$33 rebuy pokerstars ATs on bubble

[daryn]

late in $33 rebuy on pokerstars, we're playing hand for hand because we're a few spots away from the money which pays top 3 tables, 36 players.. say 40 left.

i start the hand w/ 43K in chips. villain in the hand has me covered by 15K or so. blinds are 1K/2K w/ 100 ante or something

folds to villain who has the button and makes it 5K to go. i have A /images/graemlins/spade.gifT /images/graemlins/spade.gif in the small blind and decide to attempt a resteal. the big blind is shortstacked with 15K after he posted the 2K big blind.

i raise to 17K. i think this was my only mistake in the hand. in retrospect i think i should have raised to a more manageable amount like $12K, maybe so i could fold to an all in. i wanted the big blind to know that if he wants to play it's gonna be for all the marbles, but clearly i could have let him know the same thing with a smaller reraise. well, you know what happens next...

big blind folds and the button moves all in. i have 26K left in chips at this point. i play for first place, not to eek into the money btw...

call or fold? i know my hand isn't that strong, but 26K was about half avg. stack and if i win i would have 90K which would be good for top 3 in chips. i guess it's all about hand range but the only way i'm in deep trouble is if he has AA. the pot odds being offered mean i only have to win the hand 30% of the time to break even.

what say you guys, gamb00l or what?

[billyjex]

i think when you make a resteal raise like that, you have to be willing to play for all of your chips if he pushes. it's bad to make that raise without considering the options by how he acts.

a raise to 12k is somewhat weak too, because he's going to call, and then the flop will be very tricky if you don't hit.

I suppose you can fold, because you will have a 13xbb stack and still have a shot to double up in a better situation. but as you say.. 90k in chips is awfully nice. I think taking a flop here is not that bad either.

[bugstud]

I actually like calling a lot here because he raised so small.

If he raised to say 8k or so I could push here and it's not too much over an overbet, but a real reraise here given the stack sizes is really annoying.

[curtains]

I would either move allin preflop or call (With my preference being to move allin, but ok it depends). I hate raising to some middling amount and then folding to an allin because it completely destroys the value of your hand.

Also if you raise small enough to comfortably get away from the hand, you'll be giving the button proper odds to call you preflop (or reraise you), which also puts you in a pretty uncomfortable position.

btw whatever play I make preflop, I am going to decide how to react if the button moves allin before I make it.

[betgo]

[ QUOTE ]
I would either move allin preflop or call (With my preference being to move allin, but ok it depends). I hate raising to some middling amount and then folding to an allin because it completely destroys the value of your hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why would you raise and fold to a push. Once you made the raise you did, you have to call a push. You are out of position. I would just reraise allin, but calling is OK. A big ace is a good hand to push with on a semibluff.

Has the button been playing tight to avoid busting out on the bubble or has he been stealing? That would be the main determinant of whether I would call or push.

[thedecline19]

[ QUOTE ]
late in $33 rebuy on pokerstars, we're playing hand for hand because we're a few spots away from the money which pays top 3 tables, 36 players.. say 40 left.

i start the hand w/ 43K in chips. villain in the hand has me covered by 15K or so. blinds are 1K/2K w/ 100 ante or something

folds to villain who has the button and makes it 5K to go. i have A /images/graemlins/spade.gifT /images/graemlins/spade.gif in the small blind and decide to attempt a resteal. the big blind is shortstacked with 15K after he posted the 2K big blind.

i raise to 17K. i think this was my only mistake in the hand. in retrospect i think i should have raised to a more manageable amount like $12K, maybe so i could fold to an all in. i wanted the big blind to know that if he wants to play it's gonna be for all the marbles, but clearly i could have let him know the same thing with a smaller reraise. well, you know what happens next...

big blind folds and the button moves all in. i have 26K left in chips at this point. i play for first place, not to eek into the money btw...

call or fold? i know my hand isn't that strong, but 26K was about half avg. stack and if i win i would have 90K which would be good for top 3 in chips. i guess it's all about hand range but the only way i'm in deep trouble is if he has AA. the pot odds being offered mean i only have to win the hand 30% of the time to break even.

what say you guys, gamb00l or what?

[/ QUOTE ]

was this in the 1am rebuy tourney last night? I got 17th in that one and was wondering who the villian was in this hand.

[Chief911]

Daryn,

If you are going to resteal with a vulnerable hand like AT, you have to know it might get ugly. So you have two resteal options.

1. Call and play the flop with what you think is a better hand, albeit out of position.

2. Push preflop. You dont want him to call. You dont want him to go all in overtop and make you think about what he could have.

You left out the most important thing though. Why would you post this without giving us any information about the player?

1. Had the situation came up where it was folded to him on the button before like this? What did he do?
2. Was he loose? Tight?
3. Was he a thinking player who made reasonable thought through moves?
4. Had he shown the capability to lay down a hand, like you obviously want him to do in this case?
5. What was your image at this point? Or atleast what did the button think of you?

Answer these, and we'll have a lot more to go on besides pure bet sizes.

Nick

[Vagos]

I personally like calling 4k more and taking a flop and then maybe making a strong lead on the flop. This stop 'n go will often give you that good chance to re-steal the pot but you don't have to committ all of your chips preflop. If he has AJ/AQ, he will lay down on a ragged flop when you come out firing.
That being said once you re-raise to 17k, it's almost auto call getting that kind of price.

[curtains]

I like it when hands are posted without player specific information. I personally think it's very easy to adjust when you have a read on your opponent's style. If your opponent is raising and stealing the blinds nonstop it's a pretty clear allin. If they are extremely passive you might want to be more careful.

However the important thing IMO is knowing what to do when you don't have any type of read, or I guess having a "default" play. From there you can then adjust based on your opponent.

[SossMan]

"the nice thing about these plays w/ Ax is that you always have at least 3 outs"

- zeejustin

[yabastid]

[ QUOTE ]
"the nice thing about these plays w/ Ax is that you always have at least 3 outs"

- zeejustin

[/ QUOTE ]

LOL!

[Benal]

[ QUOTE ]
"the nice thing about these plays w/ Ax is that you always have at least 3 outs"

- zeejustin

[/ QUOTE ]

Spoken like a true expert player. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MrX]

[ QUOTE ]

I like it when hands are posted without player specific information. I personally think it's very easy to adjust when you have a read on your opponent's style. If your opponent is raising and stealing the blinds nonstop it's a pretty clear allin. If they are extremely passive you might want to be more careful.

However the important thing IMO is knowing what to do when you don't have any type of read, or I guess having a "default" play. From there you can then adjust based on your opponent.

[/ QUOTE ]

sounds like a quote from a SNG player. I feel the same way.

X

[M.B.E.]

[ QUOTE ]
Why would you raise and fold to a push. Once you made the raise you did, you have to call a push. You are out of position. I would just reraise allin, but calling is OK. A big ace is a good hand to push with on a semibluff.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. I'd have pushed initially. The main problem with just calling is that the big blind is still to act; he can overcall pretty cheaply which is bad enough, but if he raises and the button reraises, it's even worse.

Also you have to ask why the button is making this smallish raise (2.5xBB). It looks to me like he has a hand that he'd be happy to play against the big blind for 15K, but that he doesn't want to play against the small blind for 43K. So that's a good reason for us to push from the small blind with ATs.

(Of course, we know now that my interpretation is completely wrong because in fact the button did come over the top after Daryn reraised.)