Medium Ace in late

[broomcorn12]

wattup all. My first post. Probably a newbie question but this scenario comes up a lot of me. I dont have this converter u guys use, but ill be precise.

Tourney: 20 R And A on Stars yesterday, 50 players left, 45 cash.

Situation: 32k in front, blinds 2k/4k with ante.
I pick up ace 8, 2 seats from the button in an UNRAISED pot.
I felt like I didnt want to fold as I did have a decent ace in late, but didnt feel like riskin my stack right now. I didnt kno how to play it, so i min raised, figure i get away to a reraise, although puttin in a lot of my stack dead would be unfortunate. There were a couple of big stacks behind me, but BB was weak/tite. Wats the move GURUS?

[TheJackal]

I move all in or dump it.

[broomcorn12]

Ya. Makes sense, now is there any more value one way or the other, with a Fold or an ALL in. I mean apart from from a clown callin with 55 or KQ, if someone calls odds r I'm dominated. So do I Muck and wait for a better spot in another orbit, when ive lost 25 percent?

[Cland]

I value the x in A/x by the number of people still playing on my table.

I.E. if I'm with 5 other people then I'll play A/5 or so. At a full table I'm looking for A/Js or A/Ko.

I don't like the move in or fold ultimatum. It all depends of course, but I am more looking to steal the blinds than to get called with A/x and try to play a pot.

I'm looking to raise about 3/4 times the BB and just try to make off with the blinds.

[broomcorn12]

ya, i see wat ur sayin. However, this was not a cash ring game. I had 8 BBs in a tournament with blinds closing in and im not putting in a 3BB raise only to dump it to a reraise. losin 40 percent of my stack without commiting is not logical. There were 4 players left after me, and I had ace 8. Question is does 9 10 have more value for a 3 BB raise and then call, then does an A8? Should i just dump A 8 there and wait for a better spot?

[Cland]

I am assumeing that your a short stack.

One of the tricky pyschalogical reasons to only raise part of the way is that people are going to think you are desperate and are actully *more* likely to call your all-in raise then a lesser more controled raise. If you believe this or not its just something I have been turning over lately in my head. Not sure if I believe it lol /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm against taking away your opitions, if the person shows stregth in his call and the flop comes something that is scary like:

J /images/graemlins/heart.gif T /images/graemlins/heart.gif 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif

then you can get away from it.

Worse case you get re-raised and you get put all in which isn't such a bad play.

If your playing at a real table you can look and try and get a read on him. Its a touchy situation, but its a gamble. If I was having a bad run I would make it, but if I was doing ok I would wait it out, pass on tryin to steal.

[broomcorn12]

well, CLAND, u seem to say that I should be putting in part of my stack, as a way to get them to think im stealing so i can get play back. You forget im holding Ace 8, not bullets. I dont want playback at all on my raise. If i get reraised AI, i can only beat 77, everything else and im gone. I have 8BBs, and id lose 25 percent of my stack on another orbit. My table seemed fairly ABCish, so i wasnt worried about guy makin a play with 78. i dont think I can go for the raise and then abandon move, as puttin in 40 percent dead makes no sense. Even puttin in 2BBS(25 percent of my stack) and then gettin away is something i dislike. I wonder if ace 8 is most likely gonna be the best hand with 5 players left, with enough of a margin to make going all in worth it. Or would a muck and wait be a better move?