The reason I played the hand like this is mainly cuz I was going to be oop if I raised and got any callers and my stack is just too vulnerable fot that imo with a drawing hand like AQ... With blinds, antes and limpers there is 1225 and that would increase my stack around 20%. Im not being results oriented cuz the guy who called had the better hand although it was a race. But I thought my shove would get a hand lke that out.

Opinions are appreciated.

pokerstars Game #42829030225: Tournament #306010127, $30+$3 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2010/04/18 3:39:42 ET Table '306010127 44' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: snelders (9354 in chips)
Seat 2: <span>STD_ </span>(4735 in chips)
Seat 3: vikkenbrush (5572 in chips)
Seat 4: <span>Cptnsmakaho3</span> (4622 in chips)
Seat 5: l3awd (9110 in chips)
Seat 6: TIBUR0N14 (8082 in chips)
Seat 7: Grintag (2016 in chips)
Seat 8: ffranciscatt (3890 in chips)
Seat 9: pauly117 (1305 in chips)
snelders: posts the ante 25 STD_: posts the ante 25 vikkenbrush: posts the ante 25 <span>Cptnsmakaho3</span>: posts the ante 25 l3awd: posts the ante 25 TIBUR0N14: posts the ante 25 Grintag: posts the ante 25 ffranciscatt: posts the ante 25 pauly117: posts the ante 25
vikkenbrush: posts small blind 125
Cptnsmakaho3: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to <span>Cptnsmakaho3</span> [Qc Ad]
l3awd: calls 250
TIBUR0N14: folds
Grintag: folds
ffranciscatt: folds
pauly117: folds
snelders: calls 250
<span>STD_</span>: calls 250
vikkenbrush: calls 125
<span>Cptnsmakaho3</span>: raises 4347 to 4597 and is all-in
l3awd: folds
snelders: folds
<span>STD_</span>: calls 4347
vikkenbrush: folds
*** FLOP *** [5s Jc 6s] *** TURN *** [5s Jc 6s] [Qd] *** RIVER *** [5s Jc 6s Qd] [2s] ***
SHOW DOWN *** <span>Cptnsmakaho3</span>: shows [Qc Ad] (a pair of Queens)
<span>STD_:</span> shows [5d 5h] (three of a kind, Fives)
<span>STD_</span> collected 10169 from pot

*** SUMMARY *** Total pot 10169 | Rake 0 Board [5s Jc 6s Qd 2s] Seat 1: snelders folded before Flop Seat 2: STD_ (button) showed [5d 5h] and won (10169) with three of a kind, Fives Seat 3: vikkenbrush (small blind) folded before Flop Seat 4: Cptnsmakaho3 (big blind) showed [Qc Ad] and lost with a pair of Queens Seat 5: l3awd folded before Flop Seat 6: TIBUR0N14 folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 7: Grintag folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 8: ffranciscatt folded before Flop (didn't bet) Seat 9: pauly117 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

call me nitty...but lately in this spot i have just been checking AJ and AQ. The reason i say this is because in these levels of the tourney you'd be surprised how many players limp with hands like 22-88. About a month ago i was in a similar spot in the 18K on tilt. In the bb with suited AQ, after three people limped with extremely vulnerable stacks i shipped it in and was looked up by 88 and 55(ship was between 15-18, dont remember exactly).. the guy with 55 had me covered and also flopped a set to take out both of us. There are a lot of players that are clueless as to how to play small pocket pairs deeper into tourneys when blinds and antes really become part of the game and are crucial to someones stack. It is borderline terrible to limp with 88 and 55 and call it off to a ship. I have been a lot more cautious in this spot lately, these limpers want to see the flop and some of them have no idea whats going on and are going to look you up, even though a ship from the BB appears to be really strong in most situations.

I'm sure that most people put it in here, but with 4 people already interested in the flop, you will almost always get called(most of the time by utg limper.) if the utg limper calls it is more likely some one else will come into a pot which they have no business in, which is a nightmare because you REALLY don't wanna be in a three way pot with AQ for your life, imo. like those 55's in my example, who limps and calls it off in a three way pot with 55's for their tourney life, that's really bad, who knows what hes thinkin, has to know he needs a five to win) you really have to assume these players are terrible, which is often the case.

I think that with 18 blinds if you do flop an Ace or a top pair top kicker with a Queen(on most boards) you can lead out and plan on not folding..which also is a tough spot to be in, but on the other hand if you miss you can check/fold, and still have a good 3bet ship stack of 18 blinds and should be able to find a better spot to put your money in. It's a lot easier to steal money from an aggro player that opens a lot of pots with say 30-40 blinds and will have to call off a chunk to see the board. Another thing to think about here is if the stacks on your left are vulnerable to your open ship from say the cutoff or the button, in which case those will be a lot easier to steal( assuming they don't call it off weak, with lets say 55's hhahaha)

If you Had 99,TT, im shipping here every day of the week. at least you have a made hand if you get looked up.

call your move standard, and his absolutely terrible. (if he plans on playing 55s on the button with his stack he should just be putting it all in, but to limp and call is horrible.)

Hope this helps. GL YOU...

Here I would raise to 1.5-2k with the intention of calling any shove and shoving any flop if you are called. When you open shove here you are basically telling the table you have AK/AQ. This raise looks much stronger and will probably get hands like 55 to fold. If 55 for some idiotic reason flats your raise and then flop is 2 overcards with no 5, even if you don't hit he is folding to your shove..just a stronger play imo

My answer implied that we knew we had the best hand.. I was just pointing out that a shove here looks weaker than a raise of almost half of our stack bc the latter makes it look like we want action.

Also is somebody decides to flat our raise, we have another chance to push them out with our shove on the flop which will be just over the size of the pot

I totally agree that with 21 bigs A-Q and a table of limpers the object is to get the money in. However I agree with the shove kind of turning your cards face up. It's a little scarier for some opponents to see a raise that isn't a shove even if it's obvious the rest of your stack is going in.