Please help me with this hand.
Ok, my first hand analysis post. Here goes!
I was playing in a 16 person low buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament last week and this hand came up. I'll try to set the scence as best I can but please let me know if there is anything else you would like know to properly analyze this hand. We are eight handed, we started with 1000 chips and I am the chip leader at table with about 1500. I am UTG and pick up pockets queens, i make the standard raise to 120 and everyone folds to the big blind who re raises me 200. I ponders this for a few minutes thinking that he could have AK AA KK or QQ, but part of me thought he could be putting a move on me because i had been getting good cards and was raising and winning some uncontested hands. I think because of this he puts me as a sort of wild player. I decide to call and see what the flop looks like and see what he does of course he raises 400 on the flop so I know if I am going to play this hand it will be for all his chips and most of mine. i think for awhile and move all in and of course he calls and shows pokect kings. No help on the turn or river.
I figure i should of went with my first instinct and mucked the hand but i thought about it too long and figured if I was right then I would be set for the tournament. Any thoughts?
Another Hand from the same tourney.
I'm in the big blind, there is an early position standard raise so I call with pocket 8's. Flop comes down K 8 3 rainbow. the raiser bets 100 trying to buy the post. having a set I reraise to 300 and he mucks. it was early in the tournament so I didn't want to play around with trapping. Was this the best play or should I of called hoping he would lead out again and then I would raise. He ended up turning over pockets Jacks.
I was playing in a 16 person low buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament last week and this hand came up. I'll try to set the scence as best I can but please let me know if there is anything else you would like know to properly analyze this hand. We are eight handed, we started with 1000 chips and I am the chip leader at table with about 1500. I am UTG and pick up pockets queens, i make the standard raise to 120 and everyone folds to the big blind who re raises me 200. I ponders this for a few minutes thinking that he could have AK AA KK or QQ, but part of me thought he could be putting a move on me because i had been getting good cards and was raising and winning some uncontested hands. I think because of this he puts me as a sort of wild player. I decide to call and see what the flop looks like and see what he does of course he raises 400 on the flop so I know if I am going to play this hand it will be for all his chips and most of mine. i think for awhile and move all in and of course he calls and shows pokect kings. No help on the turn or river.
I figure i should of went with my first instinct and mucked the hand but i thought about it too long and figured if I was right then I would be set for the tournament. Any thoughts?
Another Hand from the same tourney.
I'm in the big blind, there is an early position standard raise so I call with pocket 8's. Flop comes down K 8 3 rainbow. the raiser bets 100 trying to buy the post. having a set I reraise to 300 and he mucks. it was early in the tournament so I didn't want to play around with trapping. Was this the best play or should I of called hoping he would lead out again and then I would raise. He ended up turning over pockets Jacks.
Comments
On the second hand I would have just called his flop bet, regardless of what point it was in the tournament. When you have pocket 8's on a K83 rainbow flop, you have stumbled onto a situation that is ideal for slowplaying. Just call the flop, and if he checks the turn to you, check as well. If he checks the river, make a modest bet, and he may very well think you're trying to buy the pot and call with a marginal hand.
Regards,
all_aces
Like All_Aces, I would have lost alot with this hand. I probably would have bet larger preflop with the queens, because I don't even like people to see the flop with their drawing hands. If someone's holding an ace or king and pairs it on the flop, you're screwed. They could also hit 2pr, trips, etc. After the Flop, you're hand is not necessarily as strong. You didn't tell us what the flop was though, and that's necessary information to say how we'd play his raise on the flop.
As much as I hate to disagree with All_Aces, I wouldn't slowplay the 8's. They could definitely be in peril by the river. I would at least make people pay for draws. Who knows, maybe he's slowplaying the kings..
The reason I don't mind making a standard raise with queens is the reason that I disagree with this statement: I think it would be fairly easy to get away from your queens if an overcard flops and you're facing a big bet from a fairly tight/straightforward opponent. Your point is well-taken, though... a bigger raise pre-flop certainly wouldn't be a bad thing.
With this particular flop, there are no draws available. If one materializes on the turn (ie: there are two cards of the same suit, or a queen falls, etc...) then it's time to make a roughly pot-sized bet. But for this flop, it's a great spot to slowplay, made even greater by the fact that he was the caller perflop, and not the raiser. The onus (if there is one) isn't on him to lead the action for the hand. Milk it for all it's worth, IMHO. But again, raising the flop isn't a bad play... you're just taking over the lead, which means that it won't be as tempting for your opponent to try and 'fire another bullet' at you on later streets, or to 'keep you honest' by calling a modest-sized river bet. Slowplaying is all about risk/reward... in poker, what isn't, really... and this flop presents very little risk to kalozdi. Slowplaying the hand increases the risk, but it also presents a number of ways to get chips out of your opponent that you may not be able to get by simply raising the flop.
Cheers,
all_aces