I have about 8K in an MTT with blinds of 100/200 + 50ante.

EP3 bets out 3XBB

I have AJ suited and I raise to 6XBB to figure out where I stand. It folds around and EP3 calls me. Here I figure that he doesn't have a solid PP of T or better since hes been playing that way and did not reraise me. Certainly he was not KK or AA. (Pot: about 3150-EP is about even stack with me)

Flop comes 9, J, 5 rainbow.

He bets into me for 600. I knew he was not trying to suck me out since he raised me flop and would not have, had he hit trips 9 or 5. Clearly not trips A cause he would have come over top preflop.

I put him on TJ, QJ, KJ, or AJ so I push (about: 6500) trying to take down right here and worse case I figure I have him beat with TPTK.

He calls me.

Turn Q
River 10

He shows KJ and I'm dead on the river to the straight.

I assume that I should not have pushed with that many chips, but I really had him pegged as an underkicker and thought he would fold to an all-in since he was even stacked. I think he covered me with about 600 remaining.

Let me know your thoughts on how you would have played this. If it was a smaller raise, does he call? Does he then fold? What do I do on the turn when the Q comes? Etc?

The pot was over half your stack. I don't mind the push.

I don't like the PF play with AJ though. A min raise gets you nothing and dumps off a lot of chips. You are not going to get any information, and a reraise by AA or KK is not automatic. All you are doing is making sure he gets the pot heads-up and forcing him to call. Kick it up to 1800 or so or fold - a call may not be terrible.

I think my read on the guy was right (granted its now verified by the cards) that he was not sitting on a premium pair. He was playing TAG and I had been sitting with him for about 1:20.

Thank you for the info though. I will next time when confident in my read, bet 3x plus on the reraise to get more info. I thought that if I reraised bigger that that might induce him to smooth call if he had a premium pair rather than make a move and go over the top.

In general, I would only call an EP raise with AJ in LP. Certainly not reraise. And if I mark the EP opener as TAG, I would probably just fold.

I was in LP, Seat 8 I believe. If I can I'll post the actual hand later. I think I got most of the details correct.

playing AJ is very situational. Some spots I would grudgingly (shouldn't be grudgingly but it used to be one of my favorite hands - busted AA and QQ with it twice in one day) fold it, others I would reraise all-in (especially in a turbo).

If the stacks were bigger, I could see a min raise just to "buy the button". Here though all you are doing is building a pot that is large in relation to your stack a marginal holding.

Guess I gotta work on poker memory, here is the actual hand:


Stage #257664008 Tourney ID 56249 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $200 - 2005-12-04 21:47:52 (ET)
Table: 47 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 1 - TROY903 ($13712.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - LOVEYAMAN ($11350 in chips)
Seat 3 - BRAVE HEART ($3620 in chips)
Seat 4 - THEREALDECOY ($7700 in chips)
Seat 5 - MILKMAIDEN ($8960 in chips)
Seat 6 - DAHOLMS ($7815 in chips)
Seat 7 - IGOREK2 ($32550 in chips)
Seat 8 - BEANIUS ($17147.50 in chips)
Seat 9 - SUGAR39 ($13012.50 in chips)
TROY903 - Ante $50
LOVEYAMAN - Ante $50
BRAVE HEART - Ante $50
THEREALDECOY - Ante $50
MILKMAIDEN - Ante $50
DAHOLMS - Ante $50
IGOREK2 - Ante $50
BEANIUS - Ante $50
SUGAR39 - Ante $50
IGOREK2 - Posts small blind $200
BEANIUS - Posts big blind $400
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to THEREALDECOY [As JavaScript]
SUGAR39 - Folds
TROY903 - Folds
LOVEYAMAN - Calls $400
BRAVE HEART - Folds
THEREALDECOY - Raises $1600 to $1600
MILKMAIDEN - Folds
DAHOLMS - Folds
IGOREK2 - Folds
BEANIUS - Folds
LOVEYAMAN - Calls $1200
*** FLOP *** [Jc 2c 10d]
LOVEYAMAN - Checks
THEREALDECOY - All-In $6050
LOVEYAMAN - Calls $6050
*** TURN *** [Jc 2c 10d] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 2c 10d Qs] [9d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LOVEYAMAN - Shows [Jd Kc] (Straight, nine to king)
THEREALDECOY - Shows [As JavaScript] (One pair, jacks)
LOVEYAMAN Collects $16350 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($16350)
Board [Jc 2c 10d Qs 9d]
Seat 1: TROY903 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: LOVEYAMAN won Total ($16350) HI$16350) with Straight, nine to king [Jd Kc - P,B,P,B:10d,B]
Seat 3: BRAVE HEART Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: THEREALDECOY HI:lost with One pair, jacks [As JavaScript - P,B,P,B,B:10d]
Seat 5: MILKMAIDEN Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 6: DAHOLMS (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: IGOREK2 (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: BEANIUS (big blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: SUGAR39 Folded on the POCKET CARDS

I think most of what was in the post holds true though. Give me your feedback if something changed here.

not much u could have done here.. u played it well imo... it just so happend that he also hit top pair (and thought it was good).. u were pretty much gonna double up on him.. but he got lucky and hit runner runner to make a straight.. i like ur flop all in bet, very nice. not much u could have done to change the outcome of this hand either.. if u had bet 3/4 to 100% of the potsize instead on the flop, im almost certain this guy would have raised u all in (he would have check-raised).