Right to push here?

[cjromero]

I am almost totally new to tourneys, so be nice.

Classic Poker Freeroll. Winner gets a seat in the WSOP main event. 2nd through 9th places get $100. No one else gets anything.

We started with 536 and were down to about 210 players. The blinds were 100/200 and about to increase to 150/300. My stack was T3380. Average stack was about T4,900.

I am in the big blind with pocket 10s. It is folded to the button, who open raises to T800. Button has me covered, as his stack was T4750. I just got switched to the table, so no read on him.

I decided to push all-in preflop with my pocket 10s. He flipped over A7o. The flop came A-6-3 and I was knocked out in 209th place.

Given that when the blinds went up I would have had a trouble stack, was I right to push all-in preflop, or should I have made a pot sized raise?

[CrackerZack]

any meaningful raise will be over 2/3s of your stack, the push is right. the call with A7o sure isn't, good situation, bad luck. It still drives me nuts in tourneys too but I'm working on that.

[Beavis68]

So, you make a pot sized raise, you raise to to about 1800, and he calls - an A hits the flop, you fold and are left with 1600 or however many chips - now what?

Or you raise, he re-raises all-in? Now what?

You got your money in the with the best hand - chip stack management is one of the keys to tournament play, I think you did played it perfectly.

I would rather just call here than raise anything less than all-in, but I think the all-in a good play.

[DogFace]

I think you did the best you could do in your situation. When the blinds are that big relative to your stack you simply can't wait for a better hand than TT.

The key for next time is to not put yourself in the position where you need to go all in with TT. You need to try to pick up pots so that you are never desperate for chips. This is obvious, of course, but still try to keep it in mind. Many tourney novices are so scared of losing that they never build up their stacks much, which ultimately forces them to get in there with fringe hands. If a tournament has a fast structure or a huge number of people then you are probably going to have to play a little faster and more aggressively than usual. That will typically keep you from having to resort to all in with TT, though it was still the right move in your situation.

[balt999]

I would tend to push here. The prize here is the WIN The WSOP seat, so you have to take chances at some point to accumulate chips. I mean why stick around and finish 10th when it pays the same as the guy who gets knocked out first...

[fnurt]

Absolutely, positively push. Good play.

[slogger]

All-in. If he had a big pocket pair, he would not have raised as much. You can be almost certain that you are ahead, and if you raise and he puts you in, you're going to call anyway.

Nice play.

[Tosh]

[ QUOTE ]
All-in. If he had a big pocket pair, he would not have raised as much.


[/ QUOTE ]

Don't always assume that.