Should I Have Waited For a Better Hand.......

....to go all-in?

In this PP 30+3 of about 650 players, I did not even made a so-called average stack having no monster hand throughout the entire tourney except maybe for a QQ as the best pair I ever had. Somehow I managed to claw up to the last 130 players by winning with well-timed stealing, with suited aces and different sorts of drawing hands, albeit small pots.

With blinds of 200/400, I was transferred to another 10-handed table and with the 2nd shortest stack of 2600, I was the bb on the third hand dealt and got As3s. It was folded to villain in MP3 with about 6100 who raised to 1000. Folded back to me, I deliberated for a few seconds thinking whether my hand was good enough to push with my less-than-10bb stack and decided to push. Instant call. The board was 5h Qh 9s Qd 9d. Villain tabled QcJc for a boat.

I am not sure whether I made the right decision because without a read, I would have had 2200 left for 10 more hands for a better (?) opportunity. Also, was my opponent correct in his call?

[SossMan]

I would reluctantly fold unless I had a read to the contrary that this player is able to fold after raising. Too easy to be dominated, not easy enough to be dominating.

[MLG]

how about a stop n go here?

[miu04]

Um, i don't like his raise of 1/6th his stack with just JQ... may just be me but i dont think he is as tight a player as you would have wanted in this situation. AJ AQ AK JJ QQ KK AA beat him. Then A anything has possibility of beating him. In my opinion i think he made the WRONG bet and CALL on you.

As for your move, I don't think the all-in was a great idea at the moment. You had just moved tables, so you have no idea what kinds of personalities you have. I would have waited an orbit or two to at least catch a drift of what the trends are. That, and people are often eager to call small stack all-ins so you can expect some looser players to call with A anything (have seen it a lot) so your 3 isnt going to help you at all in this situation.. My opinion anyways /images/graemlins/ooo.gif

[betgo]

I would push. You are getting 3-2 on your money. There is a good chance you are dominated and a 7-3 dog. You have the advantage if your opponent has high cards, possibly by as much as 3-2. It is probably a favorable bet and you are short stacked and need to gamble.

[Lloyd]

Clear fold for me. I don't like calling raises or re-raising with Ax - too easily dominated. He's probably not going to fold as he knows you're getting desperate. So the only hands where you're the favorite are ones that he shouldn't be playing from MP (like the hand he played). Yes, you need to gamble. But when doing so I want to be the initial aggressor.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
how about a stop n go here?

[/ QUOTE ]

we don't have to play every hand, you know

[cferejohn]

I'd fold this pretty quickly. If I knew this guy was stealing with every 3rd hand or something, maybe, but I would think than an unknown player is raising most pairs, most aces, and maybe KQ. You're slightly ahead of KQ and behind just about everything else.

The problem with little aces is that when you are ahead, you are not very far ahead, and when you are behind, you are significantly behind. Consider: while A3 is a better hand than KQ, it is in much worse shape against, say pocket 6's than KQ is.

I'm only going to get aggressive with little aces when I think there is a very good chance that the other player would be raising a no-pair, no-ace hand.

[gergery]

Easy fold for me, unless table is particularly loose and/or aggressive.

If you push he has to risk 1600 to win 4200, so he’s getting 2.6 to 1 and he out-stacks you. Given that he likes his hand enough to raise, and figures you might be desperate (so even if he’s stealing his range is skewed better than random), I would expect a call very frequently. And A3s is at best going to be 60-40 favorite, and will be a dog to any pair or any ace (which are dealt ~20% of the time, and will be in raisers hands more frequently that). With 5xBB and position on button you have 8 hands or so to catch a hand as good as this (and statistically are highly likely to) and push first in.

--Greg