Newbie here... did I make the right move?

[mcstl25]

I stumbled upon this site yesterday and I must say that it has been very helpful to me already. I just started playing holdem about two months ago and I have been hooked ever since. I find myself watching holdem on TV all the time trying to learn from the best out there. But anyway, over the last month or so I have started playing on the internet and occasionally with friends. When I play online I usually just go into the play money rooms and try to learn the ropes.

Well last night I decided to enter myself into my first tourney. It was a 5+1 real money tourney with 240 people in it. I didn't expect much, but before I knew it I was in the final three of the tourney. So here is the situation. The chip leader was sitting on the right of me and had 240,000 chips, I had 60,000 and the other person had 30,000. The chip leader was trying to put the both of us all-in probably 75% of the time once it got down to three people. At the time the blinds were 4000/8000 so I knew that if I didnt make a move soon that the blinds would eat away at me.

So anyway, I ended up catching a QJ of hearts. The first person folded (small stack), then the chip leader put me all in. Since they had been going all in quite a bit I figured this was my chance. They showed their cards after I called and they had an A2 offsuit. I caught a queen on the flop and thought I had it but they caught an ace on the turn. I think that I made the right move in that situation, but after thinking about it, should I have tried to knock out the short stack before going after the chip leader or was that the right thing to do?

[Dave B]

tough call when you are short stacked. Remember one thing-heads up even K2 is slightly better than QJ suited. I guess when I am looking to make a move on a short stack against an aggressive player, I will try to wait for a pocket pair (big, small-dont matter), and Ace, or a K w/ another decent card.

[ballbp]

Q J, even suited, is a vulnerable hand. The blinds were up there and you did need to make a move soon though. I would probably have called it too and taken my chances there.

[Ventrick]

You also have to remember that you were short stacked, but you weren't the short stack. I would have waited for something stronger to put all my chips in. Not sure what the the Payout difference between 2nd and 3rd was, but may have been worth waiting to squeeze into 2nd.

[mcstl25]

You also have to remember that you were short stacked, but you weren't the short stack. I would have waited for something stronger to put all my chips in. Not sure what the the Payout difference between 2nd and 3rd was, but may have been worth waiting to squeeze into 2nd.

I agree. At the time I saw that pretty QJ suited and just went all in because I was sick of the chip leader going all in on almost every hand. The difference in prize money between 2nd and 3rd was a pretty substancial amount, so I probably should have tried to knock the short stack out first. The funny thing is that after I lost the chip leader had a 10-1 lead on the short stack and ended up losing some how.