SnG: FTP (1500 chip stack w/ 15/30 blinds)

So, its a 9 seat 5.50 cent N/L SnG and I am in middle position with AQo on the very first hand, two other guys limp in front of me. First question: Raise the big blind my standard amount (2.5 to 3x) or Raise the size of the pot?

ok, so regardless of your opinion lets say I raised pot and the button calls me as well as one of the limpers from late position and the flop is 7d 2d 10s. (i totally miss).. however, the player who is first to act checks to me, should i make a bet here hoping that the button will fold or should i just give up on the hand? (and hate that i had to get this semi-premium hand before i have any info about the players and absolutely no table image)

the reason i post this question is because every time i get decent hands such as these at the very beginning they either 1) do not become profitable or 2) they become very unprofitable (i lose a lot of chips) .. part of me almost wants to just give up on these hands until the blinds are just high enough to sting players chips stacks, but the pro side of me really wants to be able to still play good poker even in the early stages of a tourney


thoughts?

no dont think that way! Check flop and see what happens, reevaluate on turn and probably fire a delayed c-bet is my play i like the best here, the board the way it is is just screaming over cards and a draw, see a turn if possible and fire on a lot of them to set up a checked river possibly it is the cheapest showdown i see and we are ok with showing down A high extremely cheaply. I bet if everyone checks turn delay c-bet works a nice amount of the time if you get a check behind on flop imo

You whiffed the flop and a bet is rarely going to fold out hands that beat you. As rrumsey said I might be ok with checking to the turn, and firing at a safe turn if no one has shown any interest yet, but in general the pot is not going to add a ton to your stack so don't go crazy risking more chips to steal it.

Bet half-pot on the flop when it's checked to you, if no one is behind you. You've represented strong holdings and it's unlikely at 5.50 you'll get called by worse than a 10 and you'll get to see a turn and river for sure.

Hero does have a villain behind him, on the BTN - but even then I think I still cbet. Half pot does sound about right.

Yeah...i'm probably c-betting here 70% of the time with no one behind me, and 50-60% with a button left to act.

all of these are really helpful view points! i think rrumsey is on to somethign with not risking a lot at the very beginning

The typical strategy for a SNG (Particularly online turbos) is to play super tight early. The reason being is that so you can save your chips for the later push/shove stages of the tournament. Your equity also increases more when you double up later in a tournament compared to doubling up early. With two limpers ahead the correct raise pre-flop would be around 5x (3x+1 for each limper). This means you would Have to put in 10% of your stack pre-flop with players left to act behind you. The risk here is to high to enter for a raise considering the circumstances. Limping would be unprofitable. As nitty as it sounds if your playing a winning SNG strategy I'd say this is a fold pre-flop.

This is correct strategy applied incorrectly. You should never be folding AQo after a couple of limpers early in a SnG. There is an argument to be made that you can limp behind them and then attempt to get it in on any A or Q high flop. But raising preflop is fine too, realizing that you're going to get a lot of stragglers because people don't fold to early SnG raises because they look cheap.

Once you whiff, if you've got multiple players involved, there's not a lot of reason to commit anymore chips to this pot. Check/fold the rest of the way unless you manage to check into gin.

I agree, for the most part, with the italicized text from your post. I wouldn't raise 5x though, perhaps 3-3.5x.

As for folding pre-flop in this position given the circumstances, I don't believe this is an option even with people acting behind you.

- Raise pot
- C-bet if opponent checks to you. Fold if re-raised. Shut down if flatted, regardless of turn card. RRAI on river IF villain bets and the turn or river was an A or a Q and the board is uncoordinated

If you raise here your just making the pot bigger from middle position. If you only raise 3x-3.5x nobody is folding and your setting yourself up to lose your entire stack when the flop comes Q82 and you get it all in vrs Q8s. If you get flat called by Ak and theres an ace on the flop your losing your stack. Then there are the times you hit top pair and get it all in vrs a set. If you raise and someone shoves preflop you have to fold. It's just not a profitable spot to get involved in this early.

FYP

with this thinking, are you ever playing any hands?
AA loses, too, ya know.

youre forgetting the times we stack AJ, AT, QJ, QT, Ax, Qx, etc

Could you please include a converted hand history with your posts? It makes it a lot easier to follow the action.

That said, I'm raising a little less than pot preflop.

The flop kind of sucks. Depending on the players it could easily be a check/bet. I really have no problem either way

My standard raise is 3x-3.5x the BB when I'm first to act, I'll add a BB for every limper. So early in the tournament I'm c-betting this flop everytime. Or you could just fold preflop..but that would be silly.