Don't be such a pussy

[biondino]

This is from a live game, so apologies for lack of sexy HH:

It's about the 10th hand in a 27-man tourney. I don't know the standard of my table opponents, but they appear cautious or weak so far, apart from my mate directly to my left who is a very good, aggressive player.

I am in button with KQo. There are 3 limpers before me (there has been far more limping than raising so far) and I raise to 3.5xBB. Blinds fold, and all three limpers call.

The flop is Axx rainbow. All three other players check and I check.

Turn is Q. UTG bets 1/2 the pot, and is called by other two limpers. I fold.

Now, to me it is clear that a 2/3 pot or so cont bet is in order on the flop, but I was clearly playing scared. So even when my ideal card hit, I couldn't play it hard because I assumed someone was being tricky with me.

As it happened, this was the hand that revealed my opponents to be a bunch of donks. The river was a rag and was checked round; UTG had Q5, MP had sod all and CO took it down with QJ. I felt sick.

So, discuss. This is totally standard, right? And evidence I need to get some balls about playing live*

*in my sort of defence, it was a freezeout with no side action and I didn't want to bust out so early. I ended up coming 6th and bad-beating out, but still. Underwhelming is the word.

[Renton]

you played this fine. Ultradonks limp with A's all the time. More often than not, the UTG player was simply "checking to the raiser," and when you did the smart thing and checked behind, they were like "darn I didn't get to check raise him, gets I'll go ahead and bet out on the turn." On the turn I fold here a lot, and I call here a lot too. It just depends on my read. Folding is fine though.

Don't think that you should have c-bet that flop though. There were wayy too many players for a c-bet to be profitable.

[DogOnMySide]

"CO took it down with QJ. I felt sick. "

I guess your HH is a bit freaky because KQ usually beats QJ on a board of AQxxx

I can see what you're doing though. It's a lot lot harder to just chuck your chips in a pot when at a live table...

I just updated my blog with the report of my first ever live cash (see below). Faced a lot of similar situations where the right move was probably to keep raising but there' a whole lotta checkin' goin' on.

I think, best to let the donks donk out early. Don't try to win small pots with marginal hands when it could be your tournament.

The best players at my tables (all the proper regulars) were folding after saying (to themselves, but out loud) "The question is... do i need to get involved?"

[gabe]

how deep were stacks? if they are really short then check/folding is fine.

also, raise more preflop. your raise doesn't really do anything.

[biondino]

Gabe - good point re raising more, though at this point in the tourney I didn't know what raises were needed to isolate. I also had position and a good hand so didn't necessarily mind one or two players coming with me. And the blinds were 25/50 and we had all started with 2500, and stacks hadn't changed hugely in the first orbit.

Dog - I folded the turn mate. QJ usually beats a folded hand on any board I'll have a look at your blog - hope you keep updating it as you seem to have a lot in common with my experiences!