A lot to learn or just bad luck

[the tufty fan club]

Hi all, I'd appreciate any thoughts/advice about the tourney i have just left! (haven't been playing long so a I'm a bit confused) Just been knocked out first hand. I had AA and after a few raises the flop comes 8J8. A couple more small raises and then one guy goes all-in. I wrongly guess that I have the advantage and also go all-in. He turns over J8 - full house. turn and river are nothing cards and I'm out! :wall

[Jezza]

Re: A lot to learn or just bad luck Hi Tufty, Thats harsh man - getting knocked out first hand in a tournament is always a killer - let alone with AA :o (At least you went out in a blaze of glory I guess). From the sounds of it you had an extremely difficult situation to size up. There is one thing about getting AA first hand in a tournament - people are ITCHING to play. Everyone has been hanging around/staring at their screen waiting for the tournament to start and all desire to be in on the action. If there were a few raises/calls preflop then if I was you I would have put in a beefcake reraise or even tried to get all my money in preflop. This is hard to do and not usually possible but if you think you could have done it then you should have tried for it.....without seeing how much preflop action you had its hard to judge if you could have. When the flop comes down you have a real dillema. hands like J10 and AJ are gonna give you action to pay you off but similarly if someone has an 8 in their hand you are drawing very thin!!. If the flop comes with two of a kind in the playing zone (10JQ or K) then I am very wary if I hold AA - you really dont want to put much more money in the pot as it is likely someone has trips. If it comes with a paired board like 22K or 33K then unless you are against very loose players or have let the blinds in its not so likely someone has trips and you can relax a little (of course someone could have four of a kind but.....). With the 88J flop tho its not IMPOSSIBLE someone has an 8 (plenty of people, myself included, might play something like 89s or 78s to a raise, especially if a few people call before me) but maybe unlikely and of course the J - someone is bound to have that anyway. At this point you ahve to look at how many opponents you had against you on the flop - 1 or 2 and its really not likely the 8 is there against 4 or 5 then it is a real possibility. Look to the action to give you clues - did you bet out and were then raised and reraised? If this was the case I would have had to have thought there was an 8 there and ditched my aces. Indeed a bet and several flat calls would have sprung alarm bells also. This is a tough hand to get away from tho tufty and there is no real shame in going broke with it. Jez