Your play here? Edit: Fixed thread

[Renton]

Early in a 5+.50 SNG. No reads on anyone.

PokerStars Game #3799685732: Tournament #18872660, Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2006/01/29 - 20:16:47 (ET)
Table '18872660 1' Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: grassfarmer (1260 in chips)
Seat 2: Renton555 (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: KPMarc (3190 in chips)
Seat 4: archduke01 (1560 in chips)
Seat 5: Trips000 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: SV88 (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: dardarjack (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: tlmaker (1500 in chips)
archduke01: posts small blind 10
Trips000: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Renton555 [Qs Ah]
SV88: folds
dardarjack: folds
tlmaker: raises 20 to 40
grassfarmer: folds
Renton555: raises 40 to 80
KPMarc: folds
KPMarc is sitting out
archduke01: folds
Trips000: folds
tlmaker: raises 80 to 160
Renton555: ???????

[chardrian]

I vote that you should let me move this to the SNG section.

[Renton]

oops sorry

[WildBobAA]

I think the HH is messed up?

[Bluffalufagus]

what if we choose none of the above

[taipan168]

Something wrong with the hand history. tlmaker raised, you re-raised, what decision do you have to make now?

[Renton]

i fixed it

[WildBobAA]

The "correct" play is to call but if I was playing a $5 sng I'd just push this.

[taipan168]

I say call and see a flop and play with care. This early in the tourney, why put your whole stack on the line to win 310 chips? If you get called, you're likely either flipping against a smaller pocket pair or dominated by AA/KK/QQ/AK (that said, at the $5 level I've seen AI raises called with all sorts of rubbish). If you minraise and get pushed AI, you've got a difficult decision to make which probably means a fold.

[vqc]

i dont reraise him teh first time.

[Renton]

I reraised him to see where I was at in the hand. I assumed a re-re-raise would entail aces, kings, or aceking, so I folded when he did.

It's what I typically do when I have a marginal hand like AQ or AJ. Is this a good tactic to use?

[taipan168]

It's what I typically do when I have a marginal hand like AQ or AJ. Is this a good tactic to use?

Like so many things in poker, it depends - on position, size of blinds relative to your stack, reads on your opponents etc. Early in the tourney I will usually just flat call a small raise with AQ/AJ to try to see a cheap flop. I might even fold AJ if there are several players still to act after me. If you hit the flop, that's the time to bet to see where you stand. The problem with re-raising these hands PF is that if you get pushed AI or reraised big, you've pissed away your chips without even having seen the flop and at the $5 level if you get re-raised it doesn't always mean AA/KK/AK.

When the tourney gets short-handed and blinds get big, that's the time to push AI with AQ/AJ, particularly against players who look like they're stealing blinds.

[konahead]

you have position on opp - just call his re-re-raise and see how he reactes to the flop.... it would have been better to save the preflop reraise for the flop, depending on texture....

btw - you shouldn't have reraised in the first place - AQo isn't that great....

[pgil]

plus, if you are going to raise him, raise it more. you made it 80 chips, so if he wants to flat call it only costs him 40 more, plus it reeks of weakness. it basically tells him that you kinda like your hand, but are unsure about it. well, it would tell someone this if it werent a $5 game.

[zarry]

Am i the only one who says reraise all in its a 5.50 sng... just take a chance try and make some money its not a huge reraise so just go for it it will scared him enough to the point he really thinks about it even with ak

[Bluffalufagus]

well are you saying if it was 100 dollar sit and go you would play it differently? does that mean you dont play well for the sole reason its low limit? After he raises your Re-raise, pushing him all in would be overplaying AQ at any level.

[Bluffalufagus]

unless of course you're low stacked

[Sprayed]

Just call the initial raise and then maybe call the reraise. AQo is no way a hand that you want to get it AI at this stage of the tourney.

[pgil]

i think the fact that it's a 5.50 is a strong argument against the reraise AI. you have virtually no fold equity pf this early in a 5.50. do you really want a race this early against mostly bad opponents who will gladly give you their chips later when you actually have a hand?

[zenbitz]

I fold this to the re-raise. I also re-raise more than the minimum, or flat call.

You asked if he REALLY had a good hand, and he said yes. Unless you know what he thinks a good hand is, fold. If you are tempted to call (i.e., you think he re-re-raised you with like AJ or 77!) then you didn't re-raise enough to get any info.

[WildBobAA]

You can't fold to that small of a reraise. You have to take a flop even if you suspect he has you dominated. There are other explanations for his reraise besides a hand that dominates you, especially at this level.

[Renton]

I am glad there are at least a couple people with me on my folding decision!

It seems, however, that the general consensus is call and see a flop, which also makes a lot of sense. I just hate getting involved in a hand where I am a 10% dog from beginning to end. Most people will not continue re-raising unless they have at least a top ten level hand, so I had to figure that it was a

60% chance of AA KK QQ or AK
20% chance of donk with AJ or A10
10% chance of AQ for a split
10% chance of total bluff
10% chance JJ TT etc for a coinflip.

Is this an unreasonable analysis for opponents at this stake?

BTW thanks everyone for your expertise. I still got a lot to learn.

[WildBobAA]

60% chance of AA KK QQ or AK
20% chance of donk with AJ or A10
10% chance of AQ for a split
10% chance of total bluff
10% chance JJ TT etc for a coinflip.

Is this an unreasonable analysis for opponents at this stake?

You're giving him too much credit. This is a $5 sng. The guy's bet sizes are horrible which makes me tend to think he doesn't know what he's doing.

[zenbitz]

80 into 230... not even 3:1. OK, it's probably no worse than EV neutral to call... it's certainly not every +EV.

You simply cannot play a flop without a Q here. And KQX sucks too. AQK is bleah.

If he was suited, I would lean towards a call because of implied odds and low amount of wager...

[nickthefool]

well are you saying if it was 100 dollar sit and go you would play it differently? does that mean you dont play well for the sole reason its low limit? After he raises your Re-raise, pushing him all in would be overplaying AQ at any level.

It doesn't mean you play badly, it's just that opp's range is higher becuase of the lower limit.

I started out playing 50c SnGs. If i got JJ+ AQ+ there, i push preflop, because i'm getting called 90% of the time, and most opps had calling range of A2s+ A8+ KTs+ KJ+ 22+, so i'm ahead much more than i'm behind.

However open pushing preflop with any of these hands is probably not the correct play early in a SnG of higher stakes.

[a500lbgorilla]

You.. cant seriously think that move in here is even an option

[a500lbgorilla]

Who voted push?

[konahead]

i dont think anyone wants to admit it - your Steelers might kick their ass.....