Trip aces vs potential straight

[TomJQKA]

Just finished playing a NL Sit & Go tournament, and I lost half my stack early on with pocket aces. I think I played it right, but you tell me...

I was in early-mid position, just after the blinds. I got pocket aces so I made a raise of about $500. The starting money was $1500, so it was a substantial raise. I got one caller. My first question here is should I have gone all-in or made a larger bet with Aces? Best case scenario, I would have just taken the blinds if I did that, so I thought a good size raise that was still callable was the best play. I wanted a caller, didn't I?

The flop came J, A, Q. I felt wonderful now with trip aces, so I went all in (putting my caller all-in, since I had him covered by about 1000). Second question is, should I have played this slower seeing a potential straight here? I wouldn't have expected someone to call the big pre-flop raise with K 10.

It doesn't matter because he didn't have K 10, he had Q 10. He called my all-in bet with a pair of Qs and an inside straight draw. So of course, naturally, no wonder, the K came on the river and the straight beat my trip aces.

There was some justice here because two hands later I called his all all in bet when I made a flush on the turn and took my money back. He was eventually eliminated first.

[aces_empty]

i'd say you played it too weak. I would have made my move then and have gone all in if it were a real game, online i'm not sure, but I would definitely have made a bigger then $500 bet with AA pre-flop, that way you win a smaller pot, but you won't get burned by someone catching cards. The thing with AA is that your hand doesn't have the same probability to get better as someone with say JQ or so. The odds that they catch a pair are better then you catching trips, but it's still a low pair, but it also leaves the oppurtunity for stuff like straights and flushes if they are suited. And I would also be wary if only one person called your bet, especially if you judge the reactions of others who have folded down. If everyone folds immediately and doesn't think about it, i'd say that the one person who called you have good cards, probably not an ace, but you can bet he has a lot of paint in his hand because others are going to fold their rags. This is if you're sitting at a real table though. But if enough people take the time to think about it, i'd say they have decent cards, maybe J9 suited at least. and that's being liberal. so blah blah try to get a feel for the folded cards, if you feel someone folded something semi-big, you can feel more confident becuase those face cards that the one caller needs are gone.

[Triad]

Well if he would have gone all in and he called then what?

Your AA just got outplayed. You played them semi-strong...I would have put you on a pocket pair if that was your first raise of the tourney - maybe AA depending but It happens (sometimes) just know that the odds of you getting beat by a straight with AA isnt that great.

I like to vary my play with AA - playing the strong to playing them slow. When I do play them slower - I get burned more often, you just have to recognize the potential for them to get beat post flop and go from there.

[wEbMaStEr]

could not agree more with Triad!
you made a decent size raise pre-flop
the guy had NO RIGHT to be calling your raise with QT or anything else with straight making potential (exception of AKs AQs)
If you went all in pre-flop chances are no-one woulda called and you woulda taken home what? 30/45/75 TC for the best possible starting hand.
you're guy was obviously an idiot!
not only did he call your preflop but he then called your all in with underpair and a 3 outer draw!
chances are you play this same way another 99 times and you will never see that happen.
you met an idiot who got lucky, this is shown by the events which followed.

[alphakenny1]

i have to disagree with aces empty on his idea that u should have raised more. dude, you have pocket aces. the nuts pre flop. he made a decent size raise, 33% of his stack, and he got one idiot to call his bet. the point in a tourney is too maximize ur chips. by raising as aces empty suggest like, u know 750 or so then most likely u will not get a caller and boom u win 35TC. whoopty doo. aces dominate over any hand pre flop. in a sense i think u want callers when u make a huge bet like 500 because they aren't getting good odds and you're a huge favrorite. but unfortunately some idiot called and got lucky. but hey thats poker.

[nicthestick]

Kenny makes a good point. if you get a 500 preflop raise callled, you have to think that you are up against a pocket pair or AK. those are really the only hands that a smart player will call a raise of that size with. When you hit your set, the all in push was perhaps the right move. Dude was a goof for calling, unless you made several plays like that earlier with rags. IMO, you played it well, just got poorplayed.

[PuckJunkieNY]

Kenny makes a good point. if you get a 500 preflop raise callled, you have to think that you are up against a pocket pair or AK. those are really the only hands that a smart player will call a raise of that size with.

The Key Word above is "Smart Player". Ya never know who your gonna run up against online. Many of them do not qualify as smart, and therefore are unpredictable and may bite yer azz from time to time.

"even the losers get lucky sometimes"

Tom, your raise/play was fine in my opinion. You just ran into a lucky drawing bastard. No telling if he would have called a preflop all-in, but I've seen people call it with less than he.

[nicthestick]

What hand is this? I cant remember

[Absolution]

Wow some bad and then good advice here. If anything I'd say your raise was too strong. But, against clueless players I guess it doesn't matter and you did get a caller. You want one caller ideally with aces and your bet got that so for that table I'd say it is correct. If you bet less you do risk a bunch of morons calling with nothing just because. One thing I've learned is to play extra aggressive against weak players to make them pay, so in that way it's a good bet. Against anybody good though that would probably be an immediate fold, possibly even with cowboys. I mean, that's probabably like 15x the BB at that point.

Anyway, you were about 85% favorite to win preflop AND postflop (that's what's so funny about this idiot, he didn't even improve on the flop and still called) so you were right to get your money in, even on the scarey board. Lucky idiot beat you and you survived. That's poker justice at its finest. So in my opinion, there is little doubt about the all-in raise. The only thing I could say is that it is not always wise to risk so much of your stack that early in a tournament. I'd make the same call though I'm sure. In a ring game there would be no question.

If this was a real money tournament I almost feel sorry for the calling station. He's going to lose A LOT of money (or quit poker after a week).