top pair with good kicker vs trips, how do i protect myself?

[ugly_dude]

I was playing in a 6 man sit no go and had ace jack, i raised three times the blind and was called by a maniac who was playing 70 percent of his hands, we were about 40 hands in and had the same amount of chips, and the flop came 6 3 jack rainbow, i made a pot sized wager with top top kicker, he raised me all in, i called. he had 6's in the whole and won the hand. when i was playing in a multi table tournie on the full tilt poker felt 2 weeks ago, i saw more peeps go bust with top pair with good kicker vs someones who hit trips with medium to low pair on the flop, person who hit top pair bets, person with trips goes all in, top pair top kicker calls and the trips hold up. how do you guard yourself in this situation if you are the one with top pair and top kicker after the flop. Could you simply say in most situations you would never put your whole stack or a large portion of it on the line with just 1 pair, thus folding if someone comes over the top? of course i know who your playing against is going to have to be taken into account when deciding what to do. please offer me some insight into this drab situation, thank you for reading
Regards
Newbie

[ottsville]

The simple answer is to not overplay top pair/over pair type hands. I know that's probably not the answer you wanted. For more insight, I would suggest that you check out the tounament forums here and the nl forums and read/post hands.

[metsfan88]

he called your 3x raise preflop so you know he has something decent. on the flop don't bet so much so that you don't commit yourself. make a feeler bet or you also could have checked and see what he did first and go from there. also, sometimes people make it so obvious they bet a real tiny amount then go huge if raised. it also takes time to just get the instincts to know whether they flopped a set or not. once you start seeing a lot more situations you will get it.

[Javanewt]

Good advice so far. Personally, unless I have an extremely good read or the situation demands it, I will not risk my stack with TPTK, unless maybe I have an excellent draw to go with it (plus the read, etc.). TPTK just doesn't hold up that often, and if someone is going over top of you, it's usually not the best hand.

[StregaChess]

What I'm hearing is that you feel as if you've got a specfic read. He's a maniac playing 70% of his hands and you just don't believe him. Well that's possibly the core of this problem. If he was a good, rational, non-maniac he would not have gone all-in with trips. The general rule is weakness means strength and strength means weakness and all that stuff. I think when you see a maniac show this kind of strength you should sit on your hands and count to 10 and really give due to consideration to him having a very strong hand. Either way you don't want to go broke with tp-tk unless you very strong and reading hands and are sure his story does not add up. It's a pretty gutsy call to do so...

[jqmaverick]

Top pair top kicker is NOT a big hand. I would rarely go all in when with TPTK when the blinds are small.
When your M gets smaller then TPTK becomes more valuble.

6 handed, you are forced to play more hands. He could easliy have 2 pair.

[StregaChess]

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unless you very strong and reading hands and are sure his story does not add up. It's a pretty gutsy call to do so...

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I sound like English is my 4th language.. LOL

[ilovethisgame]

agree with others who said don't risk your tournament on TPTK early unless you have a great read on the guy. even then, sometimes its better to fold and wait for a better situation.

[jqmaverick]

It DEPENDS on your "M".

if the blinds are huge compared to your stack, the you may well be forced to go all in.

[StregaChess]

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It DEPENDS on your "M".


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There is no "M" in baseball and there is no "M" in "6 man sit no go"