I think I made a mistake but not sure....

[LetsRock]

UB $10 SnG

A couple of night ago I was playing in a SnG and had a rough start. Struggled to the 100 BB level but there were still 7 of us left!

Anyway I'm in SB with about T250 left (My BB must have been an awful hand) and look down and see AJs. I think OK let's give this one the "this is the hand" label.

Much to my dismay, there are 4 limpers ahead of me, all with pretty big stacks. I had made my decision to shove it in and really didn't give it a lot of thought when it was my action, but I kinda saw a huge payoff if it held up. 3 of the 4 called my measly raise, and of course it didn't hold up (I didn't hit the board and MP limperhad AQ anyway!).

Anyway, I wasn't really surprised to see it not hold up and it really didn't bother me. But Looking back, I'm wondering if I would have been better off saving my "this is the hand" move for later, when I had a chance to steal the blinds or at least have fewer players in the action.

I was thinking that this was probably going to be the best cards I was going to see out of the next 9 (I was basically going to blinded out next orbit).

My stack was going to be even less impressive next time I had to make the move and the thought of getting 3 or 4 x my stack seemed to impeed my decision to think about "this probably isn't the best time" consideration.

Was this a bad decision, or am I just beating myself up over a hand that really did have to be played?

[ghettorat]

In the heat of the moment, I would probably push like you did. Looking at it from an objective viewpoint, I would rather wait and push all-in on the next orbit, hoping to get my chips in 1st or at worst 2nd. Even if I have weaker hand then AJs, if I put my chips in 1st, it takes a stronger hand to call me. Just my opinion.

[Martin Aigner]

LetsRock,

call and move in on the flop no matter what.

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[JDO]

Let me begin by saying that this type of SnG has been haunting me lately, they creap on for close to 2 hours and suck the life out of me.
That said. My opinion, of course open to criticism. You have enough chips to see 7 more hands. I don't know what your chances of getting a better hand than AJs but I would bet not great. Also, even if you just doubled up you would still have less than 10 BB and therefore still not be very secure. However, if you quadruple up, you are back in the fight. You have a hand that likes allot of callers, with the straight and flush opportunites. I think I would do the same thing here.

Another option would be to complete and hope the a straight/flush draw or Jack high flop hit and fold to any bet if you didn't hit. Since you know your all-in won't scare anyone off this is the safer route. But, then you are back to hoping for something that isn't likely to come: a better hand. I like the all-in.

[LetsRock]

One bump. Hoping to see a few more opinions please.

Thanks

[RustedCorpse]

I don't think you have any other option other than all in. Yeah it sucks that there were so many prior callers, but you almost have to call here, I think the odds of getting a better hand within 7 is abysmal. The only other option would be to all in next hand with anything and just hope that everyone is still recovering from the last one? (give me the AJ anytime)

On a sidenote I agree even six months ago all my SnG's averaged like 1-2 people out a level. Now Blinds are 100/200 and I still have 6+ people at the table. Most seem to just be sitting there praying to some how sneak into the money. I've been playing far more aggressivley early on when I can take the losses trying to build a big enough stack to survive the crap shoot that will occur in the late stages. I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

[ohkanada]

I likely go all-in as well as a gamble and hope to hit a flop and win a big pot.

Ken Poklitar