$3.30 NLHE MTT: QQ in SB w/17Bbb

[GDBPoker]

poker stars, $3 Buy-in (250/500 blinds, 60 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament

Hero (SB): 8,879 (17.8 bb)
BB: 40,746 (81.5 bb)
UTG+1: 33,503 (67 bb)
UTG+2: 12,217 (24.4 bb)
MP1: 25,490 (51 bb)
MP2: 21,846 (43.7 bb)
MP3: 17,308 (34.6 bb)
CO: 11,102 (22.2 bb)
BTN: 21,584 (43.2 bb)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Q

Q

7 folds, Hero raises to 1,000, BB calls 500

Flop: (2,540) 6

9

A

(2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets 1,500, Hero raises to 7,819 and is all-in

I only had 52 hands on villain at the time so his stats aren't reliable. Villain is playing 18/10/4.5 and has a fold to steal of 33.

On my first look back at this hand I feel like I may have had things backwards. Should I be shoving this pre? At the time I felt my stack was just a little too high to be shoving.

I don't think I played the flop correctly either, should I have led, or just check called? I guess if I led he has the opportunity to bluff raise me all-in, where I would have to fold seeing as I still would have roughly 12bb left. Now I'm not sure, just confused myself. Any help on these 2 spots would be great.

Thanks for taking a look

 

[bremensha]

Betting oop your bet should normally be higher than in position.
Making such a small raise you don't get much information about your opponents hand range as he gets good pot odds anyway.
Therefor a min raise is good for drawing hands or aces. The advantage is that you are not comitted to the pot. Therefor as played oop you can either c-bet or check/fold.
Pairs need some insurance. Having a substantal amount of your/his stack into the pot allready you should pay more often.
Playing OMAHA one says that having half of your stack in the pot before the flop then the pot odds justify a shove of the rest on the flop. This principle is likewise in NLH too.

 

[horizon12]

When OPP flop you must cbet around 40% of the pot, if villain shove u can fold, if call turn check/fold...

 

[PBG789]

Agree with Bremensha in that the min raise gives the villain in the BB the pot odds to call with ATC. (2040 in the pot and 500 to call gives villain 4:1 and his hand has 35% in most situations.) If, for example, you bet 3xBB (which imo is the right move here) you have 2540 in the pot and villain is then getting 2.5:1 on the call which narrows his range considerably if the call is made. I don't like a pre-flop shove here as the most likely outcomes are either you pick up villain's BB or you get called by AA, KK or, best case scenario, AK.

On the flop what were you hoping for when you checked? Was c/r the plan or were you hoping for a check back? Either way I don't like the c/r as you have absolutely no read on the villains hand which could be air, could be a draw, could be a random Ax and could even be 96. Also the minute you check it tells the villain that you don't like the A and your c/r doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you have 99 or 66 and are trying to induce a call from a random A. IMO you have to c-bet the flop (as played this needs to be about 1800 to price out villain drawing hands) to get some information on the villains hand and to protect your pair. Sure villain may shove on you but if they do you fold and move on. A call at this point probably means you should just shut down (unless a Q appears on the turn) and try to get to showdown.

I'm guessing villain called and turned over A4 or similar.

 

[hffjd2000]

For sure, your min raise is giving him correct odds to call.

On the flop, your c/r all in is somewhat high risk because any good hand will he surely wakes up and call and fold if the flop doesnt help him at all.

 

[GDBPoker]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I find that when I get somewhat short on chips I stop thinking and just go agro. I guess the good thing is that I sometimes notice when I've stuffed up, even if I win the hand. Which was the case this time as villain folded.

From your advice one thing I need to do is focus on my raise sizing pre-flop from the SB. So if I start changing my sizing in the SB should I also be looking at my sizing in other positions? Or mainly just from the steal positions?

Your question about my check PBG789... I had no idea what I was expecting from a check, I stopped thinking when I saw the ace. At the time I guess I was afraid of getting raised, I just shut down and played scared.

Thanks again for taking a look everyone