacks were T1000. I had T960.
I really didn't think folding was that bad...I guess I still don't. Why is it so terrible? I understand that QQ is a fantastic hand, but -
-- I don't have any sort of read on the two callers. For all I know they could be slowplaying.
-- I don't have a good read on the raiser, either. But I tentatively put him on AA-TT, AK, AQ, AJs, or KQ. I have no evidence at all that he'd raise with worse hands.
-- I have to act before the raiser on the flop.
-- The all-in won't have a chance to fold his hand.
-- Raising to T350-400 risks quite a big chunk of my stack, about 40%

[cferejohn]

With just 1000 in your stack, raise all-in then. The pot is pretty big already. There are exactly 12 hands (6 ways each to make AA and KK) that you are behind here. To get to the money in a tournament, you *need* to double up several times (either by stealing many chips without a showdown or by getting all-in with the winning hand). This looks like one of the best opportunities you are going to get to do that.

You put the raiser on far more hands you beat than hands you lose to.

[Jason Strasser]

Phil Helmuth is tainting our world.

You put him on about 12 hands, two of them ahead of you and one is a tie. I guess if you were the best tournament player in the world with the best postflop skills and yadda yadda, then you MAYBE could justify a fold.

For me, I will never turn down a shot to go to war with QQ under these circumstances.

[ilya]

...but I don't want to play against QQ or AK either. I don't even really want to play against AQ or KQ since these hands drastically reduce my chances of redrawing successfully if my opponent does pair his overcard. Yeah, there're only 12 hands that are ahead of me. But there are 54 other hands I don't think I'm big enough of a favorite over (esp. considering that no matter what happens, I still have to beat the all-in hand at the showdown), and not too many hands besides these 66 that I think the guy would raise with in the first place.

[ilya]

I've never read Phil Hellmuth's book, actually.