44 in The BB

[Hubble]

Playing in 40 person Tourny which was Limit and is now NL. Blinds are 100-200. 18 players left and I have about 3600 an average chip stack. Top 10 get paid but amounts are not even posted yet. Folded around to the small blind whom makes it a 1000. he has about 4200 in chips. What do you do with 44. I put him on an Ace any type hand and thought it would be 50/50 with me being the slight favorite. He was not pot committed so I thought he would fold all but the 3 top pairs. I went all in, he called and turned over 66. ouch. I still do not like the way I played it in hindsight but how can he make the call with 66.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

I don't like either calling or going all-in with small pairs late in a tournament. It's not going to be worth the risk of getting eliminated for the possibility you'll be a 6:5 favorite, if you're actually ahead. The consequences of getting eliminated far outweigh the advantages of being ahead. This remains true even if you knew he had AK and you had 44. I still would not call at the point you were at in the tournament in that situation.

as for your opponent's play here, well... he overplayed his hand, but so did you.

al

[grapes]

I agree with Al here, both you and the small blind overplayed your hands. The problem with going in with 44 here is that you are either a tiny favorite, maybe 55/45 at best, or a huge underdog to a bigger pair, as it turned out. When you average out either a tiny edge for you or a huge edge for your opponent, well, it doesn't look good.

Obviously, either the small blind thought you were making a move on him, or your read on him was way off. He would have to be a very tight player for me to say with any confidence that he would fold any hand but the top 3 pairs. To make things worse, 44 can still be an underdog even if he isn't paired, to a hand like JTs. Granted, if he's sane he can't call your reraise with a hand like that.

Even though I don't like your play, his call of your all in bet is worse, for the same reasons, and now given your reraise, he should reason that he's more likely to be up against a bigger pair, and he's in terrible shape. If you could somehow have known that he had 66, I might make the reraise you did, assuming most players will fold a hand like that. Maybe the fact that he would still be alive even if he lost played a role in his decision. Maybe he had a read on you that you would have just called or made a small raise with a big pair, and he put you on overcards like AK.

So, what to do? If his raise was smaller, say to 400 instead of 1000, calling and hoping to hit a set and bust him is reasonable. But, you can't commit more than a quarter of your stack here hoping to hit a set, because the odds aren't there for the call even if you assume you will bust him if you do hit your set. When you throw in the fact that losing your whole stack hurts a lot more than doubling up helps, I think a fold is pretty clear. Even if you thought this play would have a positive expectation in a money game, it would still be wrong in a tournament.

Of course, it's a lot easier to make a decision after thinking about it for a while and reading other people's opinions. At the table, you don't have that luxury.

[maplepig]

That's exactly the reason you don't go all-in with 44. You either are ahead a little or a huge dog. You should only go all-in with this hand when blind is big and you are short stacked(no more than 6x of the blind).

[curtains]

I dont think its so obvious that its always bad to make a big raise with 44, but in this spot Id be hesitant. $1000 is a pretty big raise of your $200 blind. When someone raises that much, it wouldn't strike me as the kind of raise that's especially likely to fold to an all in reraise for $2500 more. If he made a more typical raise of $600 I would think an all-in reraise has more of a chance to get him off the hand, although most likely I still wouldn't do it. If the blinds were 200-400 instead, and he raised to 800 from the SB....then it's a situation where I would be reasonably likely to go all in.

[ohkanada]

Against the right player going all-in is fine. You obviously didn't pick the right player. You want a player who would fold the mid-range pairs plus some overcards plus someone who is a loose raiser. When he called with 66, his thought process was my opponent has overcards and I have a Pair!

Ken Poklitar

[DaNoob]

I lost two tournaments last weekend with pocket 4s, both times going all-in when they turned into sets on the flop. 1st time I lost to a higher set (from the SB) and the 2nd time to a runner runner straight. I've subsequently decided to never play pocket 4s again. Not even from the BB with no raise, not even if I flop 2 more. They are BAD KARMA.

[John W]

I would fold and wait for a better hand. You have a full free round to find something better to get all your money in the with. The raiser at the very least has two overs.