The 4th hand of a NL sit and go, I get pocket eights on the button. First hand I've played, everyone folds to me and I raise to 240, which is 4x BB. SB folds and BB calls, also his first hand of the game.

Flop comes 7 4 2, all hearts - I have the eight of hearts.
BB checks, I bet 300 into a pot that already has 500 in it.
BB immediately raises me to 600.
I think forever and fold. Good decision?


20 or 25 hands later, I get AK offsuit in the small blind.
One early and one late position player limp in, I limp with the intention to check raise if an ace or king hits. BB checks.

Flop comes A 10 4 rainbow
I check, BB checks, early player bets 100 which is the minimum, late position calls.
I raise to 400, BB folds, early position re-raises to 850, late position folds.
I think even longer than before and fold again.

These two hands combined to take about half my starting chips early in the game and I couldn't mount a recovery... did I make the right folds and could I have lost less money?

Hand 1: probably a good fold, the guy might be on a steal but its still early, I think at best you were a slight fav.

Hand 2: Gotta raise with AK preflop. Its makes it very hard to put him on a hand now, he could have hit a set 4s or 10s... maybe top 2 pair, or he could have AK,AQ... maybe even AJ. I probaly push here hope he was a A but no 2 pair.

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"On a large enough time line, the survival rate of a Donk will drop to zero."

the hands you mention are all hands he would also play with a 4x raise (probably).


anyway, first hand is tricky. If you don't have any reads I think your fold was good. The second hand I'd call or push hoping he has AQ.