Pre-bubble troubles

[bmxreed36]

I seem to be getting alot of 5th and 6th place finishes lately (playing in the 20's). I generally feel comfortable with my play early on and also once the blinds get very high. But I find myself unsure of what to do when the blinds are 50-100 and 75-150. With a stack size around 650-1000 I often feel the need to steal with certain hands or in situations where the blinds are about to go up and take away my real fold equity. But here are some theoretical spots where I don't know whether to muck or raise (should I ever be limping?) and more importantly how much to raise--standard raise that pretty much commits me or push?

Hand #1
Blinds 75-150
UTG(3200)
Hero(1000) A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif
Button(800)
SB(1200)
BB(1800)

UTG folds
Hero ????


Hand#2
Blinds 50-100 and about to go up
UTG(1500)
Hero(650) K /images/graemlins/spade.gifT /images/graemlins/spade.gif
Cutoff(1300)
Button(1500)
SB(2500)
BB(550)

UTG folds
Hero???


Also same situations with 55 and A3.
Even with something like AQ or JJ, I don't know whether to push or raise 30-40% of my stack.

The problem seems to be that I have been pushing with 8-10 times the bb and mostly only being called when I am dominated. Thanks for any advice.

[zambonidrivr]

i fold both hands.
push 5's
raise aq
push ak, q's, k's, a's

thats just me. seems most here advocate pushing any 2 when short stacked.

[willbb99]

I would definitely push K10s since you are nowhere near having 10x BB. I'm not sure about A7. If you had a similar chip stack situation I'm pretty sure you should push AQ or JJ. What do others think?

Will

[mosdef]

[ QUOTE ]
raise aq

[/ QUOTE ]

raise AQ? Raise it to what? half your stack? with what plan on the flop? i think this is a terrible idea for both of the posted hands.

[AliasMrJones]

In both of these you are in push or fold territory. A standard raise or call are both out of the question.

Hand 1 it appears you are UTG...I assume you mean you're on the button. I'd push both of these. Basically, any A, pair, K9s+, QJs, JTs look pretty good to me. In hand 1 you have a bit more time to be selective and the stacks are pretty even so pushing range is somewhat more dependent on how tight the blinds are.

[Ixnert]

All of this is dependent on reads for the players still in the hand, but assuming I don't have any:

I'd push the A7; the only stack against which you don't have much FE already folded, and you've only got about 7xBB.

The KT I'm not as sure about. Even though the blinds are about to go up, you're still only getting 150 if you steal this hand. I'm inclined to say fold unless the table is particularly tight, but you'll have to be pushing a very wide range once the BB hits you.

Push in either chip situation with 55, JJ, or AQ. You don't have enough chips for anything but push or fold, and these hands don't so much mind a spite/"eh, it's cheap" call. (Think of it this way: what will you do if one of the big stacks comes over the top of your 40% raise for the rest of your stack with you holding AQ? If you'd call that, why not just push in the first place?)

[unreal_nh]

[ QUOTE ]
I seem to be getting alot of 5th and 6th place finishes lately (playing in the 20's).

[/ QUOTE ]


Whats wrong with 5th and 6th place? This is what i (and i assume everyone else) strive for.

[unreal_nh]

on a more serious note, i seem to be having the exact same problem as you bmx, so my advice probably wouldnt help. but i am going to keep checking up on this thread so maybe i could get some useful information. yeah what do you do when the blinds are just so high (not too high, but high) and you dont want to seem like a maniac and push every hand, but you dont want to raise half your stack and commit yourself, and you also dont want to blind your fe away. just a lot of strifling situations if you ask me.

[lastchance]

Shove A7 for sure. I shove KTs as well because you can't post t225 in blinds without being all-in with crap somewhere down the line with the stack you have.

[kamrann]

You think the A7 is obvious? Hmm, I'd probably fold that, because if called you can guarantee you're dominated (okay maybe not in the $20's), which for me would offset the gain of t225 too much. This may be a horrible leak though...

The KTs I push for sure. Also push the 55, fold the A3. In general there's really no point raising and not pushing unless you have a hand big enough to want action, which in most spots means QQ+.

[lastchance]

I think it's really easy. T225 is more than a fifth of your stack, and that's huge.

Stop thinking like blinds don't matter. They do. You can get from 800 on L4 to 2000 in L6 on blinds alone, which is good enough for ITM 50+% of the time.

Limping is bad, pushing is good because blinds matter, and if you can't get all-in with AA, the second best thing is to keep picking up t150, t225, t300, t450.