I've been playing online poker and studying the game for years but have recently made a considered effort to become a winning player. I play 9-max SnGs on Pokerstars and have an ITM of 33% over 35k hands; mostly at 50c turbos but have recently (last 5k hands) moved to the $1.50s as I found the turbos too much of a lottery.
I believe I am still (only just) a losing player but I make most of the straightforward decisions correctly. I really want to get some advice on certain hands and just get involved in discussing hands/strategy/etc with other online players.
So here goes, this is a hand I lost the other night that I'm not sure I played well:


Poker Stars, $1.29 Buy-in (100/200 blinds, 25 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 4,334 (21.7 bb)
BB: 3,007 (15 bb)
CO: 2,035 (10.2 bb)
Hero (BTN): 4,124 (20.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with Qc Qh
CO raises to 2,010 and is all-in, Hero raises to 4,099 and is all-in, 2 folds

Flop: (4,420) Jh Ad 7s (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (4,420) 4h (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (4,420) As (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 4,420 pot
Final Board: Jh Ad 7s 4h As
CO showed Ac 5h and won 4,420 (2,385 net)
Hero showed Qc Qh and lost (-2,035 net)


All feedback gratefully received, hope I haven't posted this in the wrong thread and I hope this is the beginning of a long discussion with some of you.

Queens are a big push.You played the hand well.You should be calling TT+ and strongest Aces.

You need to familiarize yourself with ICM. It is the single most important thing for beating these stakes. Take a look at the various ICM programs out there and choose one. I use icmizer. You really needn't focus on anything else at the moment.


An ICM program will tell you what the "correct" play is when it comes to push/fold spots. I've put correct in brackets because whether or not your play is actually correct depends on whether or not other players will push/fold correctly as well. If all the players do the correct move then that is what is called nash equilibrium.

So first it is good to study nash spots just to get a feel for what the correct move would be in a perfect world, then adjust your ranges a bit according to the mistakes of your opponents.

You would surely become a winning player just by getting to know the easiest spots where you are likely to be losing the most money. They are basically just spots with one crippled stack, two relatively healthy stacks and one big stack that has the right to abuse. Often times the big stack can literally shove any two cards and that is a correct play. Your call with AQs for example, however, most likely isn't.


In your case, QQ is a premium hand and an obvious call. Depending on type of villain, I would often consider calling as low as 88 (you can take AA and KK out of his push range if you think he would minraise or perhaps even limp the premiums to be sure to get some value), though that all depends on villain.


Good luck.

Thanks so much guys. I did kind of know I need to learn ICM now. Next hand I post will be a much harder decision!
Thanks again I'm off learning :-)