Threw away my stack in the guava tourney on Dise last night on the following hand, seems that I do this quite a lot and wondered how I should have played this, or if I should have played the hand at all. I realise that my play was pretty horrible but I've been going over the different options and can't decide what would have worked best, or when I get off the hand with at least some of my stack in tact.

The field was a lot smaller than usual, probably due to the quickie tournies, but I'm sitting in 20/120 shortly after the first break with just under twice the average stack.

Game #1480908474 - Tournament Guava (NLH) - 100/200 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/05/18-16:53:25.8 (CST) Table "Guava 24" (MTT) -- Seat 7 is the button Seat 1: fkit01 (7,032 in chips) Seat 2: mollymo0 (8,785 in chips) Seat 3: jschatzman (4,083 in chips) Seat 4: antani (5,907 in chips) Seat 5: Antiney (3,149 in chips) Seat 6: Gross123987 (2,151 in chips) Seat 7: GWPATTE53 (5,630 in chips) Seat 8: Amy1982 (3,852 in chips) Seat 10: bjl7611 (3,659 in chips)

mollymo0: Ante (25)

jschatzman: Ante (25)

antani : Ante (25)

Antiney : Ante (25)

Gross123987: Ante (25)

GWPATTE53: Ante (25)

Amy1982 : Ante (25)

bjl7611 : Ante (25)

fkit01 : Ante (25)

Amy1982 : Post Small Blind (100)

bjl7611 : Post Big Blind (200)

Dealing...

Dealt to fkit01 [ Ac ]

Dealt to fkit01 [ Qs ]

fkit01 : Raise (600)

mollymo0: Fold

jschatzman: Fold

antani : Call (600)

Antiney : Fold

Gross123987: Fold

GWPATTE53: Fold

Amy1982 : Fold

bjl7611 : Call (400)

*** FLOP *** : [ 2d As 3c ]

bjl7611 : Check

fkit01 : Bet (1,500)

antani : Call (1,500)

bjl7611 : Fold

*** TURN *** : [ 2d As 3c ] [ 7d ]

fkit01 : Bet (4,907)

antani : Call All-in (3,782)

fkit01 said, "nh"

*** RIVER *** : [ 2d As 3c 7d ] [ Kh ]

*** SUMMARY ***

Pot: 12,689 | Board: [ 2d As 3c 7d Kh ]

fkit01 bet 7,032, collected 1,125, net -5,907 (showed hand) [ Ac Qs ] (a pair of aces) mollymo0 lost 25 (folded)

jschatzman lost 25 (folded)

antani bet 5,907, collected 12,689, net +6,782 (showed hand) [ Ah Ks ] (two pair, aces and kings) Antiney lost 25 (folded)

Gross123987 lost 25 (folded)

GWPATTE53 lost 25 (folded)

Amy1982 lost 125 (folded)

bjl7611 lost 625 (folded)

I guess I felt that I had to lead out after the flop as I'd rather be the agressor than check/call, but I think I may have been too aggressive and didnt leave myself much room to define the other guys hand and get off mine. I also didnt like the draw to the low straight, however with hindsight I probably shouldnt have been worried about this at all. I guess checking the flop here just isnt an option as it invites a bet from any ace and doesnt really tell me anything about the other player's hands, but rather shows that I feel that my hand isn't very strong. Check/raise would probably give me a bit more info, however I've found that a lot of people will call a check/raise on the flop with mediocre cards, so it wouldnt rule out Ace/rag.

So I make a big bet on the flop which he cold calls. The pot is around 5k as is my stack. Should I check/call the turn and river?? Check and fold to any bet?? Lead out with another big bet? If lead out I feel I have to throw in at least 1500 as anything less just kinda screams that i'm worried about my hand. Similarly, if I check it also looks weak. If I lead out with 1500 and he cold calls again, im left with 3500 playing for a pot of 8k, can I check and fold on the river?

Had i been the villain I probably would have played this hand exactly as he did. I'm sure he called my horrible push on the turn think that at worst it was a split pot, so I was never pushing him off his hand which is probably what my shove was supposed to do. I guess my push also looked weak as it tells him that I really dont want a call, also I realise that i'm only being called here by hands that are beating me.

I'm gonna think about this some more, but any thoughts are appreciated. Right now I'm thinking I should have just folded pre and not tried to play this hand oop, but I'm still not sure.