1st hand of a tourney....

Ok, today I was playing a $500 freeroll, turbo blinds. No information on any players. I had not turned on my HUD yet. Very first hand, AA. I fired off a 3 X BB bet. Low and behold it is a freeroll and some one shoves (actually two people did). It was a call for me. One has Q 3 off suite, other has 7 7. Flop 7 6 3. I busted.

Another example, first hand of a tourney, I was holding AQ off suite. I fired a 3 XBB bet. It was the very first hand. Guy across table shoves. I folded. He says he was holding AA. I don't know that for sure.

My question is, at the start of a tourney, how do you play big hands? With the second example, why push the AA? Why not do a simple re raise and try to get the pot higher against the AQ? The way it worked for the push was everyone folded and all the player got was 60 chips in blinds. However, the risk was great. Say I called and flopped two Q's. His entire tourney would have been over in one hand.

I play to win, so I tend to be aggressive but I try to weigh the risk / reward? Are you better to take these chances? If you bust, ol well try again? Or are you better to fold the monster and wait for a more informed opportunity?

:dontknow:

from my experience the first few hands of a freeroll can be a complete crapshoot! If you´re lucky enough to pick up a monster first hand it can be a good idea just to open shove and there´s always some donk willing to call you with TJ or A-rag. It seems you´re one of the few players who player poker as it´s meant to be played early doors lol I reckon there´s not many would have folded a hand as strong as AQ at that stage so well played.
I try to lay low for the first few rounds and see whos playing bingo instead of poker and it tends to settle down after a few rounds.

I think with freerolls you get a lot of open shoving early on.. People like to gamble to build a big stack or bust..You cant fold Aces pre flop you just got unlucky.

Lots of guys enter a freeroll just to flip first hand and see what happens next.

That's why usually you should get tight and see how the action goes in the first orbits so you can identify who's playing ftw and who's just bingo.

IMO you played right both hands, there's no way to fold AA pre-flop even against 2 shoves, but if it was AK or QQ i would have folded. There's no need to risk it all in the first hand if you dont have the nuts.

GL bro.

Hugh stack increases early help a lot in a tourney (duh) but even AA is really cheapened with multiple players all in pre-flop.
If your strategy is to play more than the first hand, run away to live another day, may come into play.
In freerolls, I often make this decision based on the availability of more tourneys starting soon.
In big money tourneys there are players that will not even take their seat for the first round or two just to avoid this scenario.
And it seems to me that if it's all-in to you and you hear yourself say..."this is nuts", maybe you should listen to yourself.

Most of the time I throw my AA if I get more than 2 shoves. I mean, if I'm playing my two cards against 6+ other cards all-in preflop I'm not really getting a good price to gamble. In this case I'd bust too though, so I don't blame you. Well played, crappy beat!

Hand 1 is a snap-call vs two opponents.

Unless you have reason to believe the opponent in hand 2 is different, AQ is a call as well. It's well ahead of any range that will over-shove with the likes of Q3, and probably not bad vs any range that includes 77.

How to play big hands is opponent-dependent. The worse you think your opponents are, the more you can play accordingly.

U have to be cautious the first few hands because there are a lot of all-ins at this time. Be patient and see who they are and how they play. Don't try to compete with them at first.

If I get AA first hand of a freeroll I shove because you will get callers 90% of the time. Sometimes they do get cracked but when they stand it is a good start for you and you can tighten up after that with a 2 to 1 chip lead

never fold AA, no matter the situation, first hand, last, bubble, if somebody shove you do so, no matter what, if 77 beats AA is one in a while, actually you have 3/4 of chances here, and the start of a freeroll a lot of levels, people playing bingo, others fishing, others whale, so the luck component is higher than in a buyin mtt, so the risk is higher but take at it is, and it doesn`t matter because is free so people tend to be looser than regular, so don`t be afraid and play your monster too and if sometimes fail well is part of poker

I play alot of FreeRoll to $2 Tournaments.
The standard play appears to try to get Big Stacked Early.
Then play the Big Stack Bully to all the Tight Players
Make them Commit %50 of their stack just to see a flop
Only way to catch up is to pick your hand, Shove Yourself, and pray.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Poker starts after the Bubble.

