Calling all-in, 3rd place on the bubble

PrayingMantis · #1 07-09-2004, 09:52 AM

$55+5 Turbo. We're last four: 5570, 4070, 2370, 1490.
I'm 3rd. Blinds 100/200, ante 25.

UTG (1490), raises to 600. He's a loose and pretty awful player, over-plays marginal hands, mini-bets, limit-raises with no reason, etc. Can have many hands here.

Button (4070) a solid player, pushes. It's very possible he noticed how UTG plays, and he's now trying to isolate him with a nice/OK hand. I don't think he'll push with garbage, as a pure steal, however, he made some big steal-reraises in the past, so I don't put him on a monster here. I can be wrong, of course.

I'm on SB. With what hands should I call?

slogger · #2 07-09-2004, 10:23 AM

I would need an awfully good hand to make this call. You're facing a raise and reraise by a player who should be assuming that the initial raiser will call. Also, just because short stack is bad player doesn't mean he won't turn over a hand every now and then.

The question, as I see it, is what hands are you willing to play 3-way against two initial aggressors when folding will leave you with more than enough chips to stay aggressive and fight for first place?

Honestly, I don't think I'd call with anything worse than QQ here, and I'd probably need to think about calling with that. I'd muck AK.

Nate Finch · #3 07-09-2004, 11:48 AM

Ditto. AA or KK is about it. The big stack goes all in with two people left to go, and he's expecting a call.... that means he has a monster hand, and you really just want Mr. Awful to die his horrible death. Get out of the way and let the big man do your dirty work for you.

-Nate

Jason Strasser · #4 07-09-2004, 11:56 AM

AA KK QQ.

AK and JJ are tough.

You can do very well here by folding. Even if your smart solid opponent is obviously isolