Hi, former lurker, first time poster. I used to play on Full Tilt but have recently started to give PokerStars a shot, specifically the $4.40 180s. I tried to format everything correctly, but flame away if I didn't.

This was the 9th hand in a $4.40, so I had basically no information to go on at all.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FCP)

CO (t1150)
Hero (t1620)
SB (t1540)
BB (t1600)
UTG (t3140)
UTG+1 (t2630)
MP1 (t120)
MP2 (t2370)
MP3 (t2020)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q , Q .
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t20, MP1 raises to t120, MP2 calls t120, MP3 calls t120, CO calls t120, Hero raises to t1620, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls t1600, MP2 folds, MP3 calls t1500, CO folds.

Final Pot: t5250


I'd just like to get some opinions on what the best play here is. I didn't really want to call and have a 4-way pot, but I also was clueless about what kind of raise might thin the field.

I've also seen people in these make incredibly bad calls early, with hands like A6o and worse for all their chips. By shoving I figured I could either get some chips early or move on to the next one.

Any opinions on trying to build a stack early in these vs surviving hour 1 are also appreciated.

Someone somewhere one here wrote a really good thing about winning these. I don't have a link, but I remember him saying that he'll almost never fold QQ+ pre flop, you have to just have faith in your premium hands, it's more +EV to triple up early then to....not triple up early. lol. But yeah, I'd probably shove too, you see a lot of BAD allin calls in these in the first half, so you're probably getting in with the best of it.

http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-foru...showtopic=53305

Very helpful..Read up and it will answer a lot of your questions on the 180 sngs

Enough of the donkey's have seen High Stakes Poker that someone will call that "squeeze play<sw>" shove because they do not trust Barry Greenstein.. That early in a $4.40 an all-in will get you AIPF vs. 1 or 2 callers, usually with 9-8os and Q-10 type holdings..

The only hand that is slightly troubling is AK, and that's still basically a coin flip. Odds are you are up against a guy with Ax (or better, two guys with Ax). That's an insta push.. Know one thing for certain: no one is slowplaying aces or kings in a multiway flop. Even the mega-donkeys know that their ilk will call AIPF with weak holdings, barring a misclick you will never see AA or KK there. The only hand you can remotely worry about is AK.. Your only other worry is 5 people call that all-in (don't laugh, I've seen it).

NH.

Played perfectly in my opinion. A call would be a mistake and a raise to 500 or so still gives the other players good odds. Push, get called and hope your hand holds up.

lol. I love watching that Barry Greenstein move on High Stakes. As it turns out I got called by 44 and AK, and tripled up. That was great until 40min later when I lost half my stack when my KK put someone's 99 all in PF, and naturally ended up with the worst of it.

Thanks for the responses everyone, and for the link throwemaway. That guide to the 180s looks pretty solid. I think I mostly need to catch some cards in these. In the 3 that I've played so far I've only been seeing about 12% of flops, and in the last one the QQ and KK were two of only about 7 playable hands I got. It does seem like you need to get lucky (and not get unlucky) at least once or twice in these, as compared to 45 or even 90 person MTTs.

nothing wrong with your push... you will get paid of by horrible hands early on especially in those tournies..