AAxx live tournament hand

[bismillahno]

$550NZ live tournament, part of the New Zealand champs. That equates to ~$400 US, probably the biggest omaha tournament in the country for the year. We're in level 2 about an hour in, I've been pretty tight, and have yet to raise. 50/100 blinds.

I open A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] for the pot (350) from UTG +1, folded to the hijack who calls all in with his 350 chips. He's a giant fish, and his range is any 4 cards. Small blind calls, and big blind folds.

Small blind is a younger guy, I haven't seen him do anything too interesting yet, and he's been pretty quiet, both in terms of table chat and not playing too many hands.

Main pot is locked with 1150 chips, we have a dry side pot.

flop comes
9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].

Villain checks to me, all in fish shows his hand to a neighbour, so I think he has something.

Villain has ~2700 left and I cover by about 500. Whats the best plan of action from here?

[Troll_Inc]

[ QUOTE ]

We're in level 2 about an hour in, I've been pretty tight, and have yet to raise. 50/100 blinds.

I open A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] for the pot (350) from UTG +1,

flop comes...

Villain has ~2700 left and I cover by about 500. Whats the best plan of action from here?

[/ QUOTE ]

Crank up your Time Machine and go back to the start of the tournament and raise with other hands from UTG+1 before you do so with AAxy.

[mindcirkus]

That's actually a pretty tough spot, I found my self in one similiar with AAxx up front in a $330 live PLO tourney recently.

Based on your read of fish, you have to think you are fairly bigtime -EV for the main pot. As far as the making money from villian, you've gotta think either he has nothing and will fold, or he has a pretty good hand and will be check raising. Either way it doesn't make much sense to bet. Best line of action here is gonna be to check and hope to draw out on fish for the pot, mainly because you still have 3200 and the blinds are only 50/100. If you had less than 1800 in chips I would say you probably have to go with it and pot the flop willing to commit the rest of your chips.

[guilt_trip]

Point 1: Raise more preflop (unless you've been totally card dead)

Point 2: Check behind. You're probably not good in the main pot and no point betting into a dry side pot with nothing but AAxx. For your hand, that board is absolutely horrendous to add to it all. Just try and see all 5 cards as cheaply as you can and hope to catch a river ace

[Haagen]

He raised pot preflop. 2ndly, put out a little value bet of something like 4-500 here. If he raises, fold. If he calls, see what happens with the turn. If he folds, you pick up a nice pot.

[mindcirkus]

[ QUOTE ]
He raised pot preflop. 2ndly, put out a little value bet of something like 4-500 here. If he raises, fold. If he calls, see what happens with the turn. If he folds, you pick up a nice pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

If he folds, then he is most likely still going to lose the pot to the fish who is all in based on his read. I don't think you read the hand history correctly.

[Haagen]

ah yes sorry, I was a little tipsy last night when I posted that, and missed that line.

It's tricky because the objective of a tournament is to just nock people out, but it is still early on in the tournament. You would rather the fish have the 1150 than the villan as it will come just as easy as it went. It sounds like the SB won't call unless he's got a great hand and he seems not very agressive. If you think you can get away with just checking it down that might be the way to go. The SB sounds like a tight agressive player, so betting at him with just AAxx and no draw is a poor decision.

[bismillahno]

I figured a free card was pretty criminal here, and was looking to get heads up with fish, so I bet 800. Villain shoved, and I tanked.

I said to him that I thought he knew exactly what I had, and he said the expected pocket aces. He did seem genuinely uncomfortable though, and it felt like he didn't want a call. I figured he was likely drawing and I probably had the odds for the side pot alone, so I called.

He flipped 9 T Q K with no flush draw,
fish had 9 4 Q x(7 I think?) for top and bottom pair.

Turn was a Q and river a blank, villain and fish chopped. I was crippled and out shortly thereafter. My call of the shove was good, we were almost exactly 50:50 for the side pot from there.

With hindsight I think I should have gone for a limp-reraise preflop, fish likely shoves and he'd almost certainly get callers, letting me shove over the top and isolate with nice overlay. If it doesn't get raised I can get away from it easily on that flop. I didn't consider it at the time, largely coz its something I basically never do. Thanks for the replies.