Final Table Starting Hands Question.

[Flushsetofnuts]

Played in a local weekly MTT NL Holdem tournament last night and made the final table in a field of 115 entries. 9 players total at the table and we were all in the money as of making the final table. 115,000 total TC in play.

Me- 18,000 in TC with 3 short stacks directly to my left (under 8,000 in TC) followed by the 2 big stacks (one slightly larger than the other) and 3 other stack coming around to me roughly with the same chip count as myself.

Within 3 or 4 hands the short stacks hit the rail and I had been blinded for 6,000 chips without picking up anything. Money is starting to go up alot more now with each place finished.

Question- When your mid stack to small stack and down to 5 or 6 players do you play starting hands like A6o, A4o or 88 without position with 2 big stacks who are throwing a lot of chips around and have position on you for the round?

At this point the blinds went to 4,000/8,000 so any hand I entered was going to be moved all it.

Better to wait it out and hope for better cards and that another player or two hits the rail? Or to play the Ax and small pairs all in preflop and just hope for the best?

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks

Flushsetofnuts.

[chet]

Late in a tourney with blinds and antes being such a significant portion of everyone's stack causes luck to be a much more important factor, and often the deciding factor. If the table is tight, if definitely pays to be aggressive to steal the blinds and antes. If the table is loose, then you need to wait for decent hands. That being said, I definitely play 88 and probably raise it 3xBB or push if the raise is more than 35% of my stack. You have a good chance to take the pot there, and if called you're only dominated by a larger PP.

If I'm playing, I'm going for 1st and not going to ante myself into 6th. That does mean that I end up in 9th sometimes too.

[Flushsetofnuts]

Thanks for the input. None of the hands I tossed would have won anyway. I agree to play for 1st and not just blinding out hoping to move up a finish spot or two unless your just catching crap and it happens to workout that way.

[DonT77]

So you have about 12,000 chips left with blinds at 8K/4K?

Sounds to me like you've only got about 6 hands or so left to play. In this situation, assuming I am low stack, I move in with any pair or any ace. If it gets down to my last 3 hands or so, I might play any king, or any two cards higher than 10. You're going to be joining them on the rail soon unless you double-up early (and again soon), now it's just about figuring out what is the best hand I'll have between now and when the BB comes around to me again.

[durron597]

With a stack as small as yours (relative to the blinds) no one will be folding to any raise of yours unless they are really tight. So I push here with any two cards unless you have the possible $EV of folding to let the smaller stacks get eliminated.

Once the smaller stacks are gone, though, it becomes basically a luckfest to see who will win with blinds so high compared to the number of chips on the table; I would push with any two cards if the blinds are (in your opinion, overly) tight players, and hope that no one has a good hand. If no such players exist, I push with any ace, any king better than K6, any suited connector, Q9 or better, JT.