How can I learn to fold A's with Qo after the flop?
70 person live MTT. I am utg and call with AQo. 1 other caller and big blind checks. It's halfway through tourney and all 3 players have about same size/average stacks.
Flop is A-8-4 rainbow. BB bets 3,000 and I raised all in. Other player folds and BB calls and shows two pair As and 4's. A bad play on my part but dealing with it. turn is junk, river is another 4. I'm out. My question is....when he bet 3,000 should I have just called to see what he would bet on turn? And...how do I keep myself from going all in before thinking the initial bet through. I did not consider he had two pair or even maybe a set. I felt he had an A and I had the kicker. In hindsight...I was very wrong. If he bets again...say 5,000 on turn is that when I fold AQo? because after that its a shove anyway. I could survive the call and first bet and wait for another day. I'm fairly new so be gentle if it was an obvious fold. I guess I just want to learn how to go through some checkpoints before I shove when the goal is to get to the final table. What would you have done? Or, what mindset do I need to learn besides patience to get away from a hand like that without my scalp gone>>> thanks!
Answers
Perhaps 3 bet instead of all-in? If BB then calls or 4 bets, you are on alert and still in the game. Maybe when you are midway through, with a half stack, it is too early for high risk moves. I don't see any obvious folds due to the strength of your AQ.
In hindsight, you could run AQ against a standard BB range in Flopzilla, then hit the random board button a number of times to remind yourself of the equity AQ has on different boards. The same exercise in Equilab gives you positional equity calculations. This may instill a better mindset.
On my charts, AQ is a raise from UTG when facing limpers. A raise preflop from UTG may have gotten the limpers to fold and if not then again, you have an early warning. My 3 bet frequency is low and I'm working on it because without the right frequency you aren't profitable.