Taj 50+15 final table hand

[MHarris]

Taj Mahal 50+15, 8-handed. Payouts run ~350 for 8th, ~450 for 7th, ~600 for 6th, ~800 for 5th.

I'm one of the shorter stacks at the table. I have T55K to start the hand. There are two players with about T40K, both are in middle/late position and won't take the blinds for another 3 hands. 3 other players have around T500K, and the other 2 have about T200K.

Blinds are 15K-30K with a 5K ante. Folded to the button (has open-raised several recent pots, T500K) who min-raises to 60K. I'm in the SB with QJo. Folding will leave me T40K, and calling puts me all-in. There is a pretty decent chance the BB (loose aggressive player, T500K) will call another 30K here. Given the two other short stacks, do I have a call or fold?

[The4Aces]

i would fold, one of the short stacks will probably get out during that orbit and that gives you 100 more bucks. Even if you did win this hand you would stull be a short stack and will probably get 7th anyway.

[The4Aces]

by the way this is only true if you are going for the best way to get the most money. If you are doing all or nothing than call. 3 double ups and your chip leader and in good position to win the entire thing.

[betgo]

I would call. Don't worry about mooving up a couple of notches on the scale. If you win, you will have a good chance at 5th and a shot at the whole thing.

[Wayfare]

This is an obvious fold because you have almost no chance to win the tournament (several players at 10x your stack), but you have a great chance to move up at least one place in the money standings simply by folding until the short stacked players play their blinds.

[betgo]

The way the payouts are structured, moving up one place is worth $100. If you can doulble up, you can probably double your payout plus you have an outside shot at the really big prizes.

[Gronk]

Call every time and don't look back. You're very short stacked in relation to the blinds, there is almost 3x more money in the middle than in your stack and you're in a shorthanded(2 or 3way pot) with two face cards. You're not going to get a better situation than this to get your money in.

I don't care for the attitude some people have that "You have no change for first so fold your way out of the tournament and hope someone else busts out first.". Which would you rather have, a chance at $100 or a chance at 8k? If the $100 makes that big of a difference to you to affect this decision, $50 tournys might be a bit too large for you. I apologize if I come off sounding condescending or like a jackass here, but playing for second to last place is not the way to play a tournament.

[MHarris]

I don't think you come off like a condescending jackass, and FWIW, $100 doesn't even register a blip on my radar. I was just having some 4:30 AM doubts about my play here. I called, figuring if the BB didn't call and I took it down, my stack would increase to 180K, and if BB did call with a subpar hand and I took it, I would be at 210K. Either way, I'm a major player at this final table if I win this pot, and I figure the button is capable of stealing with garbage.

I called and button flipped up KK, which held up. Meh.

[Gronk]

Sorry it turned out bad for you. When the blinds are that huge a min raise on the button is usually enough to steal the blinds. I wouldn't have been surprised to see any two cards in that situation. Against AK you're not far behind and against a pocket pair 10 10 or below it's even closer. I think you'll end up seeing Ax more often than not in this situation. Good call.

[MHarris]

To be honest, when I called, I didn't expect to be far behind, if at all. And having 40K left hoping to make $600 isn't worth nearly as much as having around 200K and a realistic shot at 1st-2nd ($5400-2700).