About 30 hands into a $5.50 tournament with 520 players. The table is basically donktastic. There is really only one other player at the table that seems like a solid player. Everybody else is loose and hyperaggressive.

Full Tilt Poker Game #913732450: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (5957548), Table 34 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:27:07 ET - 2006/08/19
Seat 1: dsrmarine (5,350)
Seat 2: patientim56 (1,915)
Seat 3: MrGrabbyhands (2,595)
Seat 5: POPPAJACK (710)
Seat 6: TheMadScientist (2,155)
Seat 7: MikeSey (1,155)
Seat 8: poopshizzle (1,380)
Seat 9: Outlaw4033 (2,205)
Outlaw4033 posts the small blind of 25
dsrmarine posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Outlaw4033 [Jc As]
patientim56 folds
CapAp sits down
CapAp adds 1,520
MrGrabbyhands raises to 150
POPPAJACK folds
TheMadScientist calls 150
MikeSey folds
poopshizzle folds
CapAp is feeling angry
Outlaw4033 calls 125
dsrmarine folds
*** FLOP *** [2s Qc Js]
Outlaw4033 checks
MrGrabbyhands bets 250
TheMadScientist folds
Outlaw4033 raises to 750
MrGrabbyhands raises to 2,445, and is all in

I thought about it for a minute and then folded. My check-raise was designed to kind of define the hand. Was my check-raise right here, or should I have led out, or check and then folded?

I would lead out. While a check/bet/raise/reraise gives a ton of information its an expensive way to get it for two reasons.

First, if thats the way the betting goes, youve committed yourself to 2 bets, probably 3x or more the investment of bet/raise. Is the quality of the information worth 3x the price when you probably have to fold to either one? There will be times when that line buys the hand from a bluff to offset the cost, but Im not sure it covers it plus the second cost:

With this board you are giving a free card to a potentially dangerous hand, that can check behind and either make a hand or at least hit the fourth card and have a river draw. While you have the stack to price out a river draw if a scary card hits, do you really want to commit the chips to it when you could be behind already?

Im sounding a bit like a parrot the last couple of days, but the "word of the day" seems to be "small pots for small hands", and MPTK is definitely a small hand. Keep the pot small, and c/r planning to fold to resistence isnt the way.

I think it can be effective line if you have a draw of your own to add some fold equity and informational value, but Id rather have deeper stacks to try it.

See, now how come I can't think of any of this while playing the hand? LOL.

If you had posted the hand before you played it then you would have known !



jk of course, but thats why thinking/posting hands is so valuable. You not only have the experience of playing the hand but hearing other views. If any of us thought of these things at the table consistently we'd be sponsoring the site, instead of posting on it.

QFT

Great post Copernicus

I should ingrain this small pot for small hand mantra into my computer desk

I check call often here

donking the flop gets raised by air too often.

depends on pfr'er for me.

You and me both.

I don't like playing AJo for a raise oop in typical small buy-in online tourneys. Remember that in order to call a raise, theoretically you need a better hand than what you'd open with in your given position. Would you open AJo in first position?

With zero visibility post flop, you'll be dumping chips often trying to find out where you are, and stacks are typically not deep enough to compensate you adequately when you flop huge. Reverse implied odds are just horrendous.