$109 Stars NLHE....on the bubble, Pocket Tens

[shaniac]

Brief tourney recap: Thrusday, 11PM NLHE....221 players enter at $100+9 apiece, $6,000 for first place. 27 paid.

I had played fairly basic, solid poker the whole way, slowly building my stack, winning most showdowns. A few minutes before this hand, I called an allin with QQ and got outflopped by JJ. This is why I am both a little off my game and sitting on T5800 instead of ~20K in chips.

There are 28 players left...27 get paid (19-27 receive a little more than their buyins back). With 5800 in chips I am probably 23/28 (hard to remember) so there are a few stacks in more desperate shape than I am.

The table is 7 haned, blinds are 400/800 a50 and I have 5800 in chips....

A solid player (I've played with him before several times, never seeing him get out of line or make any repeated, egregious mistakes) min. raises UTG to 1600. I am next to act with pocket tens. All but one of the players left to act have between 13K and 20K. Everyone has been playing straightforward bubble-poker, meaning no one has been succesfully exploiting nor being exploited by the hand-for-hand action; everyone is playing smart.

What would you do in this situation? Please no non-answers like "well it depends whether you are trying to win the tournament or make the money." That's part, if not most, of what I am asking.

My action and results to follow.

Shane

[Tyler Durden]

A lot of times a minraise in EP this late in a tourney is a premium hand, but that's on Party where there are no antes.

On Stars it could be a much wider range of hands. Since you've played w/ him many times before, you might know. If it could be as little as A9, you should move in. If it's a premium hand, fold.

[shaniac]

Well let's say his range of hands is 55-AA, AXs, KQs and everything in between. In other words, he's a player...he could have a premium hand or he could be testing the field's willingness to gamble against a big stack on the bubble. He has enough chips that a min. raise could be meaningless or mean the nuts.

Where does TT figure to be against this type of player and what's the best move most of the time?

Shane

[Tosh]

Given that description I just push.

[iRoD]

I would also be inclined to push this unless you knew this player would make the play with JJ, AA, QQ, or KK...

JJ and QQ dont seem very likely simply because you'd think he'd want to raise more with these hands. So I'd limit the only hands to be weary of, to AA and KK. Can he make this play with far less? How does this guy play these hands here? Had the minraise been taking down the blinds a lot?

Unless you completely convinced he has AA or KK, you should push, which is what I would a good percentage of the time.


Later,

Pat

[shaniac]

I guess there's not much dispute then, since I agree with you and Tosh. I guess I consider it a no-brainer allin with all the factors I have going for me...being the first one in with my chips with a decent hand, a fair chance of seeing the original raiser fold and many times, the better side of a coinflip.

As it is, a different big stack called me with AKo, original raiser folded and I lost the coinflip on the flop.

Shane