$100 MTT, 80 left out of 300, i'm 45th, with less than average stack. Play is pretty tight.

Game #1364264604: Hold'em NL (150/300) - 2006/01/11 - 21:45:14 (UK)
Table "£15K_WED 1672598 - 2" Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: frede80 (6390 in chips)
Seat 2: Champ100 (1705 in chips)
Seat 3: DAVE.R (10608 in chips)
Seat 4: BigChris (10835 in chips)
Seat 5: Kathlyn (13660 in chips)
Seat 6: WChief (3260 in chips)
Seat 7: Madlive (8238 in chips)
Seat 8: Registrar (2545 in chips)
Seat 9: Bloodclot (4770 in chips)
Seat 10: Bayman (3505 in chips)
Kathlyn: posts small blind 150
WChief: posts big blind 300
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Bloodclot [ ]
Madlive: calls 300
Registrar: folds
Bloodclot: raises to 900
Bayman: folds
frede80: calls 900
Champ100: folds
DAVE.R: folds
BigChris: folds
Kathlyn: folds
WChief: folds
Madlive: calls 600
----- FLOP ----- [ ]
Madlive: checks
Bloodclot: bets 1870
frede80: folds
Madlive: calls 1870
----- TURN ----- []
Madlive: checks
Bloodclot: bets 2000 and is all-in
Madlive: calls 2000
----- RIVER ----- []
----- SHOW DOWN -----
Bloodclot: shows [ ] (Two Pairs, Aces and Queens, Eight high)
Madlive: shows [ ] (A Flush, Queen high)
Madlive collects 10890 from Main pot

I held back in my betting because I wanted callers, should I have gone all in on the flop/ raised more preflop?

Originally Posted by Beavis68

He didnt check it, and he bet just a little over half the pot.

My mistake I looked at it wrong! Yes, now I that I can see and read again, I think that you did pretty much exactly what I would have done.

It's always tough getting pocket aces busted. I've been playing more SnG tourneys lately and have come up with a tactic for pocket AA, KK & QQ from an early position.

If I'm first in, I'll go 3 BBs but if I have a limper I raise it to 5BB (4x his limp)and if I have a raiser before me, I'll double or triple his raise. Logic being, I probably have the best hand pf and don't want drawing hands coming in once they have already committed so I hoping they'll fold pf. I'd welcome comments on this tactic - am I scaring too many hands away or playing too aggressive and not getting bigger pots by going to the flop?

I know a lot of players will limp AA from the early position hoping to trap but I've never really favoured this tactic - it fails to protect a strong but vunerable hand and doesn't build a profitable pot. Also, certain players who limp-raise are auto-matic folds for me as I know they were trapping with AA or KK so I will alway raise someting - just depends on how much each time. Of course this isn't a frequent occurance - wished it were!

pf? raise it up more than 3bb. flop i guess you know your good, but id bet pot. turn, no need to think they have QQ etc.. so bet pot again.

I wouldnt be intentionally scaring hands away with AA but thats just me. Youre supposed to win with it.

I was a little concern about rising more than x3. Three of the last five times i'd put in a 3xBB raise everyone had folded, although that was without any limpers. If i had KK i probably would have gone to x4 or more. Just got greedy i suppose, but i needed the chips. If people want to call with J6s, I shouldn't really try to stop them.

With the straight and flush draw I probably should have gone all-in on the flop. In retrospect there wasn't much point keeping chips back, as there was anything that could fall on the turn that would make me fold. I could have bet more than pot on the flop, rather than half, and less than half again on turn. He might have called, its hard to predict people who limp UTG with J6s. I just checked, he came 4th in the end for $2250, so he probably wasn't completely stuipid.