This was a hand fairly early in a $320 SnG that I played tonight. While I won the hand I am not convinced that my play is best on each street and would like your input on how you would have played it. The opponent was JohnnyBax who I know to be one of the very best tourney players on Stars.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (8 handed)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB (t1420)
UTG (t2225)
UTG+1 (t1715)
MP1 (t2355)
MP2 (t1495)
Hero (t1850)
Button (t1525)
SB (t915)

Preflop: Hero is CO with , .
UTG raises to t100, 3 folds, Hero calls t100, 3 folds.

Flop: (t275) , , (2 players)
UTG bets t250, Hero raises to t500, UTG calls t250.

Turn: (t1275) (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t500, UTG calls t500.

River: (t2275) (2 players)

Final Pot: t2275

For some reason it's not displaying the river action. He checked, and I went all-in for my last 750. He folded.

Hey man,

I don't have experience at stakes that high, but it seems to me that the natural play would have been to bet a little more on the turn, especially in a tournament. 500 is less than 1/2 the pot, and it's pretty obvious to any solid player that you're pot committed at that point, so I don't think you're hiding anything by making the bet that small.

I like the flop and river play, although (for all you others who are reading) IF you were playing a lower stakes game (<$55) you would want to play more aggressively on the flop as well I think.

I agree with you guys that I botched the turn a bit - at the time I thought he was looking at 2-outs and I could get 500 in now and 750 on the river where he'll be totally pot-committed. As it was maybe I should have just pushed on the turn - he might have called anyway. Also, maybe a better play would have been to smooth-call the flop and then raise big on the turn if a blank hits. Unless a 6, ten, or Jack hits the turn I'm pretty safe and knowing JohnnyBax is an aggressive player, he probably would have thrown out a rather large bet on the turn. My main concern following the hand was how easy it would have been for him to outdraw me, seeing as to how I gave him great odds to draw if he had something like TT. Oh well, it worked out for the better.

Kalle, I agree with you that watching these can help your SnG game. I regularly watch the 1k SnG's as well and the vast majority of the guys definately know what they are doing, especially when it gets down to fewer people. I didn't think the AQ allin wasn't bad at all at that point but there was one hand in the first round of play where it was folded to SB, who raised to 60. Then BB went all-in for 1500 and SB insta-called with AK. BB had TT and AK hit a boat. Very questionable stuff. Oh and by the way I didn't raise preflop with the 73. I just checkraised with it when I flopped my double belly-buster. Probably should have folded to the last 2k but I suck, so I called like a fish and sucked out.