final table decision

[dark_horse]

you're at the taj $50+15 freezeout. 250 players entered, 1st place takes over $4k. final table of 10 pays out from $160 and up. you begin final table play with 85k in chips and the blinds are at 8k/16k with a 2k ante. your stack is quite average at the final table (which is quite pathetic). you've played with about half of the table earlier in the tournament and assess most of them to be unskilled players. you have no read on the others as you just sat down with them.

1nd hand in, you are UTG. there's 44k in the pot before the cards are dealt. you're dealt AQo. you roughly have just over 5x the BB, but your stack is somewhat average to above average in this 10-handed ring. what do you do?

[Benal]

You'll be putting up 30K over the next three hands (2+18+10) leaving you with 55K or about 3BB. You're way behind only 4 hands (AA/KK/QQ/AK), and you could very well get called by AJ/AT/A9 and be in great shape, or be in a coin flip vs a mid/low PP.

I push.

[2005]

I hate it, but I push and puke in my mouth if I get called.

Gavin

[billyjex]

I agree with a painful push here. If you wait just a few more hands the blinds will kill you. If will suck if you run into a better hand or lose a flip and go out in 10th for 3x your buy in, but it's time to make a move..

[willie]

push. no time like the present, no day like today.

the fact that table is unskilled doesn't really factor in here

you're short as hell, and dealt a pretty good hand.

even though these players are unskilled- you're not going to have much room to outplay them with 5x the bb.

get in there and go.

[dark_horse]

i thought so. i didn't fault my play and pushed rather quickly. unfortunately i got called by some housewife with AK and lost, her stack barely covering mine. c'est la vie.. i played it the way i should have.

another experienced big tourney player friend of mine told me he would have called to see the flop cheaply and if he got raised big he would have gotten out. but i disagree with that play. you're just stuck here.

[hurlyburly]

Thank you for saying it. I was thinking I'd rather fold it and never know than risk getting called here, which felt weak until I read your post.

[hurlyburly]

I guess I am the dissenter, I'd probably fold here and take on the BB. I'd rather be last to act against bad players than first to push. Especially if it looks like you have a good chance to move up money spots by folding, as it does here.

[dark_horse]

it depends on what your goal is, to move up a few spots in the money, or to give yourself the best shot at winning the $4k. i'd rather push than "hope" to move up a few spots. if moving up a few spots means thousands of dollars in a big money tourney, then i might muck here if the stack/blind situation were the same because the money means more. but in this situation i don't like being short stacked. i want to put people to decisions. even though i was short stacked compared to the blinds, so was everyone else. yes, that means it's more likely for people to be moving in before the blind gets to you, but you never know. you have a good hand here and chips to scare people. don't waste it.

[2005]

You have the opportunity to increase your stack by 50%(44k) if you just push and everyone folds. There's no way this is a fold IMHO. If you're in the last 3 positions, there is probably no 2 card combination that you wouldn't push with if the blinds were even semi-tight.

Gavin

[valenzuela]

[ QUOTE ]
i thought so. i didn't fault my play and pushed rather quickly. unfortunately i got called by some housewife with AK and lost, her stack barely covering mine. c'est la vie.. i played it the way i should have.

another experienced big tourney player friend of mine told me he would have called to see the flop cheaply and if he got raised big he would have gotten out. but i disagree with that play. you're just stuck here.

[/ QUOTE ]

karma for peeking at other ppl cards.

[CardSharpCook]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i thought so. i didn't fault my play and pushed rather quickly. unfortunately i got called by some housewife with AK and lost, her stack barely covering mine. c'est la vie.. i played it the way i should have.

another experienced big tourney player friend of mine told me he would have called to see the flop cheaply and if he got raised big he would have gotten out. but i disagree with that play. you're just stuck here.

[/ QUOTE ]

karma for peeking at other ppl cards.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a fallacy. My understanding of the Buddhist view of "Karma" is that karma brings you into situations specific to you in order to learn. Dark Horse was brought into the situation of being able to view another players cards in order to teach him something. Dark Horse, ever the dutiful student, brought this situation to respected peers to see what it is that he should have learned from that situation. I hope that we have served him well.

Karma does not act as a whip, punishing us for our actions. No, if we fail in our choices, karma may bring us back to unpleasent situations so that we might learn, but this unpleasantness is no punishment.

<shrug> Many Americans see it your way though, it there is a very valid connotation of "bad/good Karma", but that doesn't relate to Eastern philosophy or true "Karma".

CSC