Pretty Sweet Flop

[studiopet]

Having a horrible run tonite - donked out of 2 SNG's and I *was* down and out in the third, til this little gem flopped.

PokerStars Game #4959735638: Tournament #24874198, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2006/05/16 - 22:53:52 (ET)
Table '24874198 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: TheMagistrat (4570 in chips)
Seat 3: whalehart (1565 in chips)
Seat 4: revere (5070 in chips)
Seat 7: albert2sick (740 in chips)
Seat 8: studiopet (1555 in chips)
whalehart: posts small blind 100
revere: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to studiopet [Qd Jd]
albert2sick: folds
studiopet: calls 200
TheMagistrat: folds
whalehart: raises 400 to 600
revere: folds
studiopet: calls 400
*** FLOP *** [8d Td 9d]
whalehart: bets 965 and is all-in
studiopet: calls 955 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [8d Td 9d] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [8d Td 9d 4c] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
whalehart: shows [Kh Kc] (three of a kind, Kings)
studiopet: shows [Qd Jd] (a straight flush, Eight to Queen)

Put me right back in the hunt group. =)

[studiopet]

You know something....I can usually handle all sorts of beats with dignity and what not....but I gotta tell you.....nothing irks the sh*t outta me more then something like below:

TPTK on the flop. Flop show's 2 sooted. After opening 4.5x with 2 callers. Make a slightly larger than pot sized bet. 1 caller. Turn is a blank. Another pot sized bet to be called. River shows the third soot. Fire off a bet that is the amount of the callers stack (short by now, as is yours) and he calls and flips over a lil tiny rag flush.

I know, you *want* them to call....but I still freaking hate it. That is the one I can't stand.

This is how I got banged out of the first two, but I did finish ITM on the above.

[johnp158]

Is that how you usually play that? At 8 BBs, you need to be thinking all-in or fold, and certainly not limp then call almost half of your stack with a weak hand.

Sweet result though.

[studiopet]

I figured I was behind and didn't want to put all my chips in on this hand but I was interested in seeing the flop with this hand and I felt his raise was cheap enough to get away with it. Now, if I was AQ, AJ sooted or non-sooted), I would have called the blind and came over on his raise.

I will tell you, if a Q or a J in the absence of an A showed up on the flop, I would be pushing. If two D's showed up on the flop *and* an A - chances are I'm pushing. If the flop completely missed or was scary - this hand would be easy to let go and not cost me alot other than being the short stack at the table and then I would most certainly be in push mode.

[johnp158]

This is not how you should be playing in this situation at these blind levels. You definitely don't have the kind of stack where you can be limping and calling raises. Furthermore, there's no way you want to be limp-reraising with AQ or AJ. If you decide to play the hand, just push it. The late levels of a SNG are about pushing, putting your opponents to a decision, and hopefully collecting lots of blinds. There's absolutely no room for speculating with hands like that when you get to 100/200, and you should rarely ever be limp/calling like that with that hand in other situations.

With the last bolded part, I just wanted to point out again that you were already pretty short, and this hand Would have cost you almost 1/2 of your stack, leaving you with no fold equity and not much hope.

Edit: OK, not quite almost 1/2 your stack. But you would have been under 5 BBs.

[studiopet]

I see your point but QJs is not a hand I'm going to risk my tourney life in by pushing PF based on the stack sizes at the table. I felt it okay to call his std raise (leaving me with slightly less than 1K in chips). If the flop came up scary or I completely missed I'd have no problem letting it go - I'm short yes but not the shortest. I'd have about 1k left in my stack and I would then be in push mode from that point on. Now if I started the hand with 1k - then it probably would have been a push.

However, I do see your point and yes, it is pretty much doctrine to push with a hand when you have less than 10bb however, I didnt' think it the most prudent move while holding QJs.

Thats just me though.