Beginning stage of a tournament....

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lost2qandisa

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Ok, It is the first hand of a tournament so you have no information on your opponents. (except for HUD) You get AK spades suited. Each player has 1000 chips. The blinds are 10/20. Three people limp to you in mid to late position. So, three limpers plus a 3 X BB bet should be a 6 X BB, correct? You drop 120 on the bet. You get called by the player on the BB. One other player that limped called. On the flop you get A diamonds, 4 diamonds, and 7 clubs. Ok not bad. So the pot at this point is 400. Fire off a 2/3 pot bet of 300. One fold, one call. The person that checked to you is the one that called. The one to act after you folded. So now you have put 420 chips in. The turn is a diamond so now you may be facing a flush.

Do you still try to bet this with a 3 bet or a shove if the other player checks to you? Am I being over aggressive and putting to much in too early? These are the hardest decisions for me.

This hand turned out ok because I chose to push and got called by a fish that had middle pair and not even a flush or straight draw.

How much money should I pot commit on big pocket pairs, AK AQ, etc.? I usually fire off a 3 X BB bet for AK AQ and 5 X BB for AA KK or QQ.

It seems many times early on when I do this I end up folding because someone hit a lucky draw and then I am handicapped with a short stack.
 
Jacki Burkhart

Jacki Burkhart

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If he checks that turn card I'm definitely betting.

Can't give him a free diamond or if he has 1 pair, can't give him a free 2 pair.

Question is how much to bet?

I think the shallow stack sizes dictate a shove here.

Yeah, it sucks if he got there on diamonds but we're not deep enough to lay down this hand right here...

For the second part of your question, You should not let your hand strength determine your bet size. So find a bet that will work for all your opening ranges and stick with it. I used to always raise 3x now I raise 2.5x since I'm more comfortable with post flop play.

When there are limps or raises ahead of you it gets a little trickier. I usually reraise with premium hands about 2.5x the original bet, so if there is an early position raise to 2,000 and I pick up QQ I'll reraise to 5,000.

When I raise the limpers I usually raise 2.5bb plus 1bb for each limper. The exception being if any of those raises represent more than 1/3 my stack... Then I'll usually jam preflop unless I'm trapping with AA/KK
 
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Vhyre

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At this point I think I just shove. still two cards to come, and maybe he has one diamond, or is chasing. I would make him pay.
 
Dee Dee

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Seems like you played it ok - if someone sucks out on you, that's just the way it is and it is to be expected often but since you have almost half your stack invested already I imagine you were planning to get it all in anyway, to me you're play seems absolutely fine tbh and with so many fish in the early stages of tourneys TPTK can often be the nuts.Don't know about this business of raising more with your big pocket pairs though, it is a very transparent and therefore very exploitable style of play, keep your raise/re-raise sizing in the same vicinity regardless of your cards so that your opponents cannot kill you too quickly.
 
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lost2qandisa

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Seems like you played it ok - if someone sucks out on you, that's just the way it is and it is to be expected often but since you have almost half your stack invested already I imagine you were planning to get it all in anyway, to me you're play seems absolutely fine tbh and with so many fish in the early stages of tourneys TPTK can often be the nuts.Don't know about this business of raising more with your big pocket pairs though, it is a very transparent and therefore very exploitable style of play, keep your raise/re-raise sizing in the same vicinity regardless of your cards so that your opponents cannot kill you too quickly.

I alway vary the amount of my bet. If I know I have a calling station remaining with no other real threats, I may toss down a 5 X BB with AQ and sometimes I do 3 X BB for AA. It depends on the table.

Where I was going with this thread.... If you start out with 1000 chips and the blinds are 5 minute intervals. They start at 10/20. If you drop a 5 X BB first hand, you are committing 10% of your stack right off the bat. If you are playing really tight, you may not play a hand before the BB is 40 or 60. That means you fire off a 3 x BB for over 20% of your stack. If you don't hit on three different hands, your stack is gone.
 
Jacki Burkhart

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it is ok to vary the size of your bet based on your table position, or based on the particular players still left to act.

but to vary your bet based on your hand strength is a leak, IMO.

as to the basic question, how much of your stack to commit early on? well, you are basically describing a turbo structure and so you can't really ever afford to fold a premium hand in a turbo structure and AQ is at the very bottom of the premium range for me, so you pretty much gotta play it.

and yes, you are right you are investing a big chunk of your stack and if you miss you are putting yourself in position to be in an all in or fold situation very quickly. That's the bummer with turbos...there is not much forgiveness for losing a pot or two...you gotta be willing to gamble in turbos, you can't just wait for premium hands and you definitely cannot fold or limp premium hands either. there is a lot left up to luck in turbos because of stack sizes and short rounds.
 
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jcla6985

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I would not change your xbb amount for better hands, just do 3 or 4 times the big bling as an initial raise no matter your cards. And in this situation just keep betting 2/3 the pot; shove is ok
 
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