Bigstack to your left help

[rusty JEDI]

Lets say there are 5 left and you have the bigstack directly to your left and they have almost half of the chips on the table. You are floating almost even with all of the others and the blinds are getting up to. What is your strategy? Should it be survival for fear of the bigblind nailing you on steal attempts, or is it to blind down hoping for either a big hand or a few others to get knocked out.

Is the answer clearly different if the blinds are 50/100 compared to 100/200?

Thanks

rJ

[Martin Aigner]

At the 50/100 level, only play your very best hands and be prepared to get all your money in. (He might put you all in after you raise, expecting you to fold)

At the 100/200 level, simply raise all in whenever you have a legitimate hand. When you are all in, the big stack won´t call you unless he really has a hand.

Of course this only applies if big stack is some kind of a bully. If he´s playing weak tight, you can play more agressively than usual, since the others will be more shortstacked.

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[Jurollo]

I play this a little different than most I think. Personally I like having the big stack next to me when we start to get short-handed because you are far more apt to get a call. At this point in a tourney when the blinds start rising it becomes a complete crapshoot and ends up being more about who can get a hand to stand up All-in. I will usually wait until the big stack is either in for a min bet, or in the BB and the first decent hand I get, raise him All-In, this is assuming you think you can isolate a heads up with him. As a large stack you have to think his calling hands might be a slightly larger range than the average stacks which gives you a slight edge head to head. If you bust in 5th, so be it as it would have been a dog fight anyway, but by winning a double up you know gain the opportunity of stealing from the other short stacks and also being able to survive an outdraw by one of them if you get the cards in preflop.

[rusty JEDI]

[ QUOTE ]
At this point in a tourney when the blinds start rising it becomes a complete crapshoot and ends up being more about who can get a hand to stand up All-in.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like to believe in a world where this doesnt have to be the case. There has to be a better choice than looking for slightly better than a coinflip and waiting for it to stand up. Normally that choice is using position, but i find the bigstack on my left eliminates all of that.

I like some of the points made by Marty. That is the way i was thinking, but was just looking to see if it was right or if anyone else had any other strategies.

rJ