Shortstacked (~6BB) late in tourney. Do normal 3BB raise or go all in?

[RandomUser]

My last 4 tourneys I've been knocked out in identical ways.

I had a decent pocket pair in late position (9's T's or J's) and went all in only to find that one of the blinds had AA, KK or QQ.

While this is probably just a run of bad luck, it is making me wonder if I should do a regular 3BB raise which would give me the option of folding to a reraise behind me if I chose to do so.

Any thoughts?

Or should I continue to just push all in when I get to 6BBs or below?

[bmxreed36]

Push or fold.

Raise half your stack and fold, getting 3 to 1? If that's a winning play, I've been missing out.

[etotheipi]

Putting in half your stack to leave yourself room to fold is terrible idea. Once half your stack is in pre-flop, it's rarely correct to fold, so you may as well put it all in and cash in on the folding equity from being the aggressor.

Sounds like you've just had a bad run. Keep pushing those pocket pairs.

Eto...

[Roman]

heh, its just bad luck, don't be frustrated.

[RandomUser]

While I agree that raising with half my stack and then folding isn't that great a strategy in regular NL, I think it has merit in tournament play.

Sure, I have odds to call the reraise, but if it is a choice between losing half my stack and getting knocked out of the tournament, I'd rather take the former.

[bmxreed36]

3 big blinds is not that much of an advantage over 0 big blinds. You need to take a chance to get up to 12 bb's if you want to make it anywhere in the tournament. If survival is all that matters, click post blind/fold and check on how you're doing a couple hours later.