My final hand in our last tourney

[Acenoid]

Hello there!

Probably played bad and too risky You probably have some advice here

I was a mid/short stack in the live game 7-handed. We had 2 very big stacks there due to insane betting in the first level. (3 double ups/rebuys already). Blinds were 25/50, startstacks were 2000 chips. People started to push around with insane betting right from the start.

I was in late position with approx 2000 chips to my disposal.

I met the villain first time but from my obseervations he was playing very loose, rarely folding and play even weaker hands.

Pre-flop:
- 1.P layer folds
- 2. Player calls
- 3. Villain: calls [~1850 chips]
- 4.-5. Players fold
- 6. hero raise to 200 [Ad,2d, ~2000 chips] (SB)
- 7. player fold (BB)
Villain calls, rest fold

Flop comes: A, Q, 10, pot is approx: 500

Villain: bets 500
Hero: re-raise 1000
Villain: all in
Hero: call

Turn: 8
River: 5

(Click to show/hide)

Villain shows a Q, 5 = two pair
Hero shows: A, 2 = one pair

My thought was that he most likely did not have the ace as I have seen him playing with worse, I also wanted to avoid being pushed around even with my smallish stack. He was lucky with the 5 at the end , but thinking about it the flop might have been more dangerous than it looked especially knowing that his handrange is so much wider. Other thought was that since we already had some big stacks at the table I needed to catch up some chips quickly before I get even further behind.

[stooks99]

~40BB stacks isn't deep enough to make this raise with A2s.  Suited baby aces are intended for multiway action cheaply.  If you had a read on a very tight player, ragged aces aren't too bad for trying to move them off their hand (mostly because of card eliminations with your ace). 

If you're pretty sure top pair is good against a loose player, there isn't much you can do about it.  Once you get to the flop, if you're playing it all the way, it's just a bad beat.  IMO, the pot could have been kept smaller preflop, but I don't know if you get away from the hand against the player your described.

[Acenoid]

Thanks for the reponse!

"Suited baby aces are intended for multiway action cheaply."
So basically you would have just called preflop and see top pair, but then I would have had to play against 3 instead of 1, With hitting the top pair I would still felel very insecure due to the number of players participating.
Of course I suppose you would have to see the flop cheaply to hope for a few diamonds for the flush or straigh posisbilities.

[stooks99]

Taking a flop cheaply comes at the price of being able to throw away top pair with too much pressure.  If yo find yourself unable to do this regularly, you should probably just throw the hand away preflop unless you have deeper stacks.

[NotFadeAway]

I totally agree with stooks.  The preflop raise isn't good at all, as you're out of position and with a hand that's hard to flop good with.  Also, if you were SB, how did villain act first after the flop?
As for losing, it's obviously a bad beat, and villain is terrible.  Don't worry about that and just try to make sure you play the hand as well as possible.

[Acenoid]

Hi there!

Yes I memorized something wrong with this hand here. It's also now a few days ago already I cannot getr all the details together, the core of the hand shoudl be correct

I had preflop aggression, villain had postplfop aggression.

But lesson learned here is to play more disciplined preflop.

[troysteelerfan]

At 40X the bb left I throw A2 (even if they are "soooooted" away) almost every time - sometimes I may limp with it but to be honest I am going to throw it away unless I flop a huge hand - flush (which happens what about 1 out of 110+ times), now in your case you were in the big blind - so why not just check and see what happens? What does the raise to 200 do? IMO it sweetens a pot where you will play every street from here on out of position? and you have sweetened the pot - committed more chips with a suspect hand at the very best ... additionally did you suspect the loose player was going to simply chuck his hand?
Additional concerns are:
1 - do you even want an ace to come off? If so your two is worthless
2 - if you flop a draw to a flush or straight are you gonna chase and how far?
3 - if you flop a str8 or str8 draw will the 'wheel' be good? probably but tough to tell on a loose opponent
4 - if you know the opponent is loose I would wait and try to punish them with premium hands or certainly a hand better than A2 - do you really want called with A2 in your hand and out of position rest of the hand
5 - your stack is playable and you will be SB next hand and then past the blinds - I wait and pick a better spot so I simply check the A2 here - then to be honest probably check call the flop and to be honest may even check fold the flop - especially if I feel I am one of the better players left I am going to play in a manner that decreases my volatility in the hand - however that is simply my "style" and how I would approach the hand.


It is to bad he caught a 5 to beat you and he shouldn't have played the hand to begin with but his choices and play are not the concern...the concern for me is "my play" and "my choices" and to be honest I would not go bust with A2 - especially given the situation you described.....

[Acenoid]

Thanks for the constructive advice. I know that A2 was weak since all other ppl folded and just mr crazy was left I also lowered the bar for my hand. But I see as well that I overplayed it as you described very well. Live and learn, live and learn

[Killingbird]

I agree with stooks on every point.  Even if I had limped, I might not fold this flop though if it is a rebuy (depending on buyin, structure, etc)

[stooks99]

I agree with stooks on every point.  Even if I had limped, I might not fold this flop though if it is a rebuy (depending on buyin, structure, etc)

Just give me a minute to relish in the moment of a TPE guy agreeing with me.