Would you have played this different?

[renaud]

2nd hand of the night in my weekly $20 buy-in T2000 tourny.

Blinds are 5-10 and I am one seat to the right of the button.
Two limpers before it gets to me and I look down at 
Raise to 30, both the blinds call as well as the two limpers (its a pretty loose game early on).

Flop: 
Checks around to me and its a pretty draw heavy board so I bet out 150.  BB raises to 450 and all others fold.  I call and wait to see the turn.  The BB player is a very tight player who rarely if ever bluffs.  I am putting him on a big Ace.  Either AK or maybe AJ.

Turn: 
I bet out 600 hoping he re-raises since I'm pretty confident in my hand now.  He just calls.

River:   
Horrible card, since I was really thinking AK for him.  He immediatly goes all-in for his remaining ~900.  I thought about it for a while and then lay it down.  What would you have done?  My only thought was that I should have 3 bet the flop and went all-in there.

Later in the night he claimed to have AJ.  I still feel ok with the laydown since I was very sure it was AK or AJ.  Once he bet out so quick on the river it screamed AK to me.

(Click to show/hide)

I ended up knocking him out about an hour later and went on for 2nd in the tournament.

[Detroitdad]

1. Knowing its loose early on. I raise more than  3 x's the BB. I make it 50-60.

Now, is your buddy tight enough that he would throw away k/q to a preflop bet/raise?  If so, I re-raise him on the flop all in.

If he is tight, but not that tight that he plays any two paint cards, then I might just call his raise, but I'm tempted to still push at this point.

[renaud]

You're right about the bet of 30 pre-flop, more would have been better.  It wouldn't have pushed out the BB with AJ suited, but would have gotten rid of a couple other players.

He is not so tight to throw away KQ pre-flop.  He's one of those players that will play any two paint cards most of the time, but I should clarify what I meant by him being very tight.  He's not that tight when it comes to starting hands, but plays very snug unless he has a strong hand after the flop.  When he re-raised me on the flop there was no chance it was a bluff.  The only question was how strong was his hand.

I wasn't thinking KQ at that point because he's known to get a little excited and probably would have been all-in there.  Looking back on it I should deffinitely have been all-in either on the flop or turn.  Oh well, live and learn.

[NotFadeAway]

I would have played it a little bit differently personally, although I think you played this hand well:
Prefop:  raise more.  I'd probably raise to at least 50 for sure.  You might fold out a few weak hands with overs (QJ, KT, A6, etc.) which is obviously good.  Also, you have a good hand and can start building a pot in position. 
Flop:  As played the pot appears to have had 150 in it (two limpers, two blinds, and you putting in 30 each), so the 150 bet looks good.  When the bb check-raises I really like 3 betting him.  The main reason is that his raise is so small.  I'd want to build the pot to try to get his stack in on the turn.  Also, it looks like he likes his hand (could be KQ, but more likely AQ, AJ, or AK.)  If you has any of these he'll probably stack off.  It's incredibly unlikely that he had AA or JJ since he just called preflop, and if he has these I assume you'll stack off by the river most of the time anyway, so I wouldn't worry about that.
Turn:  As played, the pot has 1050 in it and you bet 600.  That looks pretty good, as he has 1500 and you have to know you're good after he c/r the flop and checked to you on the turn.  I'd consider shoving (it's more than the pot, but not by that much) to try to get him to go ahead and commit his stack, but you're play's probably better.
River:  Awful card.  When he shoves he so does NOT have AJ.  He said that just as an ego thing I think.  Dude has AK or AQ here like 100% of the time (you said that he's a 'very tight player who rarely ever bluffs.')  And, mostly, he has to be afraid that you have AK.  It's certainly in your range (probably at the bottom of your range, but still.)  I think you have fold here, even though it's tough.

Anyway, bad luck on this hand and well played I think.

[stooks99]

Preflop:  raise more.... Way more.

On the flop, unless you plan on folding onthe turn, put in another raise.  With 2k left, it's probably a shove.

On the turn here, you officially have half your stack in.  So, with 2k in the pot and less than 1k in your stack, you're probably going to be looking at getting 3 to 1 on a river bet/call, which is a lost time to be folding a set.  Ship it on the turn.

On the river...... Well, I really don't know what to do here.  In the last four years, the insta shove has changed from bluff to the nuts most of the time.

Folding leaves you a little less than 50bb, so it's not tragic. 

[FSL009]

the shove on the end polorizes his hand to a pure bluff or the nuts. 

If he has AJ then he is bluffing with it cause in that spot he is clearly beaten by any hand that complete the straight.   Assuming he is tight this is not the play you would expect from a tight player in that sitution, on the end he is likely to check it down if he has showdown value.  which AJ has just in case he is beaten, any bet there is only getting called by a nut hand and is a silly move from a tight player.

So I would figure that the laydown is a good thing on the end.

I dont mind the smaller bet up front but when you hit the set in that spot with thise cards you want to put extreme pressure on with pot sized bets after the flop live.

your charging any draws for drawing remember and the only way you can do that with big stacks is to ensure you reduce their implied odds on drawing against you...

that is my uneducated take on it anyway...

especially early in the tourney when they will not get any reads from the bigger bet sizing anyway.

[holdemholmes]

i have to agree with the rest...with limpers in front of you the key mistake was the small raise...I would say 50-70 is a fair bet there with limpers in front.  the rest of the way i believe you played it right....as far as on the river...he's either got the straight or nothing at all...if he never bluffs...then you made the right move...but if he is capable of making that move with aj or aq...its a tough decision.

[Gregg729]

The problem with this scenario is we don't know your starting stacks, we have to assume you both have the buy-in amount. 

Anyway, 10's are strong but very vulnerable - I'd lead out 4+ XBB normally, and if it was a loose table I'd lead out 5-7X.  You faced a strong raise on the flop - but what can beat you?  A's, J's, or KQ, and that's it.  He didn't reraise your preflop bet so he doesn't have a wired pair.  KQ is well within anyone's calling range but...  if he's a tight, solid player would he be raising there or just feeding you some rope? 

He probably has a hand all right, but it's less than trips.  I think he told you the truth, AJ, he was trying to push YOU off a possible draw...  I don't see how you could be behind on the flop.  You're ahead at this point, draws are out there, so shove and take it down right now. 

So you just call.  The turn's a brick, and you have it sounds like slightly more than the pot - shove and take it down. 

River.  Insta-shove.  In a normal tournament where you start off with a much lower chip stack relative to the BB, you'd probably have to call and take your chances he

[FSL009]

I tend to talk about 3xBB raises meaning you make it 4x BB to go...so that would be 40 this is ineffect a 2xBB raise and is not enough as clearly stated by everyone else.

I have been getting better results wiht lifting my raises to 3xBB at least until recently...lol.

but anyway that joke would require you looking in online poker.....


but i think a rule of thumb that people have around here seems to be 3x BB + 1 BB for each limper.  that pretty much clears the decks.

[luckystraights]

Calling the raise on this flop is only good if he will fold the majority of his range you beat to a 3b, there is a ton of worse cards in the deck, and presumably he isn't a total nit so he'll raise and stack a hand like Kd Jd on the flop, its also doubtful if he'll fold 2pr, so imo you should 3b and play for stacks on the flop.