[lork]

I took a tough beat last night in a small NL tourney. Wondered if anyone had any thoughts on how I played the hand.

Last stages of tournament, head to head. I was playin 45s on the big blind. He raised pre flop 2.5BB. I called (which is the only "mistake" that I can easily admit to). Flop came 459 rainbow. My opponent raised 8BB. I put him on 9 w/ good kick or an over pocket pair. I moved all in. He called and showed QQ. 4th street was a J. 5th street was a J and I lost 2/3 of my chips.

Any thoughts?

[razor]

I'm not a guy to flame an aggressive play, but you shouldn't do what you did heads up.

Low suited connectors are tough enough to play when you are getting the correct odds and can disguise the play a bit. But they play best in a big field with significant odds. Heads up to a big raise you are a huge underdog to 90% of the hands that the raiser could hold.

Worse, you are out of position after the flop, so can't sneak a bluff past him if he checks the flop.

Once you hit the flop, sure, get everything in while you are pretty sure you have the best of it. But I don't need to tell you that bottom two pair is commonly counterfeited by pairing the high card or a pair on the turn/river. And it was unfortunate that it happened there.

[pritz]

I think your play depends on your opponents previous heads-up play against you. Frequently, people will raise preflop with A-x and sometimes any face cards in a heads-up game. Furthermore, you may have gotten an earlier clue about how your opponent tends to play pocket pairs in a headsup situation (e.g., limping with high pocket pairs, raising with mid pocket pairs, etc.) that may assist you in whether or not to play the hand.

That being said, I think I would have dumped the 4-5 suited against a fairly tight player...against a loose player, I would likely have called if I were the chip leader (which it appears you were?). Once the flop comes down, I like the all-in here, rather than slowplaying till the turn. You made a good read of his hand (top pair with high card kicker or overpair), then set him all in. He got lucky and drew out on you...but you certainly had the best of him here. He only had five outs (Q or 9) or runner-runner to beat you, and personally, I like those odds. Therefore, I think your post-flop play was just fine.

Going back to my original point, your preflop call really just has to do more with what he would tend to raise with...headsup, I'll often raise with total crap, just to put pressure on a passive player and win some small pots that will later give me some leeway to work with. If you believe your opponent is this type of player, I think it can be profitable to call him here. If you raise, and he comes back at you, you've lost more than you intended, as you really can't call...if you fold, he'll keep making the same play. If you call, he'll learn that you won't be so spineless, and he'll have to give greater consideration to aggressive raises in the future.