Was this the right play?

[AlmightyJay]

$2 SNG on Pacific today. I had a horrible run of cards and managed to win only a single mid-sized pot, and split a decent sized one. Nevertheless I managed to make it to the bubble. I was shortstacked with about 800 chips and the blinds were up to 100/200. I'm dealt AKo UTG+1 and push all-in. Was this a wise move or should I have called instead?

[dethgrind]

Definitely push here. I recommend you read AleoMagus' ABC guide in the FAQ, if you haven't yet. With only four blinds left you should be pushing with all sorts of hands.

A case could be made for simply calling with AA or KK, though that would be highly situation dependent. With such a small stack, it's almost always push or fold. No calling.

[ilya]

You made the right play.

Calling is *terrible*. In fact, it's not all that ridiculous to argue that calling is worse than folding here. A big problem with 'slowplaying' a drawing hand like AK is that most of the time the flop will come and you will have nothing. If no one bets and you take it down with a semi-bluff on the flop, you have gained nothing by limping instead of pushing. Or the BB will call your semi-bluff push when his T4o flops two pair. If you are fortunate enough to make a pair on the flop, you might get paid off...but probably not, as limping for a quarter of your stack will look very suspicious to everyone. Finally, anyone who was gonna get "trapped" by raising your limp would most likely call your push anyway.

You're so short-stacked that just winning the blinds would be a major boost. Push those chips in without a second thought.

Cheers,
ilya

[AlmightyJay]

Thanks to both of you. I figured it was the right move to make, I just wanted to see if there was a better plan. I ended up getting called by a mid-stack holding 33 and lost when I didn't make a pair.