A situation I was unsure how to handle, what's your opinion?

[Rikachu]

I realize there are many ways to play this hand, and each way have their respective arguments. However I still feel uncomfortable with this hand in this situation.

This is a low level SnG. I've recently started trying to adopt a more conservative style in SnG's to see how it works out. You know, conserving chips and trying to avoid high variance moves in order to get ITM as smoothly as possible. So I'd love if the strategic responses would be in that line aswell ;-)

Here's the hand (nothing spectaculair has been noted about the opponents, they're pretty standard for the level)


Seat 1: MP (2740 in chips)
Seat 2: CO [VILLAIN] (1715 in chips)
Seat 3: Button (1565 in chips)
Seat 5: SB (1055 in chips)
Seat 6: BB [HERO] (3435 in chips)
Seat 9: UTG (2990 in chips)
SB: posts small blind 50
HERO: posts big blind 100

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Qc Ah]

UTG: folds
MP: folds
VILLAIN: raises 100 to 200
Button: folds
SB: folds
HERO: ???

Raising: I've got a strong hand, however it would be kinda tricky to play oop unless the ace hits. I could raise big and hope for him to fold (and if he pushes I have good odds to call). I'm thinking that this play is +ev, but maybe creates too high variance, while I already have a secure stack size for aiming at the money? Whatcha think?

Calling: Well I do have a relativly strong hand, and if I don't hit it will be easy to get away from it. Although, unless I hit that ace it will be hard to play, and it's hard to get decent value oop.

Folding: A bit weak, but no variance and you get to wait for less marginal spots with better position.

I've been thinking 'bout this hand for a day but can't decide. I think either raise or fold.. But maybe fold for the decrease of variance. :-)

[Collin Moshman]

Hi Rikachu,

I would make it a goal to have some reads by 50-100, even if very basic loose/tight passive/aggressive.

With no reads ... first, you're right to approach this problem as a process of elimination.

The first option I eliminate is folding. You are getting 3.5:1 with a very likely best hand, so you should at least call this raise. Also (less important), if you're folding even near-premium hands to a min-raise as BB, even low-stakes opponents might eventually realize you're not defending your blind.

Reraising: Reraising here pot-commits you, e.g., if you reraise to t600, there is really no getting away from the hand. So you would probably just reshove if you decided to raise. Not too bad a play against many weak low-stakes opponents who may even call with a worse hand, but you are risking t1600 to win t350, a pretty marginal return on your investment.

Calling is fine as well, with a hit-to-win post-flop strategy.

So I would either call or reraise all-in, but certainly do not fold a hand as strong as A Q from the big blind against a min-raise.

Best Regards,
Collin

[Little John]

folding is by far the worst play.

calling is +EV, but for sure not the best way to play the hand.

pushing is stanard.

mid levels, don't play conservative, play to accumulate chips. the time to be conservative is when there is a short/micro stack on the bubble and you have a short/med stack. please dont tighten up mid game and miss great opportunities to pick up chips.

[Rikachu]

Thanks for the quick reply ;-)..

Regarding reads: I usually pay attention to the table and make notes and stuff like that, but I decided to slack a bit to get a "multi-table" feel for it (limited reads) to see if I was able to beat the game even with marginal reads.

Maybe that wasn't the best of ideas but - how do you guys tackle multi table reads? Do you use interface stuff like pokerhud so you can lean on some numbers (in addition to limited observations). Or do you take your time to write down short sentances about each player?

I usually feel that if I try to keep things in my head while multitabling, I'll forget who did what on what table.

Thanks again for the quick response :-)

[Cixelsyd23]

Please post buy-in in your subject or at least in the message as it affects the answer...

that said, I'd normally just call and see a flop, AQ is too hard to play out of position for a reraise and I don't see how you can shove here with 30bbs...

I'd never ever fold it unless I knew the raiser liked to minraise with big pairs

[Cixelsyd23]

[ QUOTE ]
folding is by far the worst play.

calling is +EV, but for sure not the best way to play the hand.

pushing is stanard.

mid levels, don't play conservative, play to accumulate chips. the time to be conservative is when there is a short/micro stack on the bubble and you have a short/med stack. please dont tighten up mid game and miss great opportunities to pick up chips.

[/ QUOTE ]

So this is a standard push even tho opponent has 17 bbs and you have 35? I'm not saying its wrong, I just get a bit unsure about pushing with these stack sizes at this level

[Shillx]

Call

[Rikachu]

[ QUOTE ]
folding is by far the worst play.

calling is +EV, but for sure not the best way to play the hand.

pushing is stanard.

mid levels, don't play conservative, play to accumulate chips. the time to be conservative is when there is a short/micro stack on the bubble and you have a short/med stack. please dont tighten up mid game and miss great opportunities to pick up chips.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah thanks for your insight :-). I realize pushing is the largest +ev, but I thought maybe I'd avoid the variance since it's a tournament and not a cashgame.

Should I post what I ended up doing in the hand or is that misdirecting?

[Little John]

those 350 chips in the pot will look real nice in your stack. if not, then get the chips in the middle as a nice favorite.

[Rikachu]

Actually, it was a 5+0,25$ sng on Poker Stars (which I was a bit ashamed of posting, since I didn't wanna repell all the highstake talented folks from the post :P).

I've been struggling a bit with the bankroll which has led me to playing 5+0,25 and I'll stay there until I feel that I can consistently beat the game. :-)