Taking on the big stack

[BlackAces]

10+1 Stars SNG. I'm second-high stack, but not very big. Big stack has been running over the table the last couple of rounds, and has built up a huge lead. His favourite tactic has been to call the small preflop raises that the small stacks behind have been making, then bet half pot on the flop. He's been very successful with this tactic, and hasn't had to show down a hand whenever he's done this. My lead over the small stacks is not that much. I have yet to be called on a preflop raise since we went down to six players. Only hand I've shown down to this point was an TT early that took down a big pot against some idiot playing 92 on a nine-high paired board.

Here's the hand. I got lucky enough to get a good 5-handed hand, but unlucky enough to get it against the big stack. Was my play preflop OK, and was I right to push on the flop with TPTK?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (5 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

UTG (t1232)
Hero (t2245)
Button (t950)
SB (t1680)
BB <font color="purple">(Big Stack)</font> (t7393)

Preflop: Hero A/images/graemlins/club.gif, J/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG folds, Hero raises to t600, Button folds, SB folds, BB <font color="purple">(Big Stack)</font> calls t400.

Flop: (t1300) 9/images/graemlins/spade.gif, J/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Big Stack bets t600, Hero raises to t1645, Big Stack calls t1045.

Turn: (t4590) Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

River: (t4590) 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t4590

Results in white below: <font color="white">
Hero shows Ac Js (one pair, jacks).
Big Stack shows Qs Ks (flush, king high).
Outcome: Big Stack wins t4590. </font>

Edited; was TT early, not AQ.

[Phill S]

all as usual my opinion only.

strategy wise, i dont believe there is much more you can do here. its too early to concern absulte survival tactics, and im sure you realised that you dont have the lead to consider backing off much.

against big stacks who are aggressive, you *must* take a shot. you can get a call and make your self a big stack. i dont like AJ at the best of times, but you played it well, making the solid raises, and pushing when you knew you must have had the best of it. only problem was if he was any good, he knew he was pot committed with overcards and flush draw. you would either go out or double through.

cant win em all

[Jason Strasser]

eeeeeeep.

This situation is borderline:

I'd push preflop if your stack was 300-400 lower. As it is now, you are right on the fringe (10x BB). You are close to push/fold, but you may not be there yet. I tend to like pushing--but this can go either way. You will probably only get called by a better hand--but hopefully no one will have a better hand /images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

On the flop, push. This is about a coinflip. Going with your read, you are usually going to be in a much better spot than this against this particular big stack. He happened to get a very good flop for his hand.

You played this fine, consider this a push preflop if you had slightly less chips.