$5.5 NLHE MTT: Early position with 22. Is this bad play?

[masadad]

Party, $5 Buy-in (150/300 blinds, 30 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 9 Players

SB: 10,360 (34.5 bb)
BB: 8,963 (29.9 bb)
UTG+1: 11,739 (39.1 bb)
Hero (UTG+2): 10,929 (36.4 bb)
MP1: 29,544 (98.5 bb)
MP2: 8,760 (29.2 bb)
MP3: 4,668 (15.6 bb)
CO: 17,825 (59.4 bb)
BTN: 41,026 (136.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+2 with 2:diamond: 2:heart:
UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to 912, MP1 folds, MP2 calls 912, 3 folds, SB calls 762, BB folds

Flop: (3,306) T:spade: Q:diamond: K:club: (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP2 bets 900, SB calls 900, Hero folds

Spoiler

Turn: (5,106) 2:club: (2 players)
SB checks, MP2 bets 2,553, SB calls 2,553

River: (10,212) Q:spade: (2 players)
SB checks, MP2 checks

Results: 10,212 pot
Final Board: T:spade: Q:diamond: K:club: 2:club: Q:spade:
SB showed J:spade: Q:club: and won 10,212 (5,817 net)
MP2 mucked K:heart: A:heart: and lost (-4,395 net)

 

[WiZZiM]

raise smaller preflop. like 2-2.5x somewhere in there. IT has the same effect as a 3x would, but we keep things much smaller preflop and if we get 3bet we just saved alot of chips. Making this change will mean you save a shitload of chips in spots like this over the long term. It also means we give ourselves a better price to see the flop and hit our set, which is the only value this hand has to be raising really.

As played pretty simple check fold. Opening to begin with is pretty meh, it's not gonna matter if you fold it or raise it really provided you don't get into situations where you put money in on really bad boards or vs multiple opponants.

 

[Lucothefish]

raise smaller preflop. like 2-2.5x somewhere in there. IT has the same effect as a 3x would, but we keep things much smaller preflop and if we get 3bet we just saved alot of chips. Making this change will mean you save a shitload of chips in spots like this over the long term. It also means we give ourselves a better price to see the flop and hit our set, which is the only value this hand has to be raising really.

As played pretty simple check fold. Opening to begin with is pretty meh, it's not gonna matter if you fold it or raise it really provided you don't get into situations where you put money in on really bad boards or vs multiple opponants.

Yeah this, raise smaller pre and the check/fold is fine that's a tough board to stab at without a good read

 

[masadad]

actually i didn't play it according to plan at all... maybe the best play is to raise small pre 2.5x and then check fold. i would have done exactly that in most of the cases.

in this hand though i raised to represent a strong hand as i had that image on the table and i had been folding for a while. the flop was perfect to throw in a cbet and represent a good flop. and with some luck there that turn card would have given me a monster pot. but instead i backed out of my own plan and just quickly check/folded that... but then again what if there was no 2 on the turn...

i am also surprised that MP2 didn't 3bet pre AKs

 

[Poker Orifice]

so are you posting this hand because you would've hit a set on turn

 

[WiZZiM]

actually i didn't play it according to plan at all... maybe the best play is to raise small pre 2.5x and then check fold. i would have done exactly that in most of the cases.

in this hand though i raised to represent a strong hand as i had that image on the table and i had been folding for a while. the flop was perfect to throw in a cbet and represent a good flop. and with some luck there that turn card would have given me a monster pot. but instead i backed out of my own plan and just quickly check/folded that... but then again what if there was no 2 on the turn...

i am also surprised that MP2 didn't 3bet pre AKs

stop trying to represent, players don't care what you are doing, they just see that they have a hand and they call. Representing hands is only good if you know the other player is capable of working out what you are doing. I wrote an entire post about this exact thing, using image as an excuse to make less than optimal plays. i see this rationale all the time, and it makes no sense to me at all.

Having a tight image is a small part of what goes into your thoughts about opening. The main value from opening here is that you can hit sets, and you have initiative.. But it's not a great spot to open, you will make more money opening 72o from the button if everyones folded to you.

Why are you suprised that he didnt 3bet AKs? it's because you would have 3bet AKs, but he is not you, and does not play like you. SO when you range people, don't exclude hands from his range just because you would play it a certain way, put yourself in their shoes, they are likely pretty stupid about poker and play for fun mostly, so they will do things that you would not do, but you have to expect that they do those things, the key is weighting them as less likely or more likely depending on the type of games or the player in question.

 

[masadad]

okay yea i realize where the flaws are now. i actually read about these things some time ago. i keep forgetting things while focusing on trying to fix some other leaks in my game...

 

[WiZZiM]

it's a great thing to post your thought process in your original post, can point out possible flaws in your thinking which helps you in more ways than finding out if a spot is a call/fold or whatever.