I recently went out of a satellite tourney in the first hand and wanted to know if i could have avoided it, while playing decent poker. Let me explain...
I was dealt AQ suited mid position and raised to 120. The small blind raises to 375 and i call. I figure that he has a pocket pair or Ax.
The flop comes up Ad 3d 4h and villain checks
I bet 210 and villain raises to 840. Very aggressive.
Weighing up the options. i figure that if he had a pocket pair, he might have hit hit a set, but then he would have had to play with 44, 22 or AA aggressively. Only AA would hold up in that scenario. Very unlikely as it only comes around every 221 hands. If you were scared of that you would never play a single hand when anyone raised.
If he didn't have a pocket pair, he might have hit 2 pair, the best of which would be A4 - again unlikely given the aggression he showed pre flop.
Without a pocket pair or having hit 2 pair, the best hand he could have had - and the only one that could possibly beat me is AK. Would that warrant the pre flop aggression? I certainly wouldn't bet like that, especially first hand.
I put him on QQ or KK and go all in, having hit AA. He calls. He has Ac Ks
Turn and river don't help, so i'm out.
He countered my initial raising with serious aggression while holding only AK.
Does anyone think i could or should should i have been able to escape this, bearing in mind i had top pair and second top kicker after the flop; or is that how it goes sometimes. Your comments will be interesting.
Comments
my opinion, you could of folded when re-raised to 840, he could of had KdQd and looking to hit a diamond flush. Being the first hand, maybe you wouldn't mind folding at that stage. It's tricky at times and I do understand why you called his big raise. I actually dont think you did anything wrong and was just unlucky he had bigger kicker with the K in the end.
AK is absolutley massive in NLHE....to become a good poker player you need to understand the overall equity it gives you.
Depending on the struture it could have been avoided...it is rare I play like a nit in satelittes so I prob would have stacked off too once I hit my A but w/e.
Also depends on your roll etc...if the BI is a significant amount of your roll then look for a better spot than 1pr/DK...