All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

My first 45 player sng.

Good play or not ?

Poker Stars, $1 + $0.20 NL Hold'em Tournament, 100/200 Blinds, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 1,000
BTN: 4,710
SB: 4,710
BB: 4,745
Hero (UTG): 2,310
MP: 830

Pre-Flop: (300) Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero calls 200, 4 folds, BB checks

Flop: (500) 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 Players)
<font color="red">BB bets 400</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to 2,110 and is All-In</font>

Mike

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

Preflop, you should not play Q9o UTG 6-handed. It's a weak hand, and you are not in good position. You will lose money consistently when you play Q9 there. If it doesn't jump out at you as an odd play, then you are probably playing much too loosely.

On the flop, since you have two pair, of course you should at least call. You will be ahead maybe 90% of the time. Since the board is coordinated, you should raise to protect your hand and to get more value now before the turn might bring 4 to a straight or 3 to a flush or whatever might prevent your opponent from paying you off with one pair. Pushing is about a pot-sized raise, and that's fine.

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

I agree with pzhon about not playing Q9off utg with two low stacks like that. Not only for the reasons he mentioned but also because the lowbies are going to be looking for any decent hand to push with and if they do you gotta fold and wasted a bet on a craptacular hand. Once you make the flop tho its a good play to push it in and get those on a draw to lay down or maybe even get a call against a flush draw or a KQ or the like.

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

As played you might as well push, calling just lets them fill the draws (or bluff u into thinking they did), any rasie puts most of your money in the pot and folding after that does not make much sense (is a better spot down the road coming than 2 pair?) that leaves folding or pushing and that's a no brainer.

As far as betting PF position is the big thing that is killing you here MP is looking for a A or K with good kicker and the bigger stacks could be playing a wider range, what's your plan if MP is all in or BB raises, you pretty much are stuck with folding.

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Preflop, you should not play Q9o UTG 6-handed. It's a weak hand, and you are not in good position. You will lose money consistently when you play Q9 there. If it doesn't jump out at you as an odd play, then you are probably playing much too loosely.

... Since the board is coordinated, ....

[/ QUOTE ]

23o ... maybe .."jumps out at me as odd" at this stage of my poker (non) knowledge [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Beyond that, I usually don't play anything lower than about JTo, and then only if no one has made any extraordinarily large preflop raises.

Q9o ... 9o is about the lowest I'd go with Q. And also that was based on my stack at the time, wasn't being totally dominated. Does that make any sense ?

What about my stack relative to # of bb's at that point (~15) ?

As I really don't know what I'm talking about at this "embroyo" stage of my poker career, I welcome any and all commnents.

What is a coordinated board ? (two pair, with different hole cards, as I mentioned ?)

Mike

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

A board with possible straight and/or flush draws. In this case both.

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

I'd fold QJ here.

I'm mostly pushing KJ... but if the table is tight enough where I can realistically expect to steal the blinds by raising 400-450 I'll do that and fold to a reraise.

Btw, you shouldn't be limping hands here. Raise or fold. Might be some value in being tricky by limping AA/KK but personally I'd rather just raise them.

Re: All in with two pair in SNG - good decision or not ?
 

Limping Q9o here is sucky. Shoving would be better...but still sucky.

Fold&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&g t;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; &gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;All-in&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;Limp.


Shoving post-flop is standard.




Never open limp ever especially in 6max play.