What's The Correct Play?

[MrMon]

I know what I did on this hand, which wound up being correct for that particular flop, but I don't want to be results oriented, so I'll present the play and you make the call. (I'll reveal my results later.)

Paradise $20 +$2 SnG (LEVEL V, GAME #2) - 50/100 NO LIMIT TEXAS HOLD'EM

Seat 1: UTG+1 (3,050.00 in chips)
Seat 3: BigStack (Button) (3,450.00 in chips)
Seat 5: ShortStack (SB) (890.00 in chips)
Seat 7: Hero (BB) (1,645.00 in chips)
Seat 10: UTG (965.00 in chips)

Dealing...
Dealt to Hero J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
UTG: Fold
UTG+1: Fold
BigStack (Button): Raise (450)
ShortStack: All-In (840)
Hero: ???

Note: BigStack is a fairly standard player, the raise seems a bit large for him. Will try to steal blinds pn occasion, however. ShortStack is considerably more aggressive, will play A-Anything.

[Merlyn22]

I would push in this situation. I play on party poker where blinds kill you if you're not aggressive late. Usually, you will be WAY ahead of the small blind in this situation - pair over pair - with the button's raise he could have you in a coin flip situation or he may have just been trying to steal the blinds. If you push and get called you may find yourself against two overs and an underpair getting a good price for that kind of situation. Also, the button will fold some times -if he was just stealing or if he thinks his hand isn't worth risking half his chips. There is also a small psychological factor with the button - If he folds, he will still have exactly 3,000 in chips instead of <3,000 - I know that sounds rediculous, but some players don't want to risk dropping below a certain rounded chip amount. So, I would push here. A stop and go might work, but I don't think it's the right play here - Too many scary flops could come up or you could get a decent flop and not have enough to make the button fold after the flop. Folding is the only other option, but I think pushing here is the move - sorry for the long-drawn-out reply.

[Mr_J]

[ QUOTE ]
If he folds, he will still have exactly 3,000 in chips instead of <3,000 - I know that sounds rediculous, but some players don't want to risk dropping below a certain rounded chip amount.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I'm guessing that's why he raised an amount to leave him with 3k.

I woulda thought this was an autopush? Only AA-QQ has you and if one of them has it, well that's poker. Most of the time the best you'll be facing would be PP or a good Ax?

[SuitedSixes]

I vote for fold. You're 3rd in chips. After posting you still have 7 BB you can afford to play tight. I don't like calling two raises here. Let Big Stack take care of Short Stack. UTG is about to blind off almost 1/3 of his stack. You're still going to have folding equity. Ride it out and wait for an opportunity to be first in the pot.

[Bigwig]

Push. Like, really fast.

[Mystic]

Folding in this situation is simply unacceptable. Some might even call it disgraceful.

Get all your chips in the centre of the table asap.

[SuitedSixes]

I usually am a big advocate of the push, but the more I think about it I like my reasoning in this hand. You are against two players who have shown strength. I would suspect that each of these has at least one A, K, or Q. So for those who are in favor of a push do you push with TT, 88, 66, 55, 22? Where do you draw the line when you are, at best, in a race with two players holding overcards? My stance might change if you had reason to believe that the big stack may fold, but I don't see it in this case, especially with the larger than normal raise.

[assron]

push if you're playing for 1st, fold if you want to get ITM

[Mystic]

The larger than normal raise (4.5BB from the big stack on the button) is often going to be a small to medium pocket pair. His raise, given the chip stacks, seems to say, "I've got something, I don't really want a call, but I am willing to call any reraise".

If we put the short stack on overcards here (even though the original poster said he would do this with Ax), then it is still correct to push. If short stack wins the main pot, and Hero wins the sidepot, hero will only be 100 or so chips worse off than the start of the hand.

I guess that I would fold 88 downwards in a situation like this. JJ there is no way I am folding. I'm not saying I am definitely right with this, but this is how I see it.

[rachelwxm]

I think his raise is say hi, I am going to call if sb push and he still pushes. And I think if you move on top, you have lots of FE here because he is not going to call two all ins without top 10% of hands. And most of times button would not raise that much if he truly has a premium hand. Sometimes strength means weakness. Against possible sb hands that he plays back, you gotta believe you are at least favorate here.

With blinds this size, it does not pay to wait better edge like this, therefore, I'd push. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]