Okay guys, need some more advice

Our usual MTT today, five tables, top three players get paid, freeroll. Had a pretty good table today... Two good players, a bunch of passive ones that I haven't seen before.

I pretty much stay out of the way for the first level... get JJ in early and take it down on a ragged flop. Open raise on the button with ATo and fold to a re-raise out of the BB (the good players were two and three seats to my left).

The tables here pretty much play down to four before dividing up into other tables, so you get to play quite a bit of shorthanded. Shortly after blinds increased to .50/1 (I had ~11 in chips) we were down to five handed. I decided it was time to change gears.

In the BB I saw a free flop and took it down when I hit middle pair and bet out. On the button I was dealt A7o. There was one limper to me and I raised and took down the pot. The next hand I got AKo and raised a limper. We went heads up and he folded to my bet on the A high flop. Hand after that I got ATs and again won the pot with a preflop raise.

I folded a hand, then raised out of the BB with QJ, and took it down with a continuation bet on a ragged flop. Got K9s in the SB.

UTG limped in, I raised, and he flat called. UTG was EXTREMELY passive. I'd seen him limp/call down with AA... and bottom pair (on different hands, of course). He had won some big pots doing this, and was the chip leader at the table.

Flop came KQT rainbow. I bet out for 5 dollars (I had also raised to 5 preflop, an extra large raise). He called. Turn was a blank... I bet my last 8 bucks, he called. He turned over AK and I was done.

Now, my first instinct was to feel stupid for getting trapped... but I really felt like he would have called me down with any Q or any T as well, and was even more likely to since I had won five of the last six hands without a showdown. I don't think I could have avoided getting all my money in on this hand. How do those of you who occasionally play super-aggressive avoid getting trapped... especially when playing with large blind sizes that don't let you get away from a hand once you have a raise and a bet invested?

What was your stack size at the start of the hand? You said you had $11 when it got down to 5. I assume you had more then that, i don't really see anyone betting half there stack preflop.

Anyways, I have made plays like this out of position from time to time to try and take down a pot when the blinds are big, but for the most part, they are unadvisable. If you know utg is extremely loose and passive, then why are you trying to steal this pot.

BUt since you did, i think $5 is a good bet on the flop considering the pot size. Your not really going to get any information though, he is going to call with a wide variety of hands including very weak and very strong hands.

BUT, after he called the flop, i would try and check it down. You said he was passive, so you really don't need to bet the turn. If you check it to the river and then he bets, then you can fold knowing that a passive player is not going to bet with something you have beat. If he checks the river, he wins the pot and you save yourself from busting out.

I guess you probably thought you were valuebetting the turn (or protecting), but i still think the safer play would have been to check/fold the turn and the river instead of betting your last $8.

I was up to 18 at the start of this hand I believe. Going over what I remember, I actually probably was down to 8 bucks when we got down to 5 people, because I had picked up at least 10 bucks over the last round of the table.

Thanks for the tip about checking it down there... him being passive is a great reason to check that hand... and now that you say it, I don't know why I didn't play it that way (since I normally do :/ ). Maybe I was just too locked into super-fast mode.

Yea, i don't know why this is, but whenever i am playing live i always make mistakes that if i saw posted in a strategy thread i would just laugh. I usually know what the "right" play is, but sometimes just get caught up in the moment, and play it incorrectly.