in this sit n go i came in 3rd...i wanted to know if this was a correct lay down..i know i made a mistake by not raising pre-flop..im Rush604

Table "Tupai" ($5 tournament) -- Seat 2 is the button
Seat 2: GRAITSCOTT (1,684.00 in chips)
Seat 3: Rush604 (2,687.00 in chips)
Seat 5: lostitall55 (2,234.00 in chips)
Seat 7: yankeex777 (1,755.00 in chips)
Seat 9: drozdov420 (1,640.00 in chips)
Rush604 : Post Small Blind (50)
lostitall55: Post Big Blind (100)
Dealt to Rush604 [ As ]
Dealt to Rush604 [ Qh ]
yankeex777: Fold
drozdov420: Fold
GRAITSCOTT: Call (100)
Rush604 : Call (50)
lostitall55: Check
*** FLOP *** : [ 8h Ad Kh ]
Rush604 : Bet (200)
lostitall55: Raise (2,134)
GRAITSCOTT: Fold
Rush604 : Fold
lostitall55: Winner -- doesn't show cards
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 700 | Board: [ 8h Ad Kh ]
GRAITSCOTT lost 100 (folded)
Rush604 lost 300 (folded) [ As Qh ] (a pair of aces)
lostitall55 bet 2,234, collected 2,634, net +400
yankeex777 didn't bet (folded)
drozdov420 didn't bet (folded)

the reason i folded..was because with 5 players left i felt that calling the all in raise and losing would have made it impossible to come back..but also if i had won..im most likely to come in first place. which had me second guessing my fold since i came in third.

in the end drozdov420 came in 1st, yankeex777 2nd ,and i came in 3rd

With 5 people left in a SnG, do you have any kind of a read on this player?

I think in this situation, and barring an excellent read, on the basis of how he has acted you have to fold here, because it is an SnG, where making the money is your sole primary objective.

I would fold in this spot, as you have to suspect two pair, on that flop. It could very well be that you are ahead, of course and that, if you are ahead, you have him dominated. However, without a very definite read on him as an extremely lose and aggressive player, I am folding here. You did right, IMO. Your doubt sabout whether you played ths right are because you think you may have chucked the winning hand. There is no way you can decide that- but your decision was right regardless.

The fishiest player on these forums says...

You're faced with a decision for your tournament life here. You have TPTK. Only TPTK.

Your opponent basically risked his tournament on that bet. He could be on a bluff (including any pair less than TP). He could have 2 pair. He could have flopped a set. He could be on a flush draw.

You only have an advantage *right now* if he's on a bluff or a flush draw. But he's almost 50% to make his hand by the river if he's on that flush draw.

So, if he has 2 pair or trips, you cannot call. If he has a flush draw, well, do you really want to risk it all with only a few percentage points of advantage? If he's bluffing... well, are you 110% certain he's bluffing?

Fold.

If he's bluffing, he's going to do it again later in the tournament, quite possibly at a time when you can be much more confident you have the best hand. And you're showing him you're willing to fold to his bluff, encouraging him to do it again. And you're not giving him enough chips to really matter.

If he's not bluffing and you call, obviously you're looking for another game.

Put your chips in when you are very confident you have the best hand. Not when there's this sort of uncertainty involved.


Edit: But yes, you should have shown aggression pre-flop. You might not have been faced with this decision if you had bet PF and more on the flop. There's a good article on S&G's on the front page of BTP that describes why aggression is important.

Big Phish is absolutely right about the preflop play --

AQo is a huge hand five handed. Also, your stack size lends itself to pushing people around -- only one guy is in the same range as you, and three others are fighting it out for third. Gotta put in that raise preflop, it will win you the pot often.

Think about it this way: the way you played is risking 50 chips for a flop. There's 300 in the pot. Isn't it worth another 300 raise in order to gain that folding equity preflop, after you consider that even if you're called you've still got a solid shot at the pot after the flop. In short, you've simply got to be more aggressive than this with five players left as one of the larger stacks.

However, given your situation after the flop, I would lay that hand down even though (at a $5 SNG!! read the "understanding" article if you haven't already) you are about 75-80% likely to have the best hand I think. You still fold even as a solid favorite because you should be focusing on making the money. Once you get down to three players, there's still plenty of poker to be played to determine who wins -- your moves NOW have alot more effect on your ITM% than your ratio of 1sts to 3rds.