A Questionable QQ Decision, Part II

Part of what makes having a blog so effective and yet so intimidating is that I open myself up to plenty of criticism about how I play the game. The following hand holds the door open for that criticism. This is from another $4.40 180-person sit and go tournament. There are only 17 people left, so we are all already in the money for $8.64. The next pay jump does not come until the final table of nine. The difference between winning and finishing 9th is $203.76. So the real money is in the top three spots.

PokerStars Game #23287002856: Tournament #129709193, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (400/800) - 2008/12/26 22:21:41 ET Here the starting pot is $1,800.
Table '129709193 17' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Trev1972 (7780 in chips) M of 4.3
Seat 2: scaldret (11847 in chips) M of 6.6
Seat 3: Jack (31292 in chips) M of 17.4
Seat 4: golf (4529 in chips) M of 2.5
Seat 5: Manager (14735 in chips) M of 8.2
Seat 6: CgCook38 (23373 in chips) M of 13
Seat 7: uncle (20675 in chips) M of 11.5
Seat 8: BBC (12562 in chips) M of 7

golf is the only person desperate here. A couple people need a double up, but he's nearly out of time and should move all-in with any decent holding. With an M of 13 I need to be more aggressive than usual, while staying out of marginal situations.

Trev1972: posts the ante 75
scaldret: posts the ante 75
Jack: posts the ante 75
golf: posts the ante 75
Manager: posts the ante 75
CgCook38: posts the ante 75
uncle: posts the ante 75
BBC: posts the ante 75
scaldret: posts small blind 400
Jack: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CgCook38 [Qd Qc] Wow, what a great holding. There are not many marginal sitiuations I can imagine holding this hand.
golf: raises 3654 to 4454 and is all-in Like I said, I would be doing this with any reasonable holding. That means with any A, K or Q or a J7 and up, if it folds to me, I'm all-in. Knowing this, there is no reason this side of being unlucky that says I don't have him dominated.
Manager: folds
It's my turn. I have a couple of options. I can call or I can raise. Calling 4454 would leave me 18,844 behind. The benifit of calling is that I could potentially trap someone's reraise with something like JJ. The downfall is that I might get someone raising behind me with any hand that could marginalize a magnificent situation for me.

If I raise, it will likely be close to the minimum, or all-in. The benifit of either approach is that any AJ suited maniac will see someone who's committed to the pot. The disadvantage is that if someone comes over the top with AA or KK, I won't get away from the hand.

In retrospect, an all-in seems like the best approach, as JJ or worse might still call, while I take away the opportunity of a big stack opponent to take the hand away from me on the flop if an Ace or King falls. If I call here, two conditions should be met - I should commit myself to any more pre-flop action, and I should be able to drop the hand to a scary flop board if I am just called by someone with a deep stack. That being said....
CgCook38: calls 4454
uncle: folds
BBC: folds
Trev1972: folds
scaldret: folds
Jack: raises 26763 to 31217 and is all-in Whoops... I just turned my wonderful sitiuation marginal. I should have never been in this situation, and with a little pre-call planning, I would easily call this bet. I'm already in the money and this is a hand that will potentially set me up for the win. However, I didn't put enough thought into my original call, and eventually I folded thinking that I still have chips and I can still be a factor. This was a huge mistake, compounded by the fact that I saw that I would have won the hand.
CgCook38: folds
Uncalled bet (26763) returned to Jack
*** FLOP *** [Td 5h 8h]
*** TURN *** [Td 5h 8h] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [Td 5h 8h 6c] [6h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Jack: shows [Ks Ah] (a pair of Sixes)
golf: shows [Jh Ac] (a pair of Sixes - lower kicker)
Jack collected 14362 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 14362 | Rake 0
Board [Td 5h 8h 6c 6h]
Seat 1: Trev1972 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: scaldret (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: Jack (big blind) showed [Ks Ah] and won (14362) with a pair of Sixes
Seat 4: golf showed [Jh Ac] and lost with a pair of Sixes
Seat 5: Manager folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: CgCook38 folded before Flop
Seat 7: uncle folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: BBC folded before Flop (didn't bet)