advice on play - QQ from BB

[davidw]

I think I've found one of my major leaks but am looking for some advice on how to plug it. I busted out on this hand in a home tournament last night. As it played out, I think I'll go broke every time, barring a very good read on my opponent (which I didn't have). I've busted out of several tournaments in similar situations.

11 players left in a home tournament (16 started). 5 players at my table, we'll combine into the final table after the next elimination.

1500 starting chips, level 4 (25/50).

Hero-BB: 1650
UTG+1: 3050

I've been fairly aggressive lately taking down a few pots uncontested, but the game has been rather passive, typically with several limpers preflop. UTG+1 is a very loose, fairly weak player who has limped in almost every hand and called a moderate raise about 2/3 of the time. He played TPTK (AQ) very passively and won a big pot early on, but also overplayed 2pr with A5 on a board AJ5Jx.

The hand in question: Everyone limps, SB completes, I'm in the BB and have Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. I raise 300 more - a little more than the size of the pot and about 1/6 my stack so small pairs aren't getting the right odds to hit a set. If UTG pushes I'll strongly consider folding, anyone else I'll instacall.

UTG+1 calls, everyone else folds. Pot is 850, I have 1300 behind, UTG+1 has 2700.

Flop: 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

While I'm not happy that the flop has paired and is draw-heavy, at least I'm heads up and odds are the flop missed him.

I bet 425 (leaving 875). UTG+1 raises to 850.

In hindsight I should've let the hand go here, but because my opponent had overplayed hands before I felt I was ahead of his range (66-AA,A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]x[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], *maybe* 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] or 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], or even just making a play with [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]). The pot had become very large, so I thought it was worth the risk to double up and have a big stack when we combined into the final table.

I pushed all in (425+450 more), UTG+1 instacalled with 9s full.


My dilemma is that in raising to thin the field I also created a very large pot which I then had to play out of position. If I had been able to make a standard raise in late position and had a caller or two it would've been much easier to lay it down when raised. Instead I ended up pot-committed so I was going to the felt every time (unless the flop was particularly dangerous).

Any suggestions of how to play this differently? Should I just push PF and be happy to add 15% to my stack?

[Erik Blazynski]

you are destined to go broke with this hand. This is the game, this is what happens. It's the nature of Texas holdem. I am mostly getting busted out of tourneys when I have the best of it and someone comes from behind to win, usually a backdoor flush ot runner runner full house (I love that one) but you need to just accept it or play something else, like the guitar .

-Blazman