Defending/pushing back with Ax from the blinds [party 30+3]

[Benholio]

When someone raises from a position that could be a steal, what kind of hand does it take to push back with? Here are several hands from today where I had medium aces in this position.

Hand #1
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (4 handed)

Hero (t2410)
UTG (t2300)
Button (t1040)
SB (t2250)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
<font color="CC3333">UTG raises to t800</font>, Button folds, SB folds, Hero folds.

Looking back at this one, my play looks kinda scared. Maybe I should have pushed back. I have enough chips to make UTG fold a pure steal, and I have some showdown vaule.


Hand #2
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (6 handed)

Hero (t860)
BB (t1173)
UTG (t1035)
MP (t2567)
CO (t1965)
Button (t400)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/club.gif, 8/images/graemlins/club.gif.
UTG folds, MP folds, CO folds, <font color="CC3333">Button raises to t400 (All-In)</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t860 (All-In)</font>, BB folds.

Button is pretty desperate here, so I like my chances. I push so that I don't have to face 2 opponents for these chips and BB's dead chips. I think this was an easy play due to my own stack size, but what if I had more chips? (~1500)


Hand #3
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (4 handed)

Hero (t2860)
BB (t2270)
UTG (t1410)
Button (t1460)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif.
<font color="CC3333">UTG raises to t1410 (All-In)</font>, Button folds, Hero calls t1210, BB folds.

I just called here with the intention of checking it down along with the BB if he wanted to. Should I have raised here to shutout BB and have a better chance to win the pot? Can I give UTG respect for a bigger hand and get rid of my A8 here?


Hand #4
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (3 handed)

Button (t1871)
Hero (t2790)
BB (t3339)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7/images/graemlins/club.gif, A/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
<font color="CC3333">Button raises to t800</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t2790 (All-In)</font>, BB folds, Button calls t1071 (All-In).

This one isn't quite as big of a deal I guess, since we are 3 handed. A7 is a big enough hand to call or raise a steal attempt 3-handed, right? I find myself doing this with almost any ace. Anyone agree/disagree with that?

[slickterp]

okay.
Hand 1 - i'd say reraise here, at least call.
Hand 2 - all in to freeze out evryone else and go HU. you ned to double through anyway, this seemslikea good spot.
Hand 3 - fold. no sense in risking a close call w/ the chip lead, since you're in themoney w/o much effort here.
Hand 4 - questionable. it won't knock you out to call, and you are already in the money, so it's not too bad to call. i'd say call if you feel good about the other guy and what you think he is doing.

[Benholio]

Thanks for your reply!

[ QUOTE ]
okay.
Hand 1 - i'd say reraise here, at least call.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't even consider calling as an option here, because I rarely do when the blinds are this big. I don't really want to put anymore chips in and play this out of position postflop, I feel like I have to push if anything here.

[ QUOTE ]
Hand 3 - fold. no sense in risking a close call w/ the chip lead, since you're in themoney w/o much effort here.

[/ QUOTE ]

You may have a point here, but in general I am very aggressive with the chip lead during the bubble. Most of my chips are won 4-handed because of this. However, this is mainly when I am first in, and I am pretty comfortable playing first-in at this stage, its where to draw the line for calling / re-raising that I am not as sure about.


[ QUOTE ]
Hand 4 - questionable. it won't knock you out to call, and you are already in the money, so it's not too bad to call. i'd say call if you feel good about the other guy and what you think he is doing.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think a call here would entice the BB to take a cheap flop, making it harder to win the hand. Also, if I feel ilke I'm doing pretty well against button's range of hands, I don't want to give him a free flop. If I could close the action, maybe I could call here and go for the stop-n-go, but I can't do that with BB yet to act. I think fold and push are the only decent options here, and fold seems to be the weaker of the two.

[Killer Mike]

#1 is a little tricky, but I would definitely either fold or push, not call or raise. If I had to lean one way or the other, I'd probably push. AT isn't the best hand in the world, but this one in particular seems more like a steal than the other 3 because of stack sizes, position, etc.

#2 is an easy push. You isolate and take your chances with any suited A.

#3 is an easy fold IMHO just because you're calling an all-in and you're a fairly solid chip leader. It's one thing to re-raise a min-rasise all-in yourself (as I would have done in #1), but it's a totally different situation when you're calling all-in. Coast into the money and then gamble around then.

#4 is another one that's tricky, but I'd say if you re-raise this time he's definitely going to call you; therefore if you re-raise all-in, expect to show down your hand. He bet 800, which isn't quite half his stack, but is enough in my opinion to call down the rest of his money. His 800 raise may have been made to get himself committed so he couldn't get away from the hand. Also, I've seen a lot of people play monster hands this way to entice a re-raise all-in. Like you said, though, you're already in the money, so you can afford to gamble here. I'd probably do what you did: push.