$5.50 First Hand TPTK - Can I Be Good Here?

[dj32]

First hand, so no reads. Comments on all streets please.

PokerStars Tournament, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) Converter on pregopoker.com

UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1500)
MP1 (t1500)
Hero (t1500)
MP3 (t1500)
CO (t1500)
Button (t1500)
SB (t1500)
BB (t1500)

Preflop: Hero is in MP2 with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]
<font color="gray">UTG folds</font>, UTG+1 calls t20, <font color="gray">MP1 folds</font>, Hero calls t20, <font color="gray">MP3 folds</font>, CO calls t20, Button calls t20, SB calls t10, BB checks

Flop: (t120) 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 checks, <font color="red">Hero bets t100</font>, <font color="gray">CO folds</font>, Button calls t100, <font color="gray">SB folds</font>, BB calls t100, <font color="gray">UTG+1 folds</font>

Turn: (t420) 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (3 players)
BB checks, <font color="red">Hero bets t200</font>, <font color="gray">Button folds</font>, BB calls t200

River: (t820) 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)
<font color="red">BB bets t400</font>, <font color="gray">Hero folds</font>

[DEVY]

Preflop probably raise although call ok, agree with flop and turn. River i would call at this buyin and then cringe when he shows a big blind special of some kind, 2pair? Of course at this buyin , may have Tp no kicker.

[wiggs73]

yeesh, call the river getting those odds. i'd guess you're ahead the majority of the time anyway, but you don't need to win THAT often getting those odds on the river.

[wiggs73]

also notice a lot of draws missed on the river. i'd expect a real hand would have raised somewhere along the way and a lot of people like to bluff missed draws when they shouldn't.

anyways, i'd expect a bet of this size to be weaker than TPTK a good majority of the time - either a weak top pair or sometimes some missed draw - and like i said, you don't need to win the hand every time for it to be a profitable call.

[reecelights]

I also prefer raising to 100 or 120 preflop to thin the field. If people come along behind you get a much better read on the strength of their hand.

As Wiggs pointed out there's a good chance you are agaisnt a missed draw or a weak hand like QJ or KQ, although you will see a set a weird two pair good number of times too, but you are getting 3:1 and still have half your stack if you're wrong.

[Kevin8423]

The problem with limping here is that top pair isn't that great with so many seeing the flop. If you choose to limp you should be looking for straights/flushes/2pair+ type hands. The flop bet is fine but I wouldn't keep going with it after the calls. When that many people call it is likely you are beat, so firing further bets is going to get you in trouble more than it will help. Check turn and depending on the size of bets made, if any, you can call and continue on.

If you choose to the play the hand and not fold pf, raise it up to 100 pf, with the thinned field you can easily bet and evaluate from there.

[dj32]

I've been going back and forth on limping vs. raising AQ in early position early in the game. The raises often get called by a fair number of players early on anyway and then I find myself in the same situation, only forced to make bigger bets. I think you're right in that once I limped this hand, I should have taken the opportunity villain gave me to check the turn. That way I would have felt better about calling the river. Regardless, I agree the river bet was a call the way I played it. Seeing how villain played the rest of the game, I think he hit two pair on this hand, but at the time I should have called.

[Pondy]

With a low buy like this one, raising 100 wont thin the field. PF with AQ raise to 150 or 200. Then with that flop 1/2 pot size bet. Turn - no heart pot size bet or all in.

[malnek]

pf raise to 150 or 200 is horrible imo..you cant call a shove and if u end up oop when you whiff the flop its a real bad spot to c bet with the pot so inflated.

raise 80-100 pre
flop fine
pot the turn
call river

[ManChild]

what the [censored] ?
easy river call - id raise before i would fold