KQs in MP1 at late stage of tourney.

[Fantam]

This is my 1st MTT post, so I hope that its sufficiently interesting and not too basic. (I have just started playing tourneys.)

This was the final on-line satellite (Pacific Poker) for an EPT tourney in Dublin. 1st place won $8,000 package to the tourney & 2nd place won about $1,800.

269 players began ($40 + $4) with t2000. 18 players were now left with an average stack size of ~ t30,000. (I qualified from an earlier satellite.)

Blinds were t1500/t3000 and 9 players at my table. (Sorry that I cant use converter at moment.)

Here is the action and stack sizes:

UTG - t27,180 : Folds
UTG+1 - t43,509 : Folds
HERO - t34,254 : K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] ???
MP2 - t34,686
MP3 - t18,327
CO - t32,272
BTTN - t29,112
SB - t35,854
BB - t 9,230

Shortly before this hand I had been low on chips (M of ~ 5) and so I had made a few all in moves, and trebled up holding JJ.

Now my stack size was a little bit above average, and I was not too desperate to make a move without a decent hand.

The players at this table seemed to be playing sensibly and showing down reasonably good starting hands if going all-in.

I probably had a conservative image, until I had gone all in a few times, but the hands I had shown down had been quite strong.

My question is how good a hand do you think KQs is in this position, late in a tournament? I was in MP1, which seemed to be just about good enough to me to open with a raise.

What do you think? Would you fold, call or raise? If you raise, then how much would you raise?

Could you also please explain the reasons for whatever action you would take?

[HerbieGRD]

I think I fold here - I think if you raise you need to push - raising and folding to a push sucks I think. If you push and are called by anyone but BB you are probably looking at AQ, AK, TT+ all of which I would hate to see except TT or JJ. Especially if there are no antes I think you can just let this one go.

[Fantam]

[ QUOTE ]
I think I fold here - I think if you raise you need to push - raising and folding to a push sucks I think. If you push and are called by anyone but BB you are probably looking at AQ, AK, TT+ all of which I would hate to see except TT or JJ. Especially if there are no antes I think you can just let this one go.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that you are probably correct that pushing is better than raising.

If you raise, then I think that you will be getting good odds to call a push. So, in that case, you may as well push first.

Also, if someone had just called my pf raise, I suspect that I would probably have ended up getting the rest of my chips in the pot on the flop with a continuation bet.

In the hand, I raised t10,000 and the button (with ~ 29K pushed.) I called - Anyone disagree with that ?

Anyway, I am not sure whether folding preflop is the best action. After all, I might have had the best hand, and t4,500 blinds would have been a useful addition to my stack.

How about a flat call ? KQs is a pretty decent hand, which has potential to play well either HU or multiway.

So does anyone favour just calling preflop, as opposed to folding or pushing ?

Any more thoughts on this hand from anyone ?

[registrar]

I didn't answer earlier because sats aren't really my bag. I open push in a standard MTT most of the time. Raising sucks in either case, more so in a sat, I would suggest.

Edit: push most of the time with antes. No antes...hmmn. Probably my standard raise which would be 7-7.5k, then fold to a push.

[Fantam]

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't answer earlier because sats aren't really my bag. I open push in a standard MTT most of the time. Raising sucks in either case, more so in a sat, I would suggest.

Edit: push most of the time with antes. No antes...hmmn. Probably my standard raise which would be 7-7.5k, then fold to a push.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was the 1st sat that I had played in, and it only cost me $3 to enter (2 prequal sats before this one).

I found that I enjoyed having the chance to win a big prize for such a small cost.

I think that I could have found a fold to a push, if I had only raised 7 - 7.5K. I like that suggestion, as a 2.5x raise would probably have been good enough to fold poorer hands and pick up the blinds.

Does anyone favour just a call ? I noticed that HOH recommends a mix of 60% raises and 40% folds with KQ (suited or unsuited) in middle position.