OK ... so I'm playing in a 50 man tournament online and have made the final table made up of 10 players. I'm currently 4th with a little over 7000 in chips. Top 5 get paid. Repeat .... TOP 5 GET PAID! I'm on the button and low and behold I get a warm and fuzzy as I see your best friend and mine, pocket rockets appear before me. Happy day ... please, someone bet, please! The first player to act has about 4500 in chips and is in 7th place. He goes all in. The blinds are somewhere around 400 and 800. The player next to him is our chip leader with a very healthy 20,000 or so in chips. He pushes all in in an obvious attempt to isolate the UTG player. Tears of joy begin to stream down my face as I feel I'm about to become your new chip leader. Oh joy oh bliss.

With the way the UTG player has been playing I'm assuming middle to high pair. The chip leader has to have somethingbig , so I put him on big pair or A-K. With some trepidation, because we've all had our aces cracked, I call. It actually takes about 2 seconds for my worry to fade as I'm too busy thinking about how I will start to push around the rest of the table on my way to a pay day.

Our cards are turned and I am a happy bunny. UTG turns over a pair of 7's, excellent, chip leader (yeah, not for long) has A-K. There is no way the poker gods take this away from me. the flop comes K 9 2 rainbow. Mild concern, but no real worry. The turn .. ugh, disaster, another K. The river ... salt in open wound ... the final K. I'm out in 9th. No money, no more warm and fuzzy.

My feeling with big pairs is that I like to have as few people in the hand as possible. I didn't have the choice at this point as both players in front of me were all in. I feel like I did the right thing and if you're going to gamble, hell it might as well be with the best hand preflop. No guts no glory. However, if I lay down I'm still in 4th place with a healthy chip stack and feeling like I'm still on my way to the ultimate prize.

So ... with tournament strategy in mind ... does anyone think it is ever a good idea to lay down pocket aces pre-flop? Just wondering what everyones take is.

not unless its a satalite and only the top 5 got paid. then it might be correct depending on your stack size and the other stack sizes at the table.

expect to get flamed heavily for starting this thread.

Cant be scared all your life.... You got the best hand in poker... push em

There are some crazy scenerios where it could be "correct." This is not one of them. With ten people still in and only top 5 paying, you can't simply coast into the money. You're going to need to play and you're not going to get a better spot than this.

Shovel.

You can't fold here unless you don't want to win this tournament. If this were a satellite paying out 5 people with only 6 people left and you had plenty of chips, you can fold AA here because there is no difference between getting 5th and 1st.

That's about it.

Alpha

I completely agree with the replies thus far and having to do it again I'd put my stack in with aces each and every time. I felt like the hand fell into the "that's poker" category. Time to tap the felt and give the old "nh" grumble grumble grumble. I'm simply moaning over a bad beat and you poor fellers get to hear my crying. I fully expect the flaming.

my solution = play cash games not tournaments

Reply to title: Yes.

Reply to this situation: No, AINEC.

Edit: Zach is going to have an aneurysm when he sees this thread, LOL.

again, much better response when you don't see results.

Is Zach on medication for that? Note to self, don't upset Zach. Note to self 2, Don't ever post anythig about pocket rockets again. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Hi.



Just listen to these guys. You want to win the tourney, not limp in to get 5th. I'll get it in as a huge favorite, and a chance to be the chip leader all day long.

(I must be in a good mood today)

As they've all said, the only time you can consider it is in a satellite where you are on the bubble, and there are other shortstacks who should bust first.

I'd also like to say that you should never fold KK here either, and almost never fold QQ in this particular situation, especially given our isolation read.

- Zach

So, what you're really saying here is:

Zach, Thanks for being in a good mood and thanks to all who posted that confirmed I made the right decision (no matter how obvious). I had not considered the satellite issue, so there you go, stupid question leads to a little learning. Back to being a happy chappy. Cheers.

feel free to post more dumb questions
that's how you get smarter.
then start posting smart questions and answering other peoples dumb ones.

Sure, but not in the hand that you described.

In this hand, there were three players total battling for the main pot, and you were heads up for the side pot. You were over 70% to win. You made the right call, but took a bad beat.

Quoted for Truth.

Btw, I try to be in a good mood more these days...lol

We've all been new to poker, not that I know if you are or not, but we all ask retarded questions now and again, lol.

you got my POTD. Something about that shovel just hit the ole funny bone.

got a home ?

I'm still livin at my friend's house. Good times.