Big decision very early in PS $100NL

[Doubling12]

Setup for the situation:

First hand of the tourney, villian open raises T120, I call. Flop is high cards, he bets 120, I raise to 360, he folds (what we had is not important).

He flips the tilt switch. The next 2 hands, he bets about T300 (blinds are 10/15), and everyone folds. Next hand, he does it again (T300), and I have pocket 10's, 3 off the button (I was the button on the first hand). What is my play? I have T1765, he has like T1260.

[tubbyspencer]

I think you've got to fold.

Calling is not a viable option IMO. The tilty guy gets to act before you on the flop, and will likely bet big at it or go all in before you. You'd only be able to call that with a set.

Raising him less than all in gives him the chance to re-raise you. He's almost definitely got 2 overcards(at least) in this situation, and you're not looking for a coinflip here.

The 3rd option - to raise him all in is IMO dangerous here. I want some fold equity when I raise all in with TT, and I'm not sure you're going to get much of that here.

[ismisus]

I see many people do this. They pretend like they're tilting, but they're not tilting at all. Unless you have another tourney coming up, I don't think its worth calling with 10 10.

[West]

Hmmm. I think you can actually argue for going all in here, but the biggest problem for you really is that now there are several people yet to act. Given his actions so far, he truly could be raising with absolutely anything, so you've got a real solid chance of him having an undercard (and it wouldn't be shocking if he had two). Of course, you often will end up in a coin flip for the majority of your chips, but when it's not, you'll be a significant favorite, which I think will be a high % of the time. And you're not all in, he is, so even if you do lose, you're still playing. Honestly, if you were in later position, I think I'd go all in without a second thought. In your position though, I'm not so sure. This early in a Stars tourney, I think I still might do it.

[West]

Yeah, but he's raised every single hand, and all but one to $300. Whether he's tilting or not, there's a great chance he doesn't have anything. If he's not tilting, and just trying to appear like a maniac, and he'll fold to an all in - so much the better for you.

JMHO.

[gergery]

Push all-in. You almost certainly have him beat.



Push all-in. You almost certainly have him beat, and I’d expect him to show a Q4, A3, 44 type of hand here. This type of overbetter will almost always limp with AA/KK too.

Even with 5 left to act the chances they have AA-JJ is about 1.8% for each of them, or a 91% chance they don’t have a better hand, and even if they do you still have a 1 in 5 shot of outdrawing them.

Net, folding this is extremely weak, and you want to isolate vs. maniac (and if he’s way overbetting 300 into a 45 pot he is a maniac, not a good player trapping.

[Benal]

Do you think you're a better player than 75% of the field? If so, fold.. why risk the tourney this early? You'll come across better opportunities to get your $$ in.

If you think you suck, push..

[ThingDo]

I really don't think this comes down to "if you think you are better than X% of the people fold but if you suck push" I agree w/ gregery here. I push here.

[Doubling12]

Until very recently I was in the "why risk it all right here" camp when it came to decisions like this. But lately I have been experimenting with a more high-variance style, where I bust out early or accumulate a large stack. When this hand came up (and the previous, where I raised him out on the flop), I had this experiment in mind.

I pushed, fold, fold, button calls in about one nanosecond (uh oh). The maniac thinks and folds. Can you guess what the button had?

Oh well, I would do it again.

[fnord_too]

I'd push here. You have a strong hand and have to discount his raise. Worst thing that happens is he has no hand, folds, and starts to think that risking 300 for 35 pre flop may not be a good idea /images/graemlins/smile.gif If he has you beat or sucks out, you are still alive with over 500tc (assuming the 1765 and 1260 chip counts were at the beginning of the hand, or you were adding the 300 bet to his stack, that is assuming you dont have 1765 before any action and he has 1260 in addition to the 300 bet).