Two pair on BB

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iamnothere

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So, I get AJo on BB, early in the tournament, 15/30 blinds, about 1500 chips all around, 5 hands passed

fold to button, he calls, SB calls, I raise 3x, button calls, SB folds

flop: A J 9 rainbow

I bet 50% of pot, hoping to get calls from pair of aces or longshot straight, button calls...

turn: T

what is your move and why?
at this moment I had to go somewhere so I just went all in, he had 7 8 and won

also, my guess on the flop was that it was not that unlikely for him to have TQ and open ended straight draw, but I think 50% of pot is still good.
 
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ssbn743

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So, I get AJo on BB, early in the tournament, 15/30 blinds, about 1500 chips all around, 5 hands passed

fold to button, he calls, SB calls, I raise 3x, button calls, SB folds

flop: A J 9 rainbow

I bet 50% of pot, hoping to get calls from pair of aces or longshot straight, button calls...

turn: T

what is your move and why?

at this moment I had to go somewhere so I just went all in, he had 7 8 and won

also, my guess on the flop was that it was not that unlikely for him to have TQ and open ended straight draw, but I think 50% of pot is still good.

I’m not lecturing, but here’s your biggest mistake “at this moment I had to go somewhere so I just went all in”.

You’ve got to plug that before we can even have an intelligent conversation about the game. Why are you even playing if that’s your thought process and daily schedule?
 
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ddeely1

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ssbn makes such a good point. so many of my friends will casually play poker tournaments fully knowing they have plans later on and can't finish out the tourney. play cash instead of tournaments if you're going to leave.
 
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PAM

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I would suggest the following:
1)Raise more preflop, 5x-5.5x would be more optimal sizing
2)Out of position here, betting closer to 75% of the pot will extract more value
3)The turn is one of the worst in the deck, definitely look to bet a high % of the pot to protect your hand. Checking isn't going to cut it because if they take the free card and a number of bad rivers show up, its only going to make the hand harder to play. Plus your not getting max value from your hand.
Best of luck at the tables!
 
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Eclipsenz

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Why is someone calling a gutshot oop anyways I spose at micros its bound to happen, but why would this prompt an all in on the turn from yourself?
 
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iamnothere

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to ssbn743 and ddeely1:
thank you for your reply, but I did not know I was going to leave when I started, it was an emergency. I would, however, like to hear your opinion on the action after the turn card :)
Pam: points 1 and 2 make sense, maybe 4-5 BB preflop is high enough for me
point 3 is where I am confused, still thinking, if I bet high % i am almost commited, better to go all in than get commited to call?
Eclipsenz: all in is forced by me having to leave the table, not by villain
 
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Sori

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Unless I'm miscalculating, you still had about 1300 chips left on the turn with a pot of 400. I would probably bet another 250/300. However this is where playing OOP comes in, if he flat calls you have to guess you most likely aren't good and give up on the hand (unless people disagree with this?). If he raises you on the turn I am also folding. Basically, you are hoping this bet takes down the pot, otherwise you are done with the hand.


One of my biggest issues to get over (still getting over) is feeling pot committed when in fact I have enough chips to just stop the hand and try and wait for a better spot to double up. You would still have about 1000 chips which is plenty- especially with these blind levels still so low.

My 2cents
 
NeverEnough

NeverEnough

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If that was me, I would have bet more on the flop to protect my hand.

Rasing more preflop is tough to say yes or no to b/c we do not know your pre-flop betting tendencies. Do you always bet the same or do your pre-flop bet amount vary based on hand strength? I always bet the same pre-flop so they cannot figure out my hand so easily.
 
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ssbn743

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Ok, so this is the 5th hand of the tournament, so we know there are lots of in-experienced, “I saw poker on T.V.” players in the field. You have 50BB and there are no antes – you definitely don’t want to get stacked at this point.

I don’t like to raise out of position here for the following reasons:

1. He’s not going to fold – it doesn’t matter what he has he will call, so raising just sets you up to lose your stack.

2. Assuming he’s a good player; he’s not stealing here as the blinds are simply not worth stealing at this point. This means AJ off is hurting against his range. Let’s say you spike your Ace – what now?

3. You’re out of position in a meaningless and luck favored hand – most things you do will not get your opponent to fold.

The only advantage to raising you have is that the SB folds, that’s it.

I would just follow suit and check. Now in this example you flop two pair and can easily make a pot size or even an over pot sized bet. A good player is going to fold to a vast majority of bets here and even bad players have a vague concept of pot odds. There’s $90 in the pot and you’re second to act; assuming the SB checks I would bet $100.

Now, let’s say our villain calls anyway and the 10 comes down. This does complete several draws and is a problem card – additionally, at this stage of the game you want to keep the pot small, so I check.

As long as an inert card falls on the river I would lead out now with about 50% of the pot (150) and you would have obviously been raised and could easily fold; losing the minimum, which is maybe the greatest victory in poker.

Bottom line, two pair is a great hand and but the board presents some problems. Play it passively, save your chips until they matter - you don’t want action here and if you get it folding has to leap top the front of your mind.
 
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