HU Call all-in w/Kx?

[EasilyFound]

$11 SNG. This is the third HU hand. First hand, villain folded in the SB. Second hand, I push from the SB, and he folds. Now, I'm dealt this and he pushes. He had played solid poker up to that point, and had been pushing against the small stacks on the bubble, which was the time when he gained the chip lead. Curious to see whether my decision corresponds with what others would do. Here goes:

***** Hand History for Game 2167247745 *****
400/800 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 12875649) - Mon Jun 06 23:02:34 EDT 2005
Table Table 12918 (Real Money) -- Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 7: EasilyFound (3185)
Seat 8: Villain (4815)
Villain posts small blind (200)
EasilyFound posts big blind (400)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to EasilyFound [ 7s, Kh ]
Villain raises (4615) to 4815
Villian is all-In.
EasilyFound ?????

[Matt R.]

I think I fold this in an $11 tourney, especially since your HU opponent is probably going to play far from optimally in future hands. I personally think it's close though, and I *might* call if I knew my opponent was good. I don't know what the mathematically correct play would be here though, so I'm pretty curious to hear what others think. I think I would need KJ or KTs to call.

[flyingmoose]

You'd have to pry this hand from my cold dead fingers to get me to fold.

Well, not quite. If the villain had been playing weakly heads up so far, I would fold, hoping to steal a couple times and maybe get a walk or two.

If he's been pushing and calling a lot, there's no way I'm folding. 15% of the tournament chips are in play at the beginning of the hand. There isn't much time to wait for a better hand to call, and you won't have much fold equity next hand.

[KingDan]

Call unless you think hes a rock that will let you steal 10 times in a row.

If he is at all decent, this is instacall.

[runner4life7]

I would call, heads up I like to think its a good enough hand to call.

[tjh]

I'd fold this.

HU is about playing your opponent. A few more hands and you will see what range he is pushing, wether pushing is is only move or if he raises some of them. You will also see how he responds to your bets.

Fold

[New York Jet]

FOLD. You still have plenty of chips to work with. If you call, you must showdown the best hand. If you move all-in on the next hand with 32o, you may pick up the blinds without a fight.
If he moved in with:
Junk hand (52o), you are a 2-to-1 favorite.
Small pair (44), you are a 45-to-55 underdog.
Medium pair (TT), you are a 3-to-1 underdog.
Ax (A3o), a 3-to-2 dog, or worse (A8o).

[Shillx]

Fold. If he is moving with any pair, ace or king you are wrong to call here though it is somewhat close. If you can add some some more hands (like any queen), then you should take a stand here imo.

Brad

[Matt R.]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd fold this.

HU is about playing your opponent. A few more hands and you will see what range he is pushing, wether pushing is is only move or if he raises some of them. You will also see how he responds to your bets.

Fold

[/ QUOTE ]

This is sort of what I was getting at. Since it's only 3 hands in, there's no way you can really tell how good of a HU player your opponent is. At the $11's, I would assume they're pretty darn bad. K7o could get you into a lot of trouble if he's actually pushing semi-decent hands -- you're a slight favorite at best and easily dominated. I'd like to think I could wait at least a couple more hands to outplay him rather than call off my stack.

[EasilyFound]

I'm not quarelling with anyone's advice, but is there really enough time to find out what kind of HU player this guy is? If I fold, I then have 6.5xbb left. If the strategy is to then push any next two, I'm still not going to find out what kind of player he is. I suspected that he had a better hand than me, but I can't know for sure and time runs out fast when the blinds are 200/400.

[Matt R.]

I think I usually can find time when I still have 7 BB's left. I just look at how often he is pushing from the SB. If he continues to push from the SB (as in the next hand, definitely if he pushes the next 2), I loosen up considerably. Also, another obviously big factor is how much he's folding his BB. I think K7 is borderline enough to fold because you're almost never going to be much better than 50:50, so I would prefer to wait another hand or 2.

[tjh]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not quarelling with anyone's advice, but is there really enough time to find out what kind of HU player this guy is? If I fold, I then have 6.5xbb left. If the strategy is to then push any next two, I'm still not going to find out what kind of player he is.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I made my suggestion that you fold I was looking only at relative stack sizes since in HU play I feel that is more important than the size of the blinds. He has more chips than you but not enough to panic. Push any two next time and he may fold, at that point you are back were you started. When he is small blind again you will see if he is aggressive or not. Your folding here actually benefits you when you push next. He knows that you fold bad hands so he will fear a push a little more than he otherwise may have.

So in my opinion you have some time. The blinds are significant but since you will be playing for all of your/his chips when you do play they are not that big a deal. Allowing him to get more than 75% of the chips is what I worry about and that will not happen just by giving up these blinds. Surprisingly you can sometimes climb back from a 3/4 of the chips vs 1/4 of the situation also.

--
tjh

[EasilyFound]

Thanks for the replies. The information will help me better analyze similar situations in the future.