Early in a one table Sit&Go. I haven't played any hands yet but I plan to. I've decided to forego my normal super-tight play in tournaments for a while and be more aggressive and try to build a stack early. I've chosen a $5 for this purpose.

Blinds 10/20
I have ~1000
CO has ~800

I get AQo in the SB. One limper to the CO who raises to 60. I re-raise to 200, only CO calls.

Flop comes 456 all clubs, I have the Ace of clubs. I check, he pushes all-in, I call.


Anyone play it differently?

With a board that co-ordinated, I would let it go.
A $5 SNG, there is no reason to not have the nuts when you push, or call off 2/3rds of your stack.

You did not say how early this was,
how many chips you started with,
or how it came to be that your opponent has 400 less in chips than you do.
What kind of player was he?

Early in a freeroll, I like this play against 2 players looking to triple-up, but having invested real money, no.

Oh, man, Stoneburg, where do I start?

First off, you're TAG style is the ONLY style to play early in SNGs, esp a $5. You have to wait for the donkeys to kick each other around for awhile.

AQ, while a good hand, is not a GREAT hand in the SB in the first round of a low limit SNG. I'd have prefered to do a stop and go here. Call the raise and bet the flop, regardless of what it was. However, that probably wouldn't have done the trick, either, as many morons just don't know how to play. The flop missed you completely. You have to let it go.

You're a good player in cash games. Early on in an SNG, your cash game skills make you a favorite to get deep into the tourney. When it gets down to 5 and 4, that's when the game is different. If you're going to play these, you'll have to learn a ton of new skills.

You're not a fish, but you played this one like one. Sorry about that.

CJ

Hope you got a real nice bankroll, because it's going to be tested.

How many SNGs have you played? At what buy in?

What, total? I have no idea... a few hundred... probably not over 500. From $5.5 to $50.5. Mainly $11 and $22.

I've experimented with several different strategies but my "default" game is TAG, somewhere between Harrington and Cloutier (whos books I prefer regarding Tournaments).

Once again I urge you to not have a knee jerk reaction. It's not like I don't know how to play the TAG game. This hand was about trying to squeeze every last drop of EV out of a hand and making unconventional play. Had the raise preflop been to 80 or 100 instead of 60, I would just have folded.

But my read is that he most likely has Ax or two face cards, so I deviate from my normal game.

So what are you trying to say, Stone? That you don't agree with everyone who's responded that the hand shouldn't have been played? OK, so play it. It's your money. We're just trying to help.

OK. Then I'll concede and say that you're smarter than I am.

Obviously, there are no hard-and-fast "rules" that can be used in any and every situation. Some situations are different enough that it might be a good move to go against "the book." A lot of times, you have to make a decision on the fly depending on your instincts and your read of the situation at the time.

But in this case, I cannot think of any scenario where I would call off all or most of my chips early in a tournament holding nothing more than a flush draw, I don't care what my read is on the opponent. To me, it's a classic fish move and one that is destined to knock you out or cripple you most of the time.

It matters to me not an iota what my read is on the foe in this situation. Now I'm playing against the odds, not the opponent. And the odds say to drop it.

I know it is easy to think I am behind, intuitively, but here is how I stack up against different hands:

I'm behind:
Against set/flush: 28/71
Against AA: 38/62
Against pair+A: 45/55
Against KK/QQ: 47/53

So if I am behind the only time I don't have odds to call is if I am up against a set or a made flush. None of the hands I'm ahead of are going to fold so there is no sense in pushing if he has them.

I'm ahead:
Against JJ: 53/47
Against rd: 61/39
Against Kx: 87/13
Against: Ax: 91/9

Most of the hands that I am crushing will definetely fold if I push (well they should) but can very well bluff if I check.

Bascally the only time it would be correct to fold this hand would be if you could be more than 80% sure he has a set or a flush, and that's just never, ever going to be true. Once you're on the flop, options are to bet or check-call/raise.