You've been playing for two hours and made it past the second break. Well over half of the field is history and you have an average sized stack.

It's folded all the way around to your small blind and you raise it up four times the big blind with 99.

The big blind calls and you are both to a flop of 3,5,A.

You move all in.

In my early days of tournament play I did this a couple of times because it's so easy to do. It's very easy to get mouse click happy and donk off your chips.

Poker is a psychological game. It messes with your mind which is another reason that it is so addictive!

In this situation you have to believe that you are way ahead going into the flop. You believe that the big blind is only calling you with rags because THEY believe you are trying to steal their blind.

If you reverse the situation and you had rags and an equal stack in the big blind would you really make a call here?

Of course not.

And in the above example how surprised should we be when the big blind shows AJ and busts us out of the tourney.

You are under the over riding impression that if you check the flop all is lost when they bet. You also know that if you make a standard continuation bet and get called again then it's going to be difficult to continue in the hand, so rather than face the fact that you may have been outflopped you raise it all in to find out you are beat.

Once you've done this it can hurt for a long time afterwards. Busting out of tournaments when you've spent hours playing and are cruising is a painful mind experience.

So what can be done to prevent the donk bust out?

Firstly, the raise is the correct play obviously and once the flop comes with the Ace you have to start thinking that you are beat.

Ask yourself if you have enough chips to make a continuation bet and are prepared to fold to resistance. If you do then go for it. If you were shortstacked you'd raise it all in anyway.

However once you are called the hand is pretty much over for you.

Resisting the urge to click the "all in" button is something that you can only learn to do through experience. It's so easy to move all in with this situation and it's frequently the end of the tournament for those that do.

There are lot's of different ways to play this situation and it all depends on the type of player that you are. Many people would move it all in instantly. Some would limp and some would min raise. What you have to consider is what you have to gain by entering into a blind on blind battle with a medium pair.

Much of tournament poker is about what you believe. In the above situation you have to think that with just the one overcard to your nines you are still in front, but the likelihood of you being called with an Ace is much higher than being called with a smaller pair.

Overcoming donk plays is one of the hardest skills in tournament poker to learn. It's so easy to push all in and hope for a fold and it's mind numbing when you get shown a much better hand by the big blind.

Another important factor in this hand is that the big blind has position on you throughout the hand so it makes it even more difficult. Trying to constantly steal from the small blind is a beginners error and will frequently bust you out.