Act III hand: Was this a bad call?

[Toro]

Foxwoods is running the Act satellites for the New England Poker Classic $5200 NLHE main event coming up in April. I was there yesterday, entered an Act II for $150 and was one of the top 3 finishers which got me a free entry for an Act III which you could also directly buy into for $450.

There were 29 entries into this Act III so they were giving out 2 seats with 3 re-entry consolation prizes and $430 to 6th place. We were down to 4 and the stack sizes were approximately as follows:

UTG: 9000
Button: 22,000
SB(Me): 24,000
BB: 32,000

The blinds were 1500/3000 with a 500 ante.

UTG folded and the Button raised to 6000. I re-raised all-in and the BB folded. My table image to this point, I would have to say was good. I played the Act II satellite with this guy and a lot of this Act III and always showed a good hand when called.

He didn't take more than a few seconds and called for the remainder of his chips and tabled A5s. Was this a bad call?

After I get some replies, I'll reveal my hand and the results.

[kuro]

The calls bad. You've got to figure that he's up against Acebig or a pocket bigger than 55. Either way he's pretty far behind.

Worse though is his min raise on the button. He should have just pushed from the start if he wasn't going to lay it down to an all-in.

[fnord_too]

The call is marginal, the play is horrible.

Since both the people still to act have him covered, he needs to decide BEFORE he raises the first time if he is willing to put all his chips in pre flop with this hand. If so, he needs to push, not mini raise.

Yes, maybe he would rather see the flop for 6k than to risk all his chips, and there is a chance someone will just call from the blinds, but that is horrible thinking with a hand that plays so bad post flop. His only real advantage post flop is positional, and that is all but negated by the extremely shallow stack sizes.

Dropping him into the situation where he has to call or fold to your push, it is close (I'd fold), but considering how he got there, the only play that doesn't make the mini-raise a mistake is folding.

[SossMan]

what was the shortstacked play like? Were there lots of min raises winning the blinds? Was there much playing back? Was this the first time you had done this?

I can't imagine any answers to those questions that would make a call correct in that spot, but trying to evaluate his whole play.
Could you have made that reraise w/ something like KJ? Yeah. But it's probably on the low end of your range. I would give you credit for something makes A5 a 3 out draw and fold.

[Toro]

[ QUOTE ]
what was the shortstacked play like? Were there lots of min raises winning the blinds? Was there much playing back? Was this the first time you had done this?

I can't imagine any answers to those questions that would make a call correct in that spot, but trying to evaluate his whole play.
Could you have made that reraise w/ something like KJ? Yeah. But it's probably on the low end of your range. I would give you credit for something makes A5 a 3 out draw and fold.

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I'll assume you mean shorthanded play and shortstacked is a typo. Yes there were a couple of min raises that took the blinds down but for the most part it was either a 3 or 4 times the BB raise or all-in or folds to the BB.

I don't know if he could have thought that I was capable of that play with KJ, I doubt it. He didn't seem like the type of player who even put you on a hand. And I at that point with my stack, I didn't feel like I had to resort to that so I wasn't going to do it. I think I only came over the top of someone all-in like that once in the late stages and didn't get a call with AA(but I didn't show).

[Toro]

I tabled 77 and it held up and I won the seat. After it was over the other player approached me and asked if I thought he made a bad call.

I was honest and told him that I thought that it was a bad call and he asked why. I responded almost exactly as you have all replied to this thread, that he was likely to only have 3 outs since it was likely that I had a pair higher than 5's or an Ace with a better kicker. I also told him that if he was going to call the re-raise anyway a better play would have been to just push in the first place.

I didn't tell him but if he had, I might not have called. He then argued that he had more than three outs since his A5 was suited and I wasn't counting all those outs.

At that point, I was done teaching and said "oh yeah, I forgot they were suited".

Thanks for the replies. Although this was pretty straight forward it's nice to know when others agree.

[boedeker]

you shoulda told him, but your 7's were off suit so you coulda made 2 flushes to his one.

[Toro]

[ QUOTE ]
you shoulda told him, but your 7's were off suit so you coulda made 2 flushes to his one.

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Good one but he was actually a real nice guy, so I would never rub it like that.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
He then argued that he had more than three outs since his A5 was suited and I wasn't counting all those outs.

At that point, I was done teaching and said "oh yeah, I forgot they were suited".


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perfect