Beginning hands of the tournament

Note this is a $5+$0.5 SNG

It's been about an orbits, I picked up the blinds once, I got through the blinds once. 1500 chips

blinds are 10/20

Another guy with about 1510 chips raises to 120
one guy calls

I look down to see two queens
I raise to 400 so that the caller folds

the raiser pushes
I think he can have AQ/AK/JJ so I call

He turns over KK

Should I lay that hand down since he reraised me after I reraised him?

[nogenius]

To be honest, in the $5's, especially in the early levels, this all-in reraise could be pulled with a wide variety of hands.

I've seen this executed with low to mid pocket pairs, ATs+, etc.

So your call could be justified if you felt like gambling early.

In your situation, I might just flat call and think about pushing on any flop without a A or K.

[0live]

I'm paying this guy off everytime with QQ in a $5 SNG. People will push all the time with AT+, 88+, KQs... Very wide variety of hands crazy opponents push with in these tournies, but you are the favorite more often than not. How tight / aggressive is your opponent? If he is very tight, he could have AK, KK, or AA, in which you are either a coinflip or dominated. However, if he is very aggressive / loose, I pay him off everytime.

[TLR]

What is your read on the guy ? After 10 orbits you should have a good read on him.

If you meant 10 hands and not 10 orbits then I would probably push as well

Sorry, meant to say either "10 hands" or "an orbit"


so no reads

but I guess I'm paying him off

[gabe]

people will come back over the top with shitty hands. i pay him off.

[a500lbgorilla]

With the range you put him on {JJ+, AQ+} you should fold becuase your hand doesnt fair well against this range (I think. May be wrong)

But I believe your range is inaccurate and could easily include smaller pairs and weaker Aces and strong kings.

-'rilla

[baudib]

Early in a $5 tournament he could be reraising with anything. I've seen people do it with TT or AJ. something similar happened to me the other day when I had QQ first hand and someone reraised me and I pushed him -- he had AQ and I held up to win.

Later in a tournament I would probably drop the QQ.

[JeffreyGB]

I seldom feel the need to make a move early in a tournament. If you had some kind of a read on this player, that changes things, but to me it's just as likely that you're dominated as a coinflip and just as likely that you're either of those as way ahead. I'm willing to sacrifice a couple hundred chips early on (assuming a 1500 starting count) to enhance my reads and ensure my spots for later. The fact that it's a $5 could change things a bit, but I'm still leaning toward letting it go.

[0live]

With the range you put him on {JJ+, AQ+} you should fold becuase your hand doesnt fair well against this range (I think. May be wrong)

But I believe your range is inaccurate and could easily include smaller pairs and weaker Aces and strong kings.

-'rilla

Original starting hand thoughts:

441,774,432 games 0.921 secs 479,668,221 games/sec

equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 48.6640 % 47.26% 01.40% { JJ+, AQs+, AQo+ }
Hand 2: 51.3360 % 49.93% 01.40% { QQ }


Smaller Pairs + Weaker Aces + Stronger Kings:

1,551,347,424 games 3.203 secs 484,341,999 games/sec

equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 65.7040 % 65.14% 00.56% { QQ }
Hand 2: 34.2960 % 33.73% 00.56% { 99+, A7s+, KTs+, A8o+, KJo+ }

[a500lbgorilla]

Well, knowing you're a flip against his stated range, do you call? (Lets pretend it a 55 and op is rockishly.)

-'rilla

If it's a flip I call because I have the pot odds and if I don't double up early on I'm not going to make it ITM.

[lamaros]

I'd probably call. But I'd also probably not play QQ that strong early on.

And I've come first in a tourny after being clearly the lowest stack with about 5 players left in, so I don't buy any need to double up early on.

I'd probably call. But I'd also probably not play QQ that strong early on.

And I've come first in a tourny after being clearly the lowest stack with about 5 players left in, so I don't buy any need to double up early on.

Yeah, that's when you have to win at least two hands where you're dominated and you've went all-in as a steal.

Remember that a high M good player has a BETTER chance to build his stack than the same player with a short stack. That's because he gets to keep more chips when he's ahead and he can make smaller raises pre-flop with the same effect. He's raising 2.5xBB and is successful only marginally less on a steal than a 4xBB all-in. If he gets re-raised all-in by a middle stack he can call what, a 20xBB raise with a good hand and be a 60% favorite on average if he picks up a hand or fold his crap stealing cards and lose less than the all-in blind steal. For every chip a big M player puts in he can expect 120% return. A low M player expects only 110% return at best. Not to mention the fact that the high M player has more chips to put in for that 120% return!