What range of hands should I be pushing here

[partygirluk]

$6.5 Turbo on Stars. Table is especially loose, even by typical standards of this level.

Blinds are 75/150 and here is the short stack with 840 UTG. The table is 7 handed. What should I be pushing with? I actually pushed with A8o, I think this is probably at the very margins of acceptability.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
$6.5 Turbo on Stars. Table is especially loose, even by typical standards of this level.

Blinds are 75/150 and here is the short stack with 840 UTG. The table is 7 handed. What should I be pushing with? I actually pushed with A8o, I think this is probably at the very margins of acceptability.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're missing the single most important factor other than your stack, the blinds, and your cards. What is it?

eastbay

[UMTerp]

The funny thing is, your cards might even be the least important of the four factors when deciding whether or not to push preflop.

You're obviously referring to position, but another very important factor is the stack sizes of the players to act behind you, if they are all moderate stacks (between 1 and 2 times the size of your stack), you're more likely to get away with a steal.

[partygirluk]

ERm, I don't know. I said I was the short stack and that I was UTG. What else is so important?

[(my name it is) Sam Hall]

[ QUOTE ]
$6.5 Turbo on Stars. Table is especially loose, even by typical standards of this level.

[/ QUOTE ]

Loose table ---> Let other people take themselves out. More hands may show +EV, but it comes with a higher variance, and that's bad. Pushing A8o doesn't help you against people who won't fold. Unless they're loose AND passive, continue to throw these hands away. Passivity will also tell you if you can play suited connectors. Loose and passive = good. You see a lot of flops for cheap and get odds to draww. Loose and aggressive = bad. The odds are still good, but it just costs too much.

BTW I thought "position" right away and yet there it is right there in the original post.

Sam

[ThorGoT]

Well, it probably should say "hero" as opposed to "here." That might be the source of confusion, or it could be there is another issue at play.

[skirtus]

Eastbay was referring to the other opponents stack sizes. And especially the stack sizes of the SB and BB. UmTerp pointed this out. Very critical part of the decision to push or not.