Right or wrong? my Final hand in the Paradise 100K last night.

[SoBeDude]

I've pretty much coasted through this tourney to make the final 20.

My big hands held up, and I never had to suck out to stay alive. I wish all tournies went like this. Then the cards dried up.

With 20 people left, I'm in around 6th-8th in chips. No cards for a while and suddenly there's 13 left, and I'm 11th. The two below me in chips were just barely below me. Its not like they each had 1K and were close to busting. I had 20K, last two had 16K each (both at my table). I needed to win a hand and soon.

Blinds are 3K 6K. I'm UTG with only 20K remaining in chips. Were 7-handed at my table. I get KQo and decide to push. I don't have enough chips to make a raise and fold if I miss or if someone pushes over the top of me. I have only 3X the BB left and I'm the BB next hand.

Is this just a pretty much automatic push?

Well, BB called with AK, and I'm out in 13th. oh well.

Thanks for any/all feedback.

-Scott

[Tosh]

6 or 7 handed table, 3BB and blinds about to hit you, I'd be thankful to get a hand as good as KQ.

[betgo]

McEvoy and Daugherty in "No Limit Texas Holdem" give an example almost exactly like this, saying to push with KQ UTG short stacked at a full table.

KQ isn't a bad hand to do this with, as you are only dominated by big hands like AK.

[RiverMel]

Well, I assume someone else has AK, so I fold.

Seriously, though, push and be happy about it.

[Bigdaddydvo]

Pick 2 cards and go w/it...

Your play was fine, and just winning the blinds w/your push and no callers would have been a huge victory. If you think about it, KQo, though a dangerous hand early in NL tourneys, is actually pretty nice here. You're a coinflip against pairs up to Jacks, about a 60/40 dog to a random ace hand like A-9, and are only really hurting against KK, QQ, AK, or AQ. You were forced to gamble (correctly) that no one had one of those dominating hands. If he has AK, he has AK. Personally, I feel better going all in w/KQo than a small pair like 5-5 or 6-6, since a higher pair puts you in considerably worse shape.

[SoBeDude]

congrats on making the final table last night. Your stack fluctuated wildly when we were down to the final 2 tables. At one point I thought you were out. But you made a great comeback, and won some nice pots when you needed to.

Nice job!

-Scott

[RiverMel]

thanks..
I still need to learn how to deal with situations where my opponents catch on to the fact that I'm being very aggressive at/near the final table. Right now I usually either just keep the aggression up (with varied results--sometimes an untimely bust out and other times accumulating gobs of chips) or go into a protective shell and don't even try to steal. I'm still not sure the best way for dealing with being "caught."

[SoBeDude]

I think the key is you need to tighten up as soon as you get caught, or maybe sooner.

I find that even when I've been aggressive and have raised several pots recently I tend to slow down. Even if I just won the blinds several times and no one saw my hands. I feel the more times you raise in a short period of time, the more likely someone will call you with a decent but marginal hand, so I'll let some decent but not super hands pass.

-Scott

[Airpoaneman]

Would you had gone all in if you had A5 spades or A7 hearts...just as an example...what about non suited? And better yet J10 or QJ