Small stakes SNG, four players left. I'm third in chips with $2,997.50. Blinds are $100/$200. I started out the tournament playing pretty tight, lately though I've been aggressive preflop and stealing a lot of blinds. I pick up Q Q in the small blind. UTG folds and the button limps in. I raise to $900. I didn't want to go all-in because it might've scared both of them off. The big blind folds and the button calls. He started the hand with slightly fewer chips than me, with $2,740. There is $2,000 in the pot.

The flop comes 6 K 4 . Right move here? I have $2,097.50 left and he has $1,840. Move all-in and hope he doesn't have a King? If I check and he bets I have a tough decision.

Id bet 600 or 700. A non-King has a hard time calling that, and i dont see any reason to risk it all against a K. If he reraises youve still got a playable stack.

I agree.

me too

I'd probably bet 1,000. 600 or 700 isn't much and you might get a smooth call which puts you in a tougher situation.

Dont push. If he has AK, KQ, KJ hes prolly auto call. Other than that hes gonna have a tough time calling. Bet half the pot see what he does.

holy cow all of you above are forum implied results oriented here

Button will shove or call so many non K hands here given the pot, our aggression, and the fact his M=6 and 4 handed.

I"m shocked, litterally.

You all know the odds that he has a K? Vs the Odds he raises our bet w/o one?
I think without weighting hand likelihoods, he has a K 12% of the time, given that one flopped We can give it a little more weight, being a Face-card... maybe 18%?

wow.


Bet 700 and get it all in on a raise.
Or shove, if you think he's more likely to read that as a bluff, than he is to try to move you off a weak bet.

Even though results aren't posted, these replies look like they were.

What's wrong with all-in preflop here?

it's not a bad option at all.
in fact. it's the best option if we've been moving in with any regularity, or generally over betting

I think a standard raise gets more chips on average and allows a fold when Ace flops and we get multiple callers preflop. I guess
Probalby read dependent

Personally I'm pushing this preflop most of the time since I've already shoved a few times

if you've been as agressive as you should have been your raise shouldn't scare people off.

news: queens is a pretty vulnerable hand.

I'd been raising 3X's the BB when I was the first one to enter the pot. Most of my raises were getting respect, but when I was called I was generally able to take it down on the flop with a continuation bet. With this hand I wanted it to look the same, because if I moved all-in preflop they might have suspected that I had a monster and was trying to get them to bite. I put the button on a weak Ace or some kind of middle pair given that he just limped and then called my raise.

take your finger out of the socket.

ah much better!

ok..now I"m floored!

QFT


I don't really agree with betting here. I prefer checkraising. I'm not folding, and I would expect a bet from most small pairs.
If I accept I'm going broke to a king, it is far better to get as much as possible from small pairs or bluffs. I think the best way to do that is to check, especially given that he has at most 3 outs (ace) if he checks behind.

I was in the bet mode from the other posts.
Which were bet/fold lines.
I think whether we make more betting or c/r'ing depends on villain.
If we are perceived as aggressive, he may just call with 77ish here and check behind with it (suspecting a weird play), and certainly fold to a c/r more than a push
I like playing this straight forward since we've been betting when we miss too.

but yeah, that is soooo much closer than any fold line.

I think we check/call the flop and see what the villain does and take it from there.
No reason to lay this down on flop (depending on your opponents tendencies) but I would not be overly confident about it either. Lets try to see how the hand plays out.

give me a scenario where you c/c flop and fold later?
And tell me how that's better than geting it in on flop?

I agree. I bet (and looking at the stacks because of the .50 in them) this is a Bodog tourney. 99% of the time I shove my good hands and go KillPhil PF all the time on the bubble in these SNGs versus these players (who mostly have no clue what they are doing - even at the 100 dollar level). These SNGs are loaded with players who can never fold when they've already committed chips to the pot unless you show them you are serious. The fact he's on the bubble makes the "raise to 900 play" that much worse because we will have a hard time calling/betting any K or A high flop, and someone might want to take a shot at us just because he will think "it's the bubble, and he can't call me unless he has a K or the nuts".

If I go all-in and the guy calls with KQ or KJ and hits his K, good for fcuking him. If he slowplayed AK and calls the all-in, it's a hand that has to happen anyways. I try my best not to get it all-in too most of the time, but sometimes you just have to because some people just won't lay down K10 or A5 for an extra 700 more and you have to politely demonstrate to them that they better do - and you do that by shoving preflop.

They whole point is the making the right play and getting the money in good.

Not to say the OP played it wrong.....if it was a deep stack SNG or AA, it would be optimal. But it's not (and trust me I learned my lessons the hard way playing these things). The goal of SNGs is to get paid. This is a small stakes SNG where blinds go up every 10 hands (if this is a Bodog tourney) so the optimal play on the bubble, IMO, is to shove it all PF with your good hands to get maximum value (unless you have an uber-stack and can "afford" to play small pot poker).

Jam preflop, keep stealing, and let the suckers know that if they wanna crack your good hands, they must pay for them PF with their entire stack.

And oh yeah:

How do you have enough chips to see how the hand plays out? You voluntarily open raise to 4.5 BBs, which also happened to be about 30% of your stack. If you bet anything, you're committed. If you're going to check call, for some unknown reason, you're gonna be committed. You see one overcard and few draws present. Why wait? The pot is already the size of your remaining stack, and the villain's as well.

I agree with Actuary, you're gonna go broke if he has a King in his hand. This flop is very favorable for QQ. If the villain is aggressive, I'm gonna check raise all in. If not, I'm betting either 1000 or all in, depending on which one he's more likely to call.

The main point is I plan to get all of my chips into the pot with him before another card rolls off the deck.

Push the flop. No question here. The reason being, if we bet 700 or something on the K64 flop, and he reraises us (presumably all-in push), can we eliminate a hand like 99 or TT? No, so we're going to have to call anyway.

We might even still get called by those mid pairs because he might figure we're betting our AQ or AJ.

Pushing also might get lucky and knock out a hand like KTs if he's playing for the money (probably not, but he might give you credit for AK).

If he does call with a K, then GG us, but I still think it's the right play.

LMAO fold to a raise. I am all in no matter what on this flop and that stack. Knowing my luck he has KK and gg me.

I gotta agree with Actuary.. i'm getting my chips in the pot..make him make the tough decision..I dont see any logic in betting 700 into 2k pot where he is getting 4-1 to call that bet.. I bet 1000 into the 2k pot as a strict value bet.. I'm not folding if he comes over the top anyways... the stacks just arent deep enough.