Correct Play

Last night I was playing in a Satellite to the EPT Dubln Open Qualifier. 135 Entrants and top 16 through to final tourney.

Sorry haven't got the hand history but do not have office on the laptop

There are 23 of us left and I am sitting with approx 19k in 5th place.

For the last half hour or so the Chip Leader (who is on my immediate right) approx 34k, has continually raised the table and as such has not had much action.

The Blinds are 800/1600 as Bully Boy makes his 5k raise. I am holding Ac,Kc and raise him to 10k. He hesistatesa while before putting me All In. I put everything in and he reveals QQ. The race is on

Not much of a race as no K or A was sighted. Bye bye me.

Did I play correctly or would you have played it differently

Thanks

There are two approaches to this hand. Just call the raise to see what the flop looks like and if it is no good then throw away the hand. Also you could have folded because you are waiting on 8 more players to bust. With just under 12 BB's left in your stack and the blinds increasing soon you may have been better off folding to make sure you were in good contention to qualify. In satellites where all the prizes are the same amount, playing more cautious can benefit you more in the long run in making bigger tournaments.

Fold pre-flop. As things stand you`re an easy qualifier. You can probably fold into the final. Don`t challenge a bigger stack than yours with anything other than AA, KK, or QQ, but pick off a small-stack if you get a chance.

It gets frustrating if you`ve got a bully closing down the game and the longer it goes on, the more you feel eager to slap the pig back. But, if he`s on your immediate right, he`s no danger to you. Let someone else tackle him and either bust him or bust out - helps you either way.

Yikes!

With his raise coming towards me and no other callers I would just call his raise.

What is your purpose of re-raising? to force him out? To get more money in the pot with maybe the best hand?

I would have called and watched the flop. AK suited is a monster hand pre-flop, but weaker than pocket 2's if it doesnt hit.

In your most excellent chip positions with the bully raising over 3 BB, I would let him play into your hand. See if the straight draw comes, or flush draw, or top pair.

With the main point of the tourney to make it to the final group, I would have played tight aggressive, and been very careful.

I've folded QQ pre-flop before when I was raised all in by someone.... would I have won? Was it a race? Who knows, sometimes lasting longer in a tournament is better than taking an unknown odds in doubling up.

I think Egon's right - fold it, unless you can call without it being a big chunk of your stack.

In general you don't want to take on another big stack in any hand in the late stages of an MTT, and particularly near the bubble in the qualifier structure you describe.

If you were against a small stack, go ahead and put them all-in, as AK will fare better against a pocket pair by seeing all the cards, plus you have a lot of fold equity. Be aware that AK isn't a huge favourite against any hand.

My opinion is that folding and reraising are your best options and calling is definitely the worst. Calling is bad IMO for several reasons: 1) You're giving him fold equity if you miss the flop 2) you're not getting full value of your hand as you'll only hit the flop 1/3 of the time 3) he's raising for 5K and you've only got 19K in your stack...I think pushing/folding is the only option here.

Reraising to put the hammer on the bully is ok. He's being very aggressive and very well might have 44 or JT or even 67s. Then again he might hold QQ . If he's holding something weak, he's not getting odds to call your all in and will most probably fold = nice pot for you.

I like folding though for several reasons. 1) you're in 5th place and can probably fold into the money 2) you don't need the "go for the gusto" approach since it is a satellite.