You can't judge play on freerolls. Its my experience that people are just trying to double up as fast as possible, they don't really start to care about losing until they get closer to winning any money, then they start to play for real.

because people who play freerolls are stupid. its customary to for 10% of the field to open shove the first hand, some people want to see if they can accumulate chips early and make the freeroll worth their time. The guy with AA new his shove would look fishy and he was liable to get a call. That play would actually work in a freeroll and he isn't at fault. In terms of how to play big hands early in tournaments? There are entire books on that so I won't even bother. But generally the rule of thumb is to play conservative early and open up your game as the blinds progress. Players who believe in the strategy of accumulating chips early are players who believe in the strategy of losing. If you want to accumulate chips join ante tournaments and play highly aggressive with decent hands in position. Your still taking risks with greater swings but the upside is better.

AA first hand in a typical MTT freeroll? Never folding. Even if the entire table is all in. CC freerolls aren't immune from this either, I had AA UTG first hand in one and wound up in a 3-way all in. BB shoved, I called, limper in MP called too. Other hands were stuff like Q9 and KJ.

Like others said, many people shove ATC in the first couple of hands in every freeroll they enter because they want to either get some chips early or bust and wait for the next one. What's amusing is watching people who actually had something decent like TT+ get busted by complete garbage like 52o making a running straight.

Propane Goat said:

AA first hand in a typical MTT freeroll? Never folding. Even if the entire table is all in. CC freerolls aren't immune from this either, I had AA UTG first hand in one and wound up in a 3-way all in. BB shoved, I called, limper in MP called too. Other hands were stuff like Q9 and KJ.

Like others said, many people shove ATC in the first couple of hands in every freeroll they enter because they want to either get some chips early or bust and wait for the next one. What's amusing is watching people who actually had something decent like TT+ get busted by complete garbage like 52o making a running straight.

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...and that's the exact reason why I would not shove with 3+ players all in. The price is simply to high for any monster hand, all in pre.

In freeroll premium hands (AA, KK and AKs ) u need always raise 6-7 bb, what get 1-2 caller not more, if u try call u can get 4-5 limp, and your hand already dont have edge..

You should make big raises with a hand like that in freerolls. You will get called easily since they don't care to lose those kinds of tourneys.

One of these was a CC freeroll. I was hoping for a few less bingo players. At the table I was at, there were two sadly.

I don't think the question is whether or not to play AA preflop....

I think the question is whether or not it is worth the risk to have all your chips in early when the blinds are low and you could wait for a better spot.

I think that, regardless of tournament stage, you should never be shy to get your chips in the middle when you are pretty positive you have your opponent(s) crushed. This can be tricky post flop, but preflop our decisions are often much easier.

In your above examples I'd snap call with the AA and I'd fold the AQ. Yes he could have AJ but he could also have 77 and you're flipping or AK and you're toast. When I'm not sure I'm ahead, I go more by tournament stage and stack size and pot odds etc. When I'm positive I'm ahead by a nice margin, I go for max value however I think I can get it.

lost2qandisa said:

I play to win, so I tend to be aggressive

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What does asking whether you should call have to do with being aggressive? Not much IMO. Aggression is about leading the betting and forcing opponents to make more and/or tougher decisions.

When your only options are to fold or call, that decision is not a matter of aggression. You can be more aggressive when you have a big stack, but that's a consequence of calling and winning. The only extent to which I see aggression factoring in is whether I should call a bit more liberally in hand 2 because winning will let me be more aggressive. Even then, it doesn't seem like a primary consideration.

in freerolls you need lot of luck early and you have to win many all ins.with AA its a good situation for that

I hate how people shove like that with anything in a freeroll... If there is two players not knowing their hands you only have a 60% chance of winning with AA preflop... Maybe this could be motivation to move up in stakes and not have to play freerolls anymore

im proud of myself today on bovada I scored 5th place in a $100k new player qualifier tournament top 10 places paid there was 254 players now with the wining imam play a $16 BDP03 $150K TOURNAMENT for every $162 in the pot 1 ticket to the main event it starts in 3 hrs wish me luck on that I and almost positive im goping to win the main even ticket

You can't even think of folding AA pre flop no matter how many callers you would get or even bad beat you can't imagine happen..

Shove with AA KK, If you shove with AA or KK probably 1 will call it with A and some low card, never fold it. Hands like JJ QQ is better 3-bet and wait see what happens on table.