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Comment on How I played this hand
Can I have some comments on how I played this hand. This was a $11 MTT with 4300 runners. We were down to the last 50 or so. I had about $200,000 with blinds at $3500/$7000.
The table was playing with a lot of all ins and not a lot of post flop action. However some flops could be seen cheaply. The range of hands being played was pretty varied (basically a lot of small pairs, A 10/9/8.
I was in early position with AJ. My thinking was to limp and if any raises came to get out of the way.
I limp and so does another player in mid position, everyone else folds, the sb limps and the BB checks. ther flop comes 5 2 A rainbow. I dont put callers on AQ or higher due to him liming so bet $21000 into about £38,000. The mid position caller raises to $42,000. I think here he is trying to get me away, assuming my bet is a continuation bet so I go all-in.
He calls with 55 for a set.
Did I play this badly?
Comments
When you limp in you are showing weakness so when you bet the flop it isnt really a c-bet. By limping you have under represented your hand, the guy could raise you on the flop because he doesnt put you on an ace but its pretty unlikely unless he is really deep stacked. The opponents stack size and whether this was a 6/9 handed tourney would be really usefull. The allin i really dont like because you are only going to get called by hands that beat you and if you think the villain has air or a bad ace then you want to keep him in.
I think you put yourself in a difficult situation pre flop, you have nearly 30 bbs so you should open raise with AJ 6 handed or maybe if the table is aggresive and you are 9 handed you might just want to bin it from early pos.
I cant see the benefit in going all in to the reraise with one pair. It seems like you were gambling that your opponent didnt have a monster hand and you were hoping they folded. With your stack you still had a healthy amount even after your bet of 21k.
What did you put them on, if you say that you couldnt see them limping with aq or ak.
The situation lends itself to a limp with a small/medium pocket pair or ace rag.
To be honest if i'd played this hand from the limp preflop i would have only called the reraise or folded.
If you thought you were ahead why not re reraise, as if your opponent does have anything massive then they will come along.
Try this thought.
You asked the question but didnt listen to the answer.
One other thought, what was your opponents stack size.
col
When everyone is being so aggressive and the blinds are this big you really can't mess around. AJ could well be the best hand you will see for the rest of the tourney.
Raise JUST 3BB then fold to a shove fom early position but call an all-in from late position. By raising just 3BB you are not pot-committed.
The cash players will wince at this and say that this is a terrible play. And they would be right, in a cash game. But that is why they are cash players and not tourney players.
No bearing on this hand, but never assume anyone limping doesnt have a good hand. Even if they didnt have a good hand, they coulda had A5, A2, 22, 55; there are hands beating u that make sense.
Next, u only have ONE pair; if u have a small hand, keep the pot small; if you run into resistance, check or fold.
Lastly, someone puting 42k into a 59k pot has something that you might consider has u beat. Look for a better situation (as Tikay is wont to say)
As i say, what do i or anyone know, hindsight is 20/20 vision, gl in the future.
As for the hand itself I'm going to jump in and make an assumption that you were playing on a major site (such as Stars or FullTilt) and if that's the case then antes were probably involved? In that case open-limping (w/o the intention to re-raise if you're doing it with AA) is terrible IMO, because the pot is now big enough for someone to steal behind you and take your dead money. So, as others have said it should be raise/fold pre, and I would lean towards raising because you can take the pot down often enough with a standard raise and make a decent addition to your stack.
As for the flop I will agree with what most others have said, which is we are almost never ahead when we face the min-raise. That's never a bluff, and even if it is A8 for some silly reason, they're never calling the all-in.