middle of a tourny question ?

ok if u have KK or even AA in the middle of a 200 + person tournament and the bubble is still far away, should u gamble all in with prem hole cards?
if u have an average or better stack, actually heres what happened to me today, did i play this wrong, should i just stay away from all-in situations unless I'm low on chips?

i had AA or KK was in middle position with about 5500 chips (doing well at the table), raised 3x BB to about 900, guy in late position goes all-in with around the same stack as me (actually he had about 600 less). I call and get crippled

don't remember the specifics; was playing 2 tournaments at same time

should i gamble an all-iner with premium hands after commiting chips ?

i can probably answer my own question and say no, as i have not done well in my last few tourny's (think all due to same kind of situation), i think sit and go's (which i just discovered and love) have made me lose my long term patience.

anyways overtired, so may be rambling, but upset with my not making it to bubble lately, but doing well in sit & go's

If you're gonna be heads up, please, for the love of God, get your chips in the middle with AA or KK. You can't ask for a better scenario. Yes, you will lose from time to time, but will come out on top far more times.

__________________
1st place, March/April 2008 Sunday League

Fault always lies in the same place, my fine babies: with him weak enough to lay blame.

I would agree. I don't like going all in either in MTT's but you cannot fold A's or K's if someone puts you all in.

thanks, so it was just bad luck on my part then?
i was beginning to think i should just avoid the all-iners and let them steal my healthy bets (to avoid the coin-flips and let others die off) as I have been doing well during 1st part of MTT's but getting knocked out before the money

The thing I always try and remember when playing MTT's is that most people are trying to just make the money and then they loosen up considerably. But if your in a $2 tourney the first couple levels of the money are between $2.40-$3.00. Did you really play that tourney to win $1.00. No, you played it cause ya wanna make the final table and win $20-$200. You can't do that folding up A's and K's. The single best way to double up, is calling some dumb persons all in pre flop with your Aces.

You have to tell yourself, if it is a good player he is not going to push all-in pre-flop unless he has QQ, KK, AA. If you get beat by AA calling with your kings it just wasn't meant to be anyway. The bad players will push all in with much worse. AK, pocket JJ or lower, AQ,AJ, 2 face cards suited. Short stacks will push all in with Ax suited and such. Your A's have everyone of those hands owned. Your kings will be way ahead. Thier hoping for cards...you already have them.

Say he doesn't put your AA's all in with his eights. Just triples the blinds....your gonna call.......flop is Q-8-2 rainbow.....turn.....4......river....7 you just doubled him up anyway. Now say the flop is A-J-10...nothing gained and nothing lost cause he's not calling any bet here.

And AA's vs lower pair isn't a coin flip...its like 3-1 or something.

It's the lower pairs that I always play wrong.

Ummm, doesn't it depend on the read you have with KK? You're not likely to have much of a read wrt AA on-line, but live you may be sniffing the AA so you may well fold in that case, but if the tells are not saying enough, yup get the chips in.

With AA, of course you should call a preflop all in to your raise. If you get beaten from time to time, then that's just unfortunate.

KK is a bit more tricky as obviously you could be up against AA, but you are just as likely to be up against AK, QQ, JJ, 10 10 or worst against a smaller stack. eckfreak00 has pretty much nailed it.

I like the way mars puts it. If you're in it, you need to be in it to win it. You can waste a lot of time and money just farting around playing not to lose. You need to play to win.

You're going to get cracked from time to time but you need to pick your spots to pull the trigger and can't get many better than AA or KK. Granted if your KK is up against Ax you're only up 3:1 but you have the made hand. This is poker and you can't have the nutz every time.

Well Dinero,

Here's basically the situation you were referring too....only it was at the final table.

I believed I had a very solid, tight image. I was folding alot, and not showing much of anything. When raising, people were folding. I am in the middle of the pack--still able to really hurt someone if they make a mistake, and any big win puts me at the top.

I make a smallish raise in early position hoping someone would make a move....and they did.

Unfortunately, the results were less than I'd hoped, but I still play it the same way every time.

ZOM


PokerStars Game #9110576288: Tournament #46291092, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIII (1000/2000) - 2007/03/27 - 02:13:38 (ET)
Table '46291092 5' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: beano1812 (27534 in chips)
Seat 2: The Zombills (32461 in chips)
Seat 5: chris1013 (54549 in chips)
Seat 6: DrKnIn (23016 in chips)
Seat 7: pfunk76 (56478 in chips)
Seat 8: rdelange11 (75962 in chips)
beano1812: posts the ante 100
The Zombills: posts the ante 100
chris1013: posts the ante 100
DrKnIn: posts the ante 100
pfunk76: posts the ante 100
rdelange11: posts the ante 100
pfunk76: posts small blind 1000
rdelange11: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The Zombills [As Ah]
beano1812: folds
The Zombills: raises 4000 to 6000
chris1013: folds
DrKnIn said, "bah, how a coinflip can turn around the entire game"
DrKnIn: folds
pfunk76: raises 30000 to 36000
rdelange11: folds
The Zombills: calls 26361 and is all-in
beano1812 said, "easy"
*** FLOP *** [Td 7s 4c]
*** TURN *** [Td 7s 4c] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Td 7s 4c 3s] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pfunk76: shows [Tc Ts] (three of a kind, Tens)
The Zombills: shows [As Ah] (a pair of Aces)
DrKnIn said, "ouchie"
pfunk76 collected 67322 from pot

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