QQ vs. AK all in?

I got 38th place last night in the $1 MTT after getting 24th the previous night. Anyway, here's what happened last night...

This is all preflop. Okay, I'm in the SB holding QQ. Two positions to my right a guy goes all in with 52,000 chips. I have 49,000 at this point. My read on this guy? I had seen him push his chips all in a few times before. Once with middle pocket pair, once with Ax, and another time with KQ, I believe. Our whole table was going crazy at this point, it seemed like we had an AI every hand, or at least every other hand towards the end...

Anyway, I called it with QQ. He turns over AK. He his a K on the flop, takes the hand down, and I go out in 38th place.

Now....Should I have stayed safe and not called, hoping to gain a few extra bucks here....and possibly wait until I'm the first one to go all in? Or was it a wise move to call AI with QQ.

Might be a stupid question, but just curious...

What were the size of the blinds?

-'rilla

Calling someone else's AI is trickier than pushing AI yourself.

I think based on your read, it wasn't a bad decision.

I myself am usually warry of calling an AI unless I'm holding KK or AA.
This however is based on my read of the opponent and the types of hands hes pushed in with before. So given the situation I think you made the right call. My math sucks but I'm sure you were favored at the start.

I'll defer to veterans as always

No George you played it right I watched that hand while you were playing. You actually had him outchipped by 49 chips lol but QQ is better than AK preflop. When he hits trip Ks on the flop yes u were done for. But hey You played it correctly imo. I would have guessed he was blind stealing with an all-in like that with no previous limp-ins / callers.

Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

What were the size of the blinds?

-'rilla

2000/4000, 150 or 200 ante


I think I was 24th out of 37 in chips at this point.......so it's really either I make a move now, or I let the blinds eat me alive and take the money (ohh I wish I had that THREE WHOLE EXTRA DOLLARS, jk) and run.

I dunno, I think I played it well......his hand needed improvement, he got it. I was a slight favorite in this hand originally, right?

Jesus, Corey, you're right. Very next hand I had to go all in with 47 chips. And he hit TWO K's on the flop, my bad. But really, what's it matter. One, two, or three K's on the flop = my ass is beaten.

Like I may have said before, I liked my play.....just wondering what the fellas from FTR would think.

In that position u make that call every day and twice on Sunday. It has been said over and over that you have to make big plays if you want to get into the "real" money at the final table.

If you were huge leader you make the call w/ a premium hand to take a shot at putting out the short stack.

If you were short stack you take the shot w/ the premium pair b/c you can't wait anymore.

In this particular case you were slieghtly below average but as you noted you can't sit around and get blinded away waiting for AA or KK. Nice play, better luck next time.

I got knocked out of a multi on first hand w/ QQ v. KK the other day. I don't feel bad about the call. I got knocked out yesterday KK v. AJ. I don't feel bad about that either.

In the end, to win a MTT you have to have a solid game to survive. You have to get your share of premium hands that hold up and make you some chips and you have to suck out on some unlucky fellow once in a while. And if you are playing solid and only risking your stack with premium hands it is usually the AA, KK and QQ that will knock you out of the game.

In the end phase of a tourney there is always gonna be a lot of survive-or-die coinflip or near coinflip situations, and there are not many hands that have better chances than QQ of winning a HU AI. AA and KK dominate it, AK is about coinflip. All other hands are behind. Furthermore, when the blinds increase in value, it´s often correct for both parts to move AI with a hand like this, as you have ~50 % chance of winning a showdown and some additional %'s that your opponent will fold (i.e. the one who first goes AI will have this additional chance of taking home the pot, that´s why you rather want to raise all in than call all in). If guy 1 goes AI with a hand that has 45 % chance of winning a showdown plus a 50 % chance that everybody will fold and he will take home the pot right there, then if the pot is big enough (i.e. the blinds are substantial) it will be a correct move by him. But if guy 2 has a 55 % of winning against guy 1, it is a correct move by him to call also.

You´ll never get away from the fact that it takes a lot of luck to win a MTT. You could increase your chances by playing good, but in the end, in an isolated tournament, it all comes down to having the cards on your side. An example: today I played in a 200 person MTT with 20 places paid just for the fun of it (the buy-in was very low). My tactic was basically to survive and get into the money and only get aggressive when the blinds were threatening my stack (when the big blind and the small blind together is 1/4-1/3 of your stack it´s time to make a move). We were about 40 people left in the tourney and the blinds were pretty big. I got dealt KK and saw my chance to get a stack boost. I happily saw the guy to the right of me raising, and I reraised him all-in (this was about twice his original bet). He showed me pocket 8's and I smiled comfortably, just to see the flop give him a set and then, as if that weren´t enough, the turn gave him quads.

You gotta call that.

Originally Posted by DrumzCT

Calling someone else's AI is trickier than pushing AI yourself.

I think based on your read, it wasn't a bad decision.

I myself am usually warry of calling an AI unless I'm holding KK or AA.
This however is based on my read of the opponent and the types of hands hes pushed in with before. So given the situation I think you made the right call. My math sucks but I'm sure you were favored at the start.

I'll defer to veterans as always

You're telling me ITM you're not going to call an all in with QQ? Especially in a one dollar tourney where the only return on your investment (Meaning time, not the one dollar) you're going to get is by making FT.

In a ring game, I totally agree, won't even call with KK unless the guy is half my stack or less or I have a read on him.

Originally Posted by Ultimate George

I dunno, I think I played it well......his hand needed improvement, he got it. I was a slight favorite in this hand originally, right?

This is not a good way to think. Sure, you're a SLIGHT favourite. But when you go allin, any edge you have in post flop play goes right out the window, there's a 47% chance you're going out of the tournement. That's pretty high. If you're a bad player, by all means, going allin and letting the cards fall is solid play. But a strong player would rarely go allin if he knew it was QQ vs AK.

It was still a good call though.

It has been said over and over that you have to make big plays if you want to get into the "real" money at the final table.

What do you mean by big plays? If you mean going allin, then no. Personally, I hate to go allin - because it means you might lose. I mean, taking a stars low buyin tourney (3 or something) that I won, I think I went allin 10 times in total (2 headsup at final table so talking about 'real money' we'll consider it as 8), even generously assuming that I was a 70/30 favourite in all those hands there's only a 3% chance that I'll win them all. Going allin isn't the way to build a stack.