Final table situation

[drewjustdrew]

No limit tournament (on-line)

I am in SB with jacks. Limits are $1000/$2000 (no ante). I have about 27000 in chips and am slightly below average (in terms of chip total). 6 handed, player raises to 12000 which is about half his stack. I have him covered by just over 2000. What should I do?

1. Fold
2. Raise all-in
3. Call and see flop. Bet all in if favorable flop. Fold if high cards hit and opponent makes big bet.

What should I do if blinds were higher, say 2000/4000?

I really want to know how people feel about going all-in preflop vs. betting all in after flop.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

I'm a big advocate of the stop-and-go play, and like it in many situations where others don't use it. However, I'm not sure this is the right spot.

6-handed, JJ is too good to fold. The guy made a weird raise, however. 6K would be about the pot, and he doubled that, which usually indicates he doesn't want action. However, if he doesn't want action, why not raise all-in instead, since he's pot-stuck himself by betting half his stack anyway?

So, the reason for the stop-and-go play are often that your hand is too good to toss, and you think you can get the opponent to make a laydown which he otherwise wouldn't make if you raised preflop. Here, if the flop looks favorable (i.e., no overcards), you probably want the guy to fold, as his call would be with 3:1 odds, and he's just about a 3:1 dog if he has two overcards. Of course, if he only has 1 overcard, you'd like that call.

But, if the flop doesn't look favorable, now what? Whether there is one overcard, two, or three, you might be checking-and-folding the best hand. Also, when the flop is favorable, you'll never be getting him to fold the best hand if he has it. That's one advantage of the stop-and-go when it's right to do it. A guy raises who might have a medium pair. You call and bet all-in on the AJ3 flop while holding K9s. If he lays down TT that's a huge coup for you.

Here, nothing like that will ever happen, unless you bet all-in on a flop with 1 or more overcards, and get him to lay down KK or QQ to that overcard. Thus, one of the main advantages of the stop-and-go play is denied to you unless you will follow through with a bet on a bad flop.

Overall, I think you might as well get all the money in now, as the stop-and-go play will only rarely cause the opponent to make a postflop error here.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[drewjustdrew]

Thanks, Greg.

I think you are correct and that is how I played it. By the length of time it took my opponent to decide to play it, and the outcome, I was wondering what others used in their decision of the stop and go (as you put it) or the all-in.

Results:

Like I said, he took a long time to call but finally did so. He had pocket 6s. You were correct that he didn't want callers. The result was that four spades hit the board and he made a flush. Both my Jacks were red.

For those who care, I went all in on my big blind next orbit, won with two pair. I moved up one more spot before being eliminated when another player lost about $25000 all-in before I had another playable hand.