PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (10 handed) converter

UTG+1 (t2230)
UTG+2 (t1470)
MP1 (t1560)
Hero (t1280)
MP3 (t1460)
CO (t1390)
Button (t1470)
SB (t1800)
BB (t1360)
UTG (t980)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with , .
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t60, 2 folds, Hero raises to t150, 5 folds, UTG+1 calls t90.

Flop: (t345) , , (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t60, Hero raises to t250, UTG+1 calls t190.

Turn: (t845) (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: (t845) (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t60, Hero raises to t880, UTG+1 folds.

Final Pot: t1785

As you can see, it's fairly early in the SnG and I really didn't have a read on the guy. PF I was thinking more of an isolation play then anything. On the flop I put him on a hand like AQ or AJ and figured a raise would tell me whether he had the K or not. I checked the turn to make it look like a free card move and when the FD hit on the river I almost knew he would fold to my AI. Given my play, I felt I had represented a FD fare more accurately then I had represented a decent made hand (from the flop).

My biggest question is should I have done this? I felt the only way I was winning the pot was a big raise on the river, but I also felt that any amount I raised (other then AI) would have been called...Comments please!!!

the reason you are playing 77 is for a set. only re raise pf with JJ+ for pps this early.

i like the way you played the flop and river. dont get into this situation next time with 77. pps at 10/20 and 15/30 is one of the easiest things to do in poker. all you have to do is limp and hope for a set...

just call his raise and no set no bet. thats it. i dno what else to say its really simple. theres no need to isolate this early with 77. it will only get you into situations like this where you have to bluff a very scary river.

I like the play actually...this could've been disastrous for you with the PF raise with 77, but you turned it around into a winning hand. I like it and good job.

Irexes, I represented the FD from the flop, not PF. PF I wanted to (right or wrong) isolate becuase I figured 77 would have a much better chance of winning unimproved against a single player.

His Min raise PF made me scratch my head and his bet on the flop (less then 20% of pot) made me think he was just probing to see what I had on the flop...I bet as a semi-Bluff with the thought that I had about 50% of being best right now and about 25% that he would fold to the flop raise... (thinking he might have been playing a hand like ATs not diamonds).

On the turn, I figured I could check it (I had at this point, every intention of folding to a decent sized bet figureing I had tried the bluff and it had failed). When he bet out so small on the river, I honestly thought that he was just trying to see if I would fold to any bet at this point (I thought he may have thought that I had clicked check/fold on the turn but I'm not sure because I had counted to 6 before checking the turn).

After looking back at the play, I'm thinking he had AJ and figured his second pair top kicker was no good...

When he bet the 60 on the river, I thought back about how the hand had progressed and determined that I had made it look like I was on a strong FD so I pushed...

I also feel that I should say that I am trying to spend more time playing my opponents other then my cards. I sensed weakness so I pushed him to get him to fold. I spend so much of my time in SnGs playing the cards with no real attention to the other players and I'm a break even SnG player. I haven't completely changed that aspect of my play, rather I'm trying to add it to my arsenal. This is one of the reasons I had posted this hand because while I won the hand, I wasn't sure if I'm applying this new "weapon" in the right type of situations...

Thanks for the responses. I would like to remind people (everybody) that the usual reason I post HHs in the stratagy section isn't to get a bunch of responses that say "wow, great play". I usually post when I know the play was questionable but can't seem to work out why.

This is why I usually post winning hands. The results might have been what I wanted but that doesn't make the play the right play. I've played several SnGs since this one and I can say that I'm playing much more str8 forward early on. I just finished one (where I donked off HU but played well till then) where I played TA until the bubble then started stealing pots and switching between stealing pots and going back to TA...I managed to come in second but that was because of my HU play (at one point I was chip leader with a 3:1 CL ).

I need to play this way more consistantly before I can say I am getting a better feel for my opponents but I'm learning