Two Final Tables, Two Final Hands

[Al Mirpuri]

I Have been playing well the last week and have made two final tables (thank you Dan Harrington). Here are the two final hands from each table.

First Hand.
I called a good sized raise (there are only four of us left) the flop comes 899 and I have QJs but the flop may or may not give me 3 flush (cannot remember exactly) but there is no four flush. I am first to act and push allin. I am not very deep (small to medium stack at begining of hand) but deep enough for the other guy to think about it and only then call with pocket kings. He calls and I do not hit. My thinking was that if he had a lower than the board or just two overcards he would let it go. I had not played with him before final table so did not have any real idea about the range of hands he could be raising with.

Second Hand.
I call a raise from the small blind whilst I am in the big blind. Everyone else has folded. We are the final five players left. Qxx flops with the xx being suited. Small blind pot bets the flop. This is for about a third of his and a third of my stack. I am shortest stack at beginning of hand but the situation is in no way critical. I have Q6 with no four flush or three flush. I call thinking it a continuation bet and top pair must be good. I believe the raiser could have anything here. He puts the rest of it in on the turn which gives me a backdoor inside straight draw. I call for all of my chips. He turns over Q7 and my Q6 does not improve.

What do you think of my plays in each hand?

[Nottom]

Without accurate stack information its hard to give great analysis, but I think your play is reasonable in both cases.

In hand 1 you are making a pretty standard semi-bluff assuming the bet sizes make sence.

In hand 2 I'd push the flop, but I'm gonna get stacked here assuming we aren't too deep. Of course folding preflop might have been the best choice, but without stack sizes I can't really say.