Hand analysis, please

[onthebutton]

One table tournament. 9 players. Starting stacks of 600.
Blinds are 20/40, two hands until they move to 40/80.

Fold to MP+1, MP+1 raises to 80 (stack size ~600)
Cutoff calls (stack size ~725).
Hero (button, stack size ~450) has 9 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif.

My reads on these players: MP+1 seems to often overplay hands. Loves to play hands with huge draws. Cutoff is often tight/weak, but plays pre-flop almost always by the book. His call scares me more than the initial raise.

How would you play it? I thought this was a fold or push in situation.

[pokerlaw]

There is t250 in pot when you act. Given your stack size...push.

btw, was this an online game? the structure seems unusual...

[lastchance]

Yeah. This is going to be a push/fold fest. I'd try to pick it up with nines right there and then.

[onthebutton]

It's a live game. The structure is messed up, I don't really like it. I'd rather slow the blinds down or increase the starting stacks. The blinds stop going up at 40/80, which doesn't make much since to me either.

Besides the analysis, any ideas how we could set up a better game that 10 people could finish in 4-5 hours?

[pokerlaw]

[ QUOTE ]

Besides the analysis, any ideas how we could set up a better game that 10 people could finish in 4-5 hours?

[/ QUOTE ]

check the "home poker" forum...

[pooh74]

Yeah, Im not so sure this is a push anymore if blinds stay at 40/80...what's the payout structure?

[onthebutton]

60%/30%/10%.

[pooh74]

Might be a good spot to add 50% to your stack...(by pushing)...If initial raiser folds, CO will have very decent odds to call...and judging by your read, he might not need the odds.

Home games are tough...you are the best source of info on these hands bc you know all the players and your chances of stealing blinds later etc...that said...with your stack, calling is out of the question here I believe.

[pokerlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
with your stack, calling is out of the question here I believe.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. Would a reraise to 250 (leaving you w 200 chips, not much, but something) get folds? How have the players been playing?

[onthebutton]

The initial raiser would be more likely to play a less than premium hand at any time. The cutoff player is more likely to fold here unless he has something very strong, using past experience as a judge.

I really couldn't see betting off more than 50% of my stack unless I was prepared to go to war here, so I considered my options as being fold or raise.

[onthebutton]

I meant to come back and post the results. I was actually very surprised to see what happened:

Hero pushes all in. MP+1 calls after 5 minutes of thought, Cutoff calls almost instantly. I thought I was in big trouble.

Flop comes out K /images/graemlins/club.gif A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif9 /images/graemlins/club.gif. MP+1 checks, Cutoff pushes all in. MP+1 calls.

Turn comes 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif, river is a blank.

Quad nines to triple up. About the luckiest hand I've ever seen, although I reminded them while they both were bitching that I was never behind in this hand. /images/graemlins/grin.gif