Annoying hand, comments appreciated

[dalecooper]

Early in a MTT last night, blinds still at 10/15 and most of the table has 1000 chips or thereabouts.

I have aces in early/middle position. UTG raises it up to 45. I re-raise to 90. A player in middle/late position cold calls the two raises, and UTG calls the re-raise. Three to the frop:

Q99

UTG checks to me. The pot is about 300. I bet 200. Late position calls, UTG folds. Turn is a blank. I am concerned about the paired board/multiple smooth caller behind me, so I just go with a blocking bet of 200. He calls again. River is:

Q

for a board of Q99xQ. Annoying.

What do you do here typically?

On this actual hand, I checked to him and he bet 250. Given that, do you call or fold? I was slightly up before the hand - a call and lose leaves me with less than 300, a fold leaves me with slightly more than 500.

[SteveO]

Re-raise bigger prefrop. Overplay those AA hand early and get paid usually.

After frop and flat call behind, slow it down. I like the turn bet. River was a nightmare. Not much you can beat unless he has AK JJ or KK.

T1100 in the pot. $250 to call looks like some good odds. How much did he leave behind on river? Looks like he may be begging for a call in which case you should probably fold to his river bet. Then again, some dudes will play like that with A high playing the board. Tough to say without a little bit of a read.

Really a sucky hand. If you call and pick him off you look brilliant, if you call and he shows you quads or a FH you look like an ass.

[dalecooper]

Re-raise bigger prefrop. Overplay those AA hand early and get paid usually.

How much bigger? I'm still pretty new at MTTs. In this case I figured the doubler re-raise would be plenty to isolate on the raiser but not chase him off too quick. The cold call surprised me. I'd like to find the perfect spot for getting action, but not too much action - I think more than, say, 150 to go would be a mistake at a table with mostly tighties.

After frop and flat call behind, slow it down. I like the turn bet. River was a nightmare. Not much you can beat unless he has AK JJ or KK.

Or maybe TT, but you're right. That's about what I was thinking too.

T1100 in the pot. $250 to call looks like some good odds. How much did he leave behind on river? Looks like he may be begging for a call in which case you should probably fold to his river bet.

He had about the same amount of chips as me, maybe a little more, so the river bet definitely fell into the "suspicious, probable value bet" camp. Then again, like you say, the odds were good. I had no particular read so if he was a thinking player, I might call this hoping to get paid by tens, jacks, or ace high. And hoping not to - as you point out - look like an ass.

[JeffreyGB]

I bet bigger the whole way through...150 to go preflop actually sounds good. I might only go with 2/3 on the flop if I again face two callers (though that 2/3 would be more). Then again, I'm reasonably happy taking it down there, so I may pot it. Either way, with a blank turn, I like a push. I think he could have any pair at that point, figuring simply that you wouldn't be betting the way you did with a 9. Further, betting more preflop helps to make it less likely the 99x flop is scarey.

The river's tough without any reads. I'm almost evenly split between a call and a fold.

[dalecooper]

Thanks for the replies. I will go more aggressive next time I find myself in this situation, especially pre-flop.

I looked him up after arguing with myself over it. I felt strongly he had the queen, but the price was about right to see if maybe he was over-estimating something like jacks. He had AQ, and I did indeed feel like an ass. But I came back strong and finished that one in the money eventually, anyway.

[Sprayed]

Like Jeffrey said go big preflop so that you are either HU with someone or everybody folds. Early in the tourney with AA you can bust out easily or double-up depending upon how you play the hand or what flops. I would think that a guy with AQ would call your 150 preflop raise and then call your 2/3 to pot sized bet. Most people will overplay AQo and call a big raise. Unfortunately he sucked out. Good to hear that it didn't get you down and you made a nice comeback.

[zenbitz]

preflop ... eh, you don't want a fold.
I think the mistake here is the frop bet. You need to make it either smaller so AQ raises you, or bigger so that you can just forget about it on the turn.

As played... I probably cry/call the river with so much in the pot.