AQ question early in a MTT

[TwoToGo-Grave]

I was playing online the other day and the following situation came up.
First level of a MTT:  blinds 10/20.
Me(button):  3100 chips.
UTG+1:  4430 chips.
I get dealt A-Q
UTG+1 raises to 80, I call (pot:  190)
Flop:  A-6-6 (rainbow); UTG+1 bets 180, I call (pot:  370)
Turn: A-6-6-10;  UTG+1 checks, I bet 300, UTG+1 calls (pot:  970)
River:  A-6-6-10-J; UTG+1 moves all in (...2440), Me?

What would you do on each street and what would you do as played?
I'd appreciate any responses.

[Nerre]

Well, what woul you put him on? He raised pre flop.

The possible hands on the flop would rpobably be Ax (worse with AK or A6) or any pocket pair. On the turn he probably realise you have at least an Ace. But on the river I think his AJ hit. OR he might be bluffing...

So your read on him is very important. Could be be bluffing? Or did he hit?

I would fold, the risk is to big, he has you covered.

I don't think you played it wrong the earlier streets, I would have played the same I think, you have a good hand and also position, I think he played the hand wrong if he had AJ. (If he had JJ he played it good.)

[bjhester454]

With the blinds that low, I think that you can let this one go and still have plenty of room with your 2440 that you have left.  Like Nerre said, too much of a risk to call if he got lucky with AJ.  You definitely could have been behind the whole way if he happened to have AK. 

Ben 

[Martini]

I don't like the call on the flop. If you think you are ahead, then bet it. If you think you are behind, fold. If you aren't sure you can either fold or bet to find out more. Calling can set you up for a more expensive difficult decision later.

[Jambine]

Not knowing anything about the players here, I would have to default to the basics.  An early raise (UTG+1) indicates a very strong hand, so I don't think I would have called pre-flop getting only a little better than 2:1, especially with 2 players yet to act behind me.

If I had decided to play this one, I think I would have re-raised pre-plop to test his strength (while I can still do that without committing my whole stack).

[hachkc]

1. As played to turn, check and hope for a cheap showdown.

2. As played to river, fold.  Its too early and too many chips to get involved here.

3. Overall, I might reraise PF depending on read on player but that would be unusual.

4. A reraise on the flop bet isn't a bad thing either here; test to see if he has an Ace.  His river push could be JJ too.

[Jambine]

OK., I’ll play the hand out

First level of a MTT:  blinds 10/20.
Me(button):  3100 chips.
UTG+1:  4430 chips.
I get dealt A-Q
UTG+1 raises to 80, I call (pot:  190) Re-raise & fold to a raise

Flop:  A-6-6 (rainbow); UTG+1 bets 180, I call (pot:  370) Raise & fold to a re-raise

Turn: A-6-6-10;  UTG+1 checks, I bet 300, UTG+1 calls (pot:  970) OK

River:  A-6-6-10-J; UTG+1 moves all in (...2440), Me? Fold

Dam, that was painful

[Gobbs]

Here are my thoughts.

First level of a MTT:  blinds 10/20.  Early in the contest.  No need to get involved with big pots yet.

Me(button):  3100 chips.
UTG+1:  4430 chips.
I get dealt A-Q
UTG+1 raises to 80, I call (pot:  190)  Assuming a full table and a small stake online tournament (and not having any other information on the player), I'm going to put him on AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, A8s+, ATo+.  I'm not folding AQ in this position since I have position on the raiser and AQ is a good hand, but I don't want to get involved in a big pot.  So, I like a call here.  As others have said, you could raise here, but if you get called, do you really know where you stand?  You may just be getting yourself pot committed and that's not in your best interest here.

Flop:  A-6-6 (rainbow); UTG+1 bets 180, I call (pot:  370)  I like a re-raise here.  You've hit the flop and I believe it is unlikely the player has a 6.  A re-raise should get him to laydown KK, QQ, JJ, TT.  It might even get him to laydown a weak ace.  If you re-raise to 600 here, I think you'll know where you stand and still be able to get away from the hand with plenty of chips if you get re-raised.  If he folds, good.  If he calls, proceed with extreme caution.  If he re-raises, I'm probably done with the hand.

Turn: A-6-6-10;  UTG+1 checks, I bet 300, UTG+1 calls (pot:  970) By his check, I would have gotten the impression that your call on the flop scared him a bit.  I think he might be holding a pair and he is now afraid you have an ace.  He also may have an ace, but not be too proud of his kicker.  There is the outside chance that he is holding AT.  I like the bet of 300 here.

River:  A-6-6-10-J; UTG+1 moves all in (...2440), Me?  OK, this bet really surprises me.  Maybe he's been slow-playing AA the whole time.  Maybe he has AJ or AT.  Maybe he had JJ or TT.  Maybe he is bluffing.  If you go back and look at the hand history, you'll see that all these scenarios make some sense.  I'm afraid I have to lay it down here.

Bottom line - if he had AA, you got away from the hand about 300 chips cheaper than I would have.  If he had AJ or AT, I'm not sure he would have called my re-raise on the flop, but he probably would have called a turn bet.  If he had JJ or TT, I really don't think he would have called a re-raise on the flop.  I already showed some strength by calling a 4x bet pre-flop and now I'd be showing big strength with a re-raise.  If he was bluffing, a re-raise on the flop would have definitely gotten a fold from your opponent.  I think the mistake was not re-raising on the flop, personally.

Gobbs
 
 

[bjhester454]

So what happened?

[TwoToGo-Grave]

So what happened?

I folded and didn't see his cards.
I put him on KQ or, more likely, AJ and since I obviously could only beat a bluff, I had to fold.