I didn't play any cash games last night, but did wind up playing two tourneys. The interesting thing is that I was all with QQ vs. AK at critical times in both tourneys. I found this kind of funny because I was having a conversation a couple of days ago with a friend about how to play QQ preflop in a SNG/tourney. Below are the two scenarios - both tourneys on Paradise that have fast blind structures, which was a key factor in both decisions.
$20 Satellite to $200 $150k Guaranteed Sunday (2/11) tourney on Paradise
Pocketfives.com was adding 15 $200 seats to a $20 satellite last night. It was a tourney that seemed too good to pass up, so i signed up. The tourney had around 215 entries and paid 36 seats with some money going to 37th - 39th.
As we got down to 39 players with fairly high blinds, I was near the bottom of the remaining players. I could have probably coasted into winning a seat, but if just one short stack doubled up then there would have been a distinct possibly of me becoming the bubble boy. So in middle to late position, I get dealt QQ. What to do? What to do? I may still be able to fold into the money. I really have only 2 options - all in and hope no one behind me has AA or KK or fold. The table was playing pretty tight because we were on the bubble. I decided to push. A big stack in the small blind called immediately with AK. Oh Crap!! The flop came Queen high and I felt safe. That feeling went away when a Jack came on the turn. A blank on the river and I doubled up, allowing me to coast into winning a seat into the $200 tourney.
$30 Rebuy on Paradise Poker
990+ entries paying around 95. Payouts don't really pick up until the top 20.
I have about 17,000+ chips. Blinds 400/800 plus antes. Blinds about to increase. 215 players remaining. I am around 110th place in chip count.
Dealt QQ in early position. UTG limps. I raise to 3,000. A guy in middle position immediately raises all in. He has me barely covered. I had seen the same guy put all his chips in preflop with KQ and A10. UTG folded. I was 90% sure that the guy that raised all in had AK. There was no way this guy was going all in with AA, based on the way he was playing. I had a critical decision to make.
1. Race for my tourney life. If I lose - gg me. If I win, I have 37k+ chips and am in the top 20 with 200 players remaining. A win puts me in great shape to have a high ITM finish.
2. Fold leaving me 14k in chips. I would have to post the blinds in two hands and the blinds would probably have increased by then. I would almost be at less than 10xBB in a tourney with rapidly increasing blinds. Every decision after that would pretty much just become all in or fold.
I weighed out both options and decided that I had to race - after all I was around a 56% favorite. I called. An ace came on the turne - GG me.
I usually don't mind pushing all my chips in with QQ if I think another guy has AK, but I have a very difficult time calling all my chips off with QQ against AK. If I am the one pushing with QQ vs AK preflop then I have better than a 56% chance to win because I have the added fold equity - believe it or not some people can lay down AK preflop.
I hate QQ vs. AK, but sometimes you have no choice but to race. I won 1 race and lost 1 race - about what should be expected. I would love to hear how everyone else would have played each of these situations - especially the 2nd one.
-----------------
Since I have a cushion in the $50k Challenge, I am going to concentrate on tourneys for a few days and see if I can improve on my results. I am not happy with my Jan. tourney results and am going to experiment with a few things.
Good luck at the tables,
cmitch
Posts
Giving the situation you explain in the second, I push/call everyday including Sunday. You have to push your edge. Obviously, they don't always work out in the short term; but over the long term, in my humble opinion, even calling in this situation is +EV.
WillWonka
11:01 AM
Yeah that is what I was thinking. It is funny how I would call that bet in a heartbeat in a NL SH cash game but I agonized over it in the tourney.
I sometimes think I tend to over analyze some situations in tourneys - maybe this is why my tourney results have not been the best as of late.
cmitch
11:47 AM
The only thing I can add is that in tournaments, a coin toss is not always a good thing. If you are desperate, it may save you. But otherwise, a cointoss in a tourney which can end your game is like saying either (a) you spent all your time getting to this point but now you no longer care and are willing to put it all on luck, OR (b) you can't outplay your opponents, so luck will have to help you to win.
Now, I know that both of those scenarios don't apply to you. In a cash game, you want to maximize that edge, but in a tourney, you want to protect your big hands, not exploit them.
Jordan
1:18 PM
Some would argue that your first play was worse than your second, although I wouldn't agree. I'm not a big fan for defensive tourney poker, although if the situation had been reversed (an all-in in front of you in the first tourney with your QQ), I think most folks would advocate folding with teh seat in the $200 tourney being the common prize for cashing.
The second situation definitely has different schools of thought by experts. The aggressive play is that this is a no-brainer call, that your happy with the situation in overall terms. The conservative play is something that must be mastered, that of laying down good to very good hands in tournament situations in either coin flip situations or suboptimal hands. I say this must be mastered as I think there is a stair-step advancement when you are able to make the laydown of the big hand pre-flop as well as post flop. By this, I don't mean laying down these hands every time, but deciding to move past a hand and look for a better situation can lead to long-term success. Having said all of this, successful tourney play is more about chip accumulation than cashing, so I think both of your moves are solid.
CC
3:45 PM
to the comment on CC... about agressive vs conservative play. I'm not expert, only playing for few months, but... what you say about avoiding coin flips, and waiting for a beeter situation made me think (yeah it did :D).
isn't it like tryng to skip odds and / or bad beats, that, otherwise, can't be skipped? i mean, you diffoulty can have the nuts in the flop, maybe in the turn.... but, with the EV+ in your side, the odds will pay you off int he future... the question is... in torunaments too?
Well, about the article, for me the question is that with QQ is easier to Push all in, and pray not to be paid by AA, KK, and AK, than to call. depends of the player, but from a tight as rock player, i think is a not-so-hard fold.
In both situations, i'd have call. yesterday i was kiked from the Sunday 1/4 million QQ vs AK, but i pushed and got called.
Another question is: do you call with AKo all in if the guy u put in to QQ or even JJ and TT goes all in? count 2 outs outs for the straight
Xavier Colomés
6:28 AM
I played a similar hand this evening. I was dealt pocket queens on the button, when a mid position player raised 6 x big blind.
After my re-raise and a call from him, the flop comes - 7, 2, 4.
I've pinned him on AK or AQ. He raises all-in, to which I called instantly. He has AK.
Turn comes and presnts nothing to save him.
On the river he hits the Ace. It was unfortunate but realised it was one of those times where it 'just happens' and odds worked against me.
I was wondering if you guys have any comments on this.
I thought my play was rather standard and had him pinned. Is there anything you would have done differently or maybe shoved sooner? This all happened on the first blind level - just unfortunate I guess.
Luke
4:30 PM
Nice post as always :)
Free poker money
5:11 AM
Excellent post. I was checking continuously this blogs and I’m impressed! Very helpful information specially the remaining part I care for such information much. I was looking for this particular info for a long time. Thanks and best of luck.
sbo666
Unknown
2:04 AM