Should I be pursuing this hand?

[SteveDallas]

This is the second hand in a 18-man tournament, so no reads. Am I correct in pursuing this hand or did I just fall in love with my AQs?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

CO (t1500)
Button (t1520)
SB (t1480)
BB (t1500)
UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 =#A500AF(Villain)/ (t1500)
MP1 (t1500)
Hero (t1500)
MP3 (t1500)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Q, A.
UTG raises to t40, UTG+1 =#A500AF(Villain)/ calls t40, 1 fold, Hero calls t40, 4 folds, BB calls t20.

Flop: (t170) 7, Q, 3 (4 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Villain bets t100, Hero raises to t200, BB folds, UTG folds, Villain calls t100.

Thought I would see how committed he is to his hand, and I'd probably fold to a reraise. Should I just call this early in the tourney and not risk my chips?

Turn: (t570) A (2 players)
Villain bets t200, Hero raises to t400, Villain calls t200.

Figured at this point I have him beat. Should I raise more or, again, be cautious this early?

River: (t1370) K (2 players)
Villain bets t200, Hero calls t200.

Final Pot: t1770

Thanks for any advice. BTW, I came in third in the tourney (my first time playing on PS). I should have done better, since I was chip leader by a sizable margin at one point, but my big stack play needs work. I don't get to practice it much

[dalecooper]

Your play looks fine to me. Except I'd raise more on the turn, probably make it 600 to go. Calling the river with that hideous card landing is fine.

[a500lbgorilla]

Hero should stop being a minraising bitch. Especially when all he has is TPTK on the flop.

Hero gives the intial better good odds to call and try to improve on the turn and trap you for a bet. On the turn, op clearly has a piece of this board and you make the smallest value bet possible giving him great odds to call again to try and improve AND hero is missing a lot of value here. River you just haven't done enough to know if two pair is ahead or behind and you have to flat call.

-'rilla

[A10Chief]

Hero should stop being a minraising bitch. Especially when all he has is TPTK on the flop.

Hero gives the intial better good odds to call and try to improve on the turn and trap you for a bet. On the turn, op clearly has a piece of this board and you make the smallest value bet possible giving him great odds to call again to try and improve AND hero is missing a lot of value here. River you just haven't done enough to know if two pair is ahead or behind and you have to flat call.

-'rilla

I second this. Bigger post flop raise and definitely bigger turn card raise, possibly a push here. The river is scary, but nothing points to villain drawing at the flush. If you aren't going to bet big on that flop, which flop are you going to bet big?

[Squeak2k2]

What 'rilla said.... why are you minraising on a flop that is very good for you? You are only giving him odds to chase a hand. He bet again on the turn, so obviously he has something. You need to value bet and raise him up to like 600-800.

I put him on KQ or QJ.... possibly a wierdly played set.

[dalecooper]

I actually don't mind the flop raise. There's not many cards that will hurt you after that flop. It's a rainbow, scattershot board with only one high card on it, which you have. Since he raised, there's a good chance one of his cards is an ace... if he gets an ace it helps you. If he has a pocket pair he's either ahead of you already (in which case he'll probably re-raise your raise, so the min-raise is appropriate for information-gathering) or has only two outs to move ahead of you. Really the only cards I don't want to see on the turn are four kings. I think a small raise on the flop (for information and value) and then a good-sized raise on the turn (hopefully that ace hit him, but not as much as it hit you) is a fine line.

[baudib]

The river card sucks but I have to think you won this. I would push the turn.

[JeffreyGB]

The river card sucks but I have to think you won this. I would push the turn.

No reason to stop getting chips here. Making a raise to 600 is enough by me. You WANT the call, not the fold.

No surprise here: I like Dale's line.

[SteveDallas]

Thanks all. My turn bet was definitely wimpy. My only defense is that this was the very first hand I played on PS and I was getting used to the interface and how much time I had to bet.

I guess the flop bet is debatable. With my weak/tight noob play, and this early in the tourney, I was comfortable with a small bet to gather information. I need to work on being more aggressive and knowing when to do so.

Villain had QJ, so I was ok.