all-in, yes or no

[huelarue]

Last night in a satellite, 50 players left, im in about 40th and the blinds are quckly going up to 1000/2000, I have about 13K after posting BB. MP has domiant stack, 120K, and is consistantly stealing the blinds with BB X 5 bets before anyone else is in. Felt very strongly many of these plays were being made with inferior hands.

His bet is an extra 8K to me in the BB (everyone else folded as usual), and I move all in. He calls which is an extra 5K to him. I had A5, he had pocket 7's. I'm thinking this was a terrible play on my part, but thought the A would have a good chance againt 2 inferior cards and also had a chance for him to fold?

Would he make this play with random cards, and if so is A5 strong enough to go?

Your opinions are apprecited,

Hue LaRue

[CrisBrown]

Hi Hue,

I don't think this was an awful play, although playing back with Ax is dicey because players often steal on Ax ... and if his kicker is higher, you're dominated. In general you would rather have two live cards in this situation. As it turned out, you weren't that bad an underdog (~2:1), and the pot odds favored your call. Plus, frankly, you didn't have a lot of choices left.

Cris

[ZeeJustin]

This is a clear fold. You are a small favorite or a big underdog. Coinflips are fine. Going all-in HOPING for a coinflip is not.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Since I can't believe he'll fold getting almost 3-1 from the pot, I muck A5o here. The main reason is I'm most likely behind a bigger Ax, only have a small edge on Kx or Qx, and likely only have one overcard to any pair. If I'm going to push in my whole stack, I'd rather have the option of folding out the opposition or being a coin-flip against a middle pair. Neither one is the case here.

[LetsRock]

I don't like it with A5. You know he's on the steal, but this hand is not one I'd choose to defend unless his cards were face up, not paired, not suited and wasn't Ax (bigger x than me).

A stealer is not likely to do it with completely random cards; his raising standards are likely to be much lower than normal, but he's not likely to do it with complete junk. Besides, maybe THIS TIME he has the real goods.

It's not fun to watch and it's really not fun to be the victim of this, but you need to pick better spots than A5 to challenge this guy. You'll still have over $10K after the blinds. Wait for a better hand and let someone else try to take this guy on - they'll either bust out or slow him down, either of which is good for you.

[Prickly Pete]

[ QUOTE ]
As it turned out, you weren't that bad an underdog (~2:1), and the pot odds favored your call.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure how you're saying he has pot odds. He's making the decision to go allin (11k) and the raiser is almost automatically going to call the reraise. So, he's getting 16k to 11k, or about 1.45 to 1 to make this play. And the 7s are about 2.2 to 1 favorite (depending on the suits).

I'd say fold.

[markdmoney]

i fold this one, no question. im not big on going all in before the flop anyway unless i am desperatly needing to double up to survive.

[William]

This is a clear fold, for all the reasons you have read so far. I also want to point out that you perhaps are confused about how to play A5. It is correct that many shortstacked players go all-in with such hands, but it is an all-in hand when you are the first to bet, because of the scare factor, not an all-in call hand, where you have little chance of scaring an agressor, and you will probably find yourself in an underdog situation as you did here.

Take care,
William

[Scooterdoo]

I would have folded, but I also agree with Cris that it wasn't that bad a play. We are pretty sure that the opponent will call but we're also pretty sure that he could have virtually any hand on his steal attempt.

So the question is 'is this raise out of the ordinary for this player when stealing blinds, or is it fairly normal.'

Assuming it's his typical steal raise, it's probably more likely that he has a non-paired hand without an A than he has an A or paired hand. Assuming he has a non-paired/non-A hand you're a favorite to double up and get right back into the tournament. Of course, if he's paired or has an A you're in big trouble so the decision to make is how likely is he to be stealing with a non-paired/non-A hand. I would say it's pretty likely, but only players at this table who were observing him can make that read.

[JohnG]

There is no way on earth this player was folding if you move all-in. However, against this players range of hands, I would still be prepared to commit to playing the A5 for all my chips. But I would do it by calling and then auto betting all-in on flop unless I hit the ace. Probably makes little difference against many players with these actual ratios, but it at least gives them a chance to make a mistake post flop.