[Guest]

I've played these a couple of times and just can't make it to the top. With 8 players I'm in the small blind with QJs - the best starting cards I've seen. We are in round 3 (about 40 minutes into the game).
fold, fold, fold, fold, raise 200, fold, I go all in, call, original raiser folds. I'm headsup with Knol(owner of blacksheep).

He has pocket T's. Flop comes out A7J. I'm feeling really good at this point. Turn brings a Q. I like it but shuffle in my seat a little. Knol is asking his dealer for a K and guess what? The river brings him a K for the straight. Buh Buy Bigdog!

Sometimes I wonder if its better to just raise and see a flop vs all in. Knol I'm sure would of called a raise but after the flop he probably would of folded after a bet with the 2 over cards. I might of even folded if the original raiser also called my raise and bet after the flop which I would possibly put him on the Ace.

Anyway, any thoughts on raise to see the flop vs allin?

 

[Hagar]

In a tournament setting it depends a lot on stack sizes. It sounds like you were pretty much getting bled to death and may have been forced to make a dramatic stand. If I'm gonna raise with a hand like QJ. I'd so it all-in hoping to take down the pot right there. You probably would have if the BB hadn't woke up with a big hand. Just bad luck/timing. (Welcome to my world.)

Touneys require different thinking than a cash game and it's not unusual to over bet a hand in certain situations.

What happens if you just mini-raise or call the preflop bet? If you had just rasied the raiser (Say another 200) you would have been called by the BB and probably the original raiser. (One of them may actually shove before the flop if you do this as well.) When the flop comes A high, do you really like your hand at that point? Second pair/OK kicker and a back-door straight draw. You have to go all-in or check. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that the original raiser had a big A (AK, AQ, AJ) and BB could easily have played any A in that spot so all-in would be very risky after the flop. Checking shows weakness and you will almost definately be facing a big bet from one of your opponents. I doubt that I could call second pair in that spot.

Depending on your stack size, you were either in a shove or fold situation before the flop. If you were getting near short stack, I think your choice was fine. If you still had a few orbits left in your stack, you may have acted too soon, but it probably wasn't completely out of line.

Just my thoughts....

 

[Guest]

You are exactly right. I was probably the second smallest stack (~650)and cards were not coming my way. I've played with the raiser a few times and he does bluff/buy pots frequently so I made the move to take his raise and the BB (~250)but was willing to go heads up if necessary with the QJs.

I paid no mind to the BB. Like you said it was just unlucky that he just happen to have a hand.

I'm starting to reconsider pushing with non other than a mid to high pair of somekind. I can't tell you how often AK just doesn't hold up on a call of an all in.

 

[Hagar]

IF you had only $650 and the blinds were 100/200(?) you had a no brainer shove - I'd have done so with less in that spot. You're starting to run out of enough chips to have any chance of maing anyone think twice about calling. A big stack would call a mini-raise with just about anything at that point.

Right move, bad luck. What are you gonna do?

 

[shiz]

Ya that short stacked with QJs, I would much rather see all 5 cards at once than just the flop. You made the right choice, just bad luck.