Stars 500K hand

[tdomeski]

Tournament is now being played hand for hand but the short stack is reading 0 at this point so we just reached the 135-100 payouts.

I've got 60K folded to me in SB with AJo.

I have BB covered by like 2K.

Blinds are 3K/6K

What is your play?

I'll post what I did a little bit later.

[Chief911]

You have to push no? Barring a super-read on the BB, you can't fold if he reraises you allin. So, I push.

Nick

[DyessMan89]

Hmm, maybe Im missing something, but this isnt even close. Auto-push. 10XBB, and most of the times you get called you will be the favorite.

[tdomeski]

Well, well, well.

With a 60K stack at this point in the Stars 500K I was sitting roughly 30th in chips with 135 left. That in itself is pretty sick seeing as that I only had 10 big blinds. I believe the chip leader at the time was sitting like 30 BB's deep.

During the hand I had to make a huge assumption. That assumption was that AJo here is THE BEST HAND. Using that I decided I needed to get him to put chips in with a worse hand and give me a shot to play a big pot versus a worse hand, or take down more of his chips without any risk.

Thus, I decided to limp with the intention of raising all in if he raised pre flop. I had only had one other opportunity in a blind vs blind battle with this guy in the tournament and on that hand when it was folded to me I raised rather quickly and he folded even quicker. I figured if I called the blind that would put about 16K in chips out in the pot and I really felt like he would take a shot at it. If he checked and I did not hit the flop I figured I could take a 10K stab at the pot and hopefully take it down. Also a flop c/r if I didn't hit crossed my mind as well. If he checked and I did hit the flop I figured it would be a great chance to play a big pot with a better hand.

As the hand went he raised to 18K, I pushed, he called with QQ and flopped a Q.

I only got two responses and they both advocating pushing. I feel like if I push here I take the pot a fairly large percentage of the time, but if BB puts another chip in the pot I'm pretty sure I'm at best flipping a coin. I don't care too much about the fact that he actually had a hand and I didn't suckout just that I maximized my equity on that particular hand.

I busted the very next hand (having only 2.5K left in chips) and finished a disappointing 134th. Not too often you outlast 3000 people in a tournament and only make $430. It's a very difficult structure b/c you end up playing strictly pre flop poker from about 200 left to 27, then the stacks get a little deeper (even then it's all pretty short). Sick game we play where we flip coins for thousands of dollars.

[tdomeski]

The dude that busted me just made the final table /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[TheBlueMonster]

[ QUOTE ]
As the hand went he raised to 18K, I pushed

[/ QUOTE ]
I think that push was not so smart. Raising in the BB = he probably has a hand. AJo out of position just doesn't strike me as a strong hand here.

[Chief911]

IMHO, you are simply being results oriented. If you had larger stacks, then there are a lot of ways you can go here. But with your stack size, there is atleast 10k in the pot, which is signficant enough that you want that 10k NOW. The fact that he woke up with a better hand is purely rough luck.

Nick

[tshak]

I hate AJo. Especially in the SB. I also hate tournaments where I'm 30/130 and I'm short stacked. I'm assuming along with the rediculous blinds you had a cool 750 ante or so. If so your stack is getting cut in half two orbits from now if you don't make a move. As a result I'm pushing with a lot worse than AJo here.

Moral of the story: Stop giving your money to tournaments with bad structures. They don't even have to hire live dealers for crying out loud!

[TheBlueMonster]

[ QUOTE ]
rediculous blinds

[/ QUOTE ]
or even ri diculous blinds

[tdomeski]

Nick,

Point taken.

Give me an 80K stack and him a 100K stack.

What is your play in this instance?

I only ask b/c for the most part my SB play is probably my biggest leak.

Thanks in advance.

[tdomeski]

[ QUOTE ]
Raising in the BB = he probably has a hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

With like 15K in the pot I think he can make this raise with a lot of hands that aren't beating me, correct?

[TheBlueMonster]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Raising in the BB = he probably has a hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

With like 15K in the pot I think he can make this raise with a lot of hands that aren't beating me, correct?

[/ QUOTE ]
hmmm, but there are times you just shouldn't get involved in a hand. All you have with AJ is Ace high with the 3rd best kicker. I don't get too excited.

[TomHimself]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Raising in the BB = he probably has a hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

With like 15K in the pot I think he can make this raise with a lot of hands that aren't beating me, correct?

[/ QUOTE ]
hmmm, but there are times you just shouldn't get involved in a hand. All you have with AJ is Ace high with the 3rd best kicker. I don't get too excited.

[/ QUOTE ]well u should

[mic_check12]

For crying out loud! AJ is a monster 2 handed in the blinds with 10x stacks, don't try and convince OP otherwise. Raising out the bb in this situation certainly does not mean villain has a strong hand (don't be results orientated). I make that play with any 2 cards when the sb simply completes and the pot is huge in relation to our stacks.

To the OP: I like your thinking on this. My initial reaction is to push but then you realise that the vast majority of the time you just take the blinds down and it would be nice to double through. If you can be sure that the bb is going to take a stab at it preflop then I like the flat call, reraise all in preflop. I'm not so sure I like the idea of playing the pot OOP if he simply checks. When you don't hit I think it could be a horrible situation. Gotta have some sort of read on the bb....

IMO it all comes down to taking a small edge at this point in the tournament. You certainly can't wait around for big hands if you want to final table this thing. If you can get the bb to commit with a hand like KQ (ie he raises and you push, he has silly odds to play) or even QT etc then you get the money in with an edge. Doubling up gives you a little bit of leeway to steal and fold when played back at which you certainly don't have now. Plus you also have the times when he raises junk after you've flat called and he folds to your push which makes the pot you win a little bigger.

I'm not sure I'm being too lucid here, its something I've been trying to work on in my game. Rather than simply pushing from the button or sb with what you expect to be the best hand, try and get the opponent to commit with what will probably be a weaker hand than yours (even if the edge might only be 55-45 or 60-40). I.E with the hands he folds to your push but raises with if you flat call. This applies to these online tournaments where at this stage in the game often all the $$ goes in preflop due to the stacks sizes in relation to the blinds.

[dmk]

You likely have the best hand, so try to get his chips in the middle w/ AT-A2/KQ/etc. Usually a limp or minraise accomplishes this fairly easily. The last thing ppl want to do in this stage of a tournament is see a flop.

[betgo]

Of course you want to get the money in with AJ heads up. No way to know villain had QQ. No way to get away from AJ heads up even with considerably bigger stacks.

The blinds and antes are pretty big here, so I prefer an open push to a limpraise. AJo is pretty strong heads up, so you could also raise to 3xBB.

The limpraise only works if villain will raise with anything if you check. Plus the money is not deep enough to make villain fold to a limpraise. If you had 15-20xBB, a limpraise against an aggressive big stack might be a good play.

Here you don't gain that much by getting the money in a 60-40 favorite over just picking up the blinds and antes. Plus you limp may not be raised.