How would you have played this hand and why?

sobefuddled · #1 03-01-2006, 11:04 AM

Hello,
I am new here and have been playing poker only since last June. I enjoy playing MTT No Limit on Poker Stars and recently began to finish in the money fairly consistently on the $1 tables. This past week however has been brutal. In one tournament I was literally blinded out fairly early largely because I caught great cards early on when "All-in" was at fever pitch. I don't do all-in preflop in early tournament rounds. I find that to finish in the money I play very tightly and possibly not as aggressively as I should? Here is a hand I played yesterday and it knocked me out of the torunament. I actually went on such a tilt that I vacuumed the entire house in under an hour in order to calm down! And I don't easily tilt. Tell me what you think? What should my strategy have been?
POKERSTARS GAME #4128849240: TOURNAMENT #20519937, HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL II (15/30) - 2006/02/28 - 14:24:06 (ET)
Table '20519937 5' Seat #3 *** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Me [Ad As]
UTG: folds
#2: calls 30
Me: raises 30 to 60
#4: calls 60
#5: calls 60
Dealer: folds
BB: calls 45
SB: calls 30
UTG: calls 30
*** FLOP *** [Qh 4d 9h]
#5: checks
BB: checks
UTG: bets 60
Me: raises 60 to 120
#4: calls 120
#5: folds
SB: folds
BB: folds
UTG: calls 60
*** TURN *** [Qh 4d 9h] [9c]
UTG: checks
Me: bets 90
#4: calls 90
UTG: raises 150 to 240
Me: calls 150
#4: calls 150
*** RIVER *** [Qh 4d 9h 9c] [7d]
UTG: checks
Me: checks
#4: bets 750 and is all-in
UTG: calls 750
Me: calls 750
*** SHOW DOWN ***
#4: shows [Ts Jd] (a pair of Nines)
UTG: shows [9d 3d] (three of a kind, Nines)
Me: shows [Ad As] (two pair, Aces and Nines)
UTG collected 3690 from pot

seke2 · #2 03-01-2006, 11:15 AM

First off, welcome.

Second, use the hand converter and don't post results. Please read the FAQ for more information.

Third, never minraise. That's how things like this happen. Make a real raise preflop. Your raises should always be a minumum of 3xBB, especially earlier in tournaments. At micro-stakes like this, you could probably even raise 5-6xBB from EP and still get more calls than you want. A good rule is 3xBB + 1xBB for each limper, so your MINIMUM raise here should have been to 120, and I'd jack it up a little higher to 150 or 180 at these micro-stakes from EP. On the flop, make a real raise. Your minraise does nothing to deny proper drawing odds to anyone and you've got a 2-flush board with a possible straight draw as well. Your turn bet was also ridiculously small. You bet 90 into a pot of 500ish, which meant that anyone who was chasing a straight draw or flush draw had proper odds to call.

On the river, you probably go broke, not much way to avoid that. There's no reason to think that the first idiot who went all in is actually ahead, he showed 0 strength at any point in the hand until the river. UTG has shown some strength with the turn raise, but he could easily have any Q at these stakes.

The fact that he got this far with 93s is completely because you didn't make a real preflop raise or a real flop raise.

bonds25 · #3 03-01-2006, 11:25 AM

In a 1$ tourney just go all in pre-flop, half the table will call anyways.

The Zerojack · #4 03-01-2006, 11:28 AM

Push pre-flop. The micros are bingoville.

sobefuddled · #5 03-01-2006, 11:33 AM

OK-Thanks very much. Also thanks for the tip on the converter! But-TBH? I really don't like all-in preflop in the lower levels.
Poker Stars
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t15/t30
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t1440
UTG+1: t1800
Hero: t1275
MP2: t1170
CO: t1160
Button: t1545
SB: t1900
BB: t1820

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is MP1 with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t30, Hero raises to t60, MP2 calls t60, CO calls t60, Button folds, SB calls t45, BB calls t30, UTG+1 calls t30.

Flop: Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (t360, 6 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG+1 bets t60, Hero raises to t120, MP2 calls t120, 3 folds, UTG+1 calls t60.

Turn: 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (t720, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t90, MP2 calls t90, UTG+1 raises to t240, Hero calls t150, MP2 calls t150.

River: 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (t1440, 3 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks, MP2 is all-in t750, UTG+1 calls t750, Hero calls t750.

Results:
Final pot: t3690
MP2 showed Ts Jd
UTG+1 showed 9d 3d
Hero showed Ad As

bonds25 · #6 03-01-2006, 11:35 AM

I was joking with my comment actually, i would probably limp in preflop then insta push all in on any flop.

seke2 · #7 03-01-2006, 11:41 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I was joking with my comment actually, i would probably limp in preflop then insta push all in on any flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

bonds25, stop it.

Don't listen to that. The only time you really ever want to limp AA preflop is if you are almost sure that someone else on your table will raise behind you so that you can reraise. You want to get as many chips as possible into the middle of the table preflop when you have AA, every time. Limping behind someone else will just encourage more limpers behind you and it's likely that at least 1 of the 5 or 6 limpers will flop something that beats your AA. This was a must-raise spot with AA.

Also, the people saying that you should go all in preflop with AA at microstakes aren't wrong. Whether or not you like it, the fact that other people will call your all ins with a really wide range of hands that you will be absolutely killing is a big argument for pushing. By not being willing to gamble early when other people are pushing all in with lots of crappy hands and calling all ins with crappy hands, you're costing yourself a lost of +EV chances to accumulate a ton of chips early.

Shajen · #8 03-01-2006, 11:42 AM

minraise=bad.

push on the flop.

bonds25 · #9 03-01-2006, 11:43 AM

Come on man, its a 1$ tourney, does any strategy really work?

bonds25 · #10 03-01-2006, 11:44 AM

But yea listen to seke he knows what hes talking about and i tend to agree with alot of his posts.