A9s: top pair, early tournament -- what should I do?

[altruist]

Need a bit of advice:

My stack size: 45 BB
My position: Big Blind
Players at the table: 10 (including me)
Time lapse: Early

Early position (UTG) raises it to 2.5x BB (a raise of 1.5x).
4 limpers, excluding SB. (add .5 BB for SB)
I'm staring at A9 suited in the BB, I decide to call for 1.5BB. (A decent hand, and I'm getting 10:1 odds.)

Flop comes TA4 rainbow with none of my suit.

I'm first to act. I give about 7 seconds delay, and decide to check and see what everyone else does.
Original raiser (UTG) does a raise of 5x BB. Pot now contains 20.5BB, costs 5BB to call.
Everyone folds to me. What should I do?

My considerations:
1. I don't have a backdoor flush draw.
2. My opponent made only a 1/3 size pot bet. Still early in the tournament, but this is his first PFR and continuation bet.
3. The board texture is fairly safe and I could defintely see this raise with an ace.
4. If he has a better ace, I'm not likely to improve.
5. If he has something better, it's not likely to be T4 or A4 based on his PFR and I'm likely drawing dead.
6. If I call him, it is likely I'll have to call a significant amount of my stack in future betting rounds. (at least 25% of my stack)
7. All other opponents folded, so I'm heads up.

What other factors should I consider?

What should be done in this situation?

Thanks for your input!

 

[Tygran]

instant fold

you are most likely up against a stronger ace, AT-AK or a set. Fold it and don't worry about it, if you aren't beat then the player UTG will be making plenty more mistakes soon. All you can really hope for if you call is a 9 to hit and even that might not win it for you.

And it's not really a limp if you are calling a raise... you are saying four players called his raise before it got to the blinds? Loose table sounds like.

The only way you can continue against that kind of pressure with A9 is if you flopped 2 pair or if you have a flush draw and you get good enough odds to call.


For future reference... What type of table are you sitting at? (Ring game? MTT? SNG?) What's the buyin? If it's a tournament what are the blinds? What are the stack sizes of all players involved in the hand?
Need to include these things in future posts.

 

[Isaac13]

Tough Decision

The problem with this hand is that if your behind your probably not coming back. He showed a lot of strength by rasing pre-flop in early position. The continuation bet also shows a lot of strenth because so many people were in the pot.

You still had a lot of blinds left and it was early in the tournament so i would have folded but it definatly is a tough decisions, some people play top pair way to aggressively and you might have had them dominated but if you were playing a solid player i doubt you were ahead.

What happend that hand? Good luck in future hands(except in a hand against me) and hopefully my advice will help in the future.

 

[altruist]

It was a SNG tournament comprised of 10 people. The rest of the information I don't have on hand unfortunately.

What happened that hand? Good luck in future hands (except in a hand against me) and hopefully my advice will help in the future.

I folded, but honestly I was thinking "I'm not really sure what I should do, I think I should fold but I really don't know and folding does seem to be the safer choice."

I'm used to being confident what the right or wrong move is. Usually when I make the wrong move, I know it. When everyone else folded to me, and it became heads up, I became unsure. Especially with the size of his bet.

A2-A6 (minus A4) would've been an easy fold, but my hand wasn't that weak either.

Had at least one other opponent called, it would've been an easy fold for me. Someone will probably have a better ace, two pair, or a set. There are times when people actually have neither and I actually had the best hand to the river. But I still feel confident I made the right move (in that situation) because the chance of 6 opponents to the flop with a raise on the flop and a caller, and have my hand still hold up to the river, is rare.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

My considerations:
1. I don't have a backdoor flush draw.
2. My opponent made only a 1/3 size pot bet. Still early in the tournament, but this is his first PFR and continuation bet.
3. The board texture is fairly safe and I could defintely see this raise with an ace.
4. If he has a better ace, I'm not likely to improve.
5. If he has something better, it's not likely to be T4 or A4 based on his PFR and I'm likely drawing dead.
6. If I call him, it is likely I'll have to call a significant amount of my stack in future betting rounds. (at least 25% of my stack)
7. All other opponents folded, so I'm heads up.

I like this and although overthinking is obviously preferable to underthinking. it can still be harmful at times. Your considerations are generally accurate, but largely irrelevant. Yes, you don't have a BDFD, but it doesn't really matter if you do because it's a difference of only 1.5 outs or so. Yes villain made a 1/3 pot bet, but he made it into 5 players and so on and so forth.

Have a plan when you come into a hand. You have A9s, you have huge pot odds so you can just about justify playing it, but you should be saying to yourself, "I'm playing to hit 2 pair+ or a flush draw+ and I'm justified in doing this because I'm getting 10-1 plus decent implied odds considering the number of players in should I hit big".

Here, someone has raised UTG - a big sign of strength. The same person has then led into 5 players (I think - the wording in your post was a little unclear) - another huge sign of strength. All you are beating here is a bluff or an idiot with A3s or something. It's highly unlikely that even an unknown in the first hand of a tournament has raised UTG and then bet into 5 players on a bluff, and AK-AQ/TT+ are far more likely than other Ax hands.

So fold and move on. I disagree with Isaac in that I think it's a pretty routine fold.

 

[switch0723]

fold pre flop since you have ace rag out of position agaisnt an early position raiser

On flop, lead out with 1/3 pot, if you get raised lay it down, a call be cautious. Its easier to lead out to find out where you stand than check call down

 

[altruist]

fold pre flop since you have ace rag out of position agaisnt an early position raiser

I'm getting 10 to 1 on my money and only have to call 1.5 BB more. Folding would definitely be a mistake here, with ANY two cards.

A raise of 3-5x BB, that's a different story. Defend your hands.

 

[Tygran]

Yeah I don't mind the call here at all in a tourny at 10:1, but you are basically looking for 2 pair or better, or a flush/flush draw. If you just get a single pair only way you can do much with it is if rest of the table isn't pushing the hand hard.

 

[switch0723]

I'm getting 10 to 1 on my money and only have to call 1.5 BB more. Folding would definitely be a mistake here, with ANY two cards.

A raise of 3-5x BB, that's a different story. Defend your hands.

ok but this is a tourny, not a cash game. Even thoguh your getting very good odds, your throwing away tourny chips looking to hit a miracle flop. In a tourny, situations like this happen where you hit top pair no kicker and then dont know what to do and end up busting out of a tourny because you hit half a hand defending your blind.

Also if you want to defend your blinds, dont call since your out of position for the hand. Defend your blinds with a raise as calling doesnt show any real strength.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

He's 'throwing away' 1/30th of his stack getting 10-1 - he's perfectly justified in playing to flop 2 pair+/flush draw+. Sure, if the raise represented a third of his stack or something it would be a fold even accounting for pot odds considerations, but as it is this is a routine call preflop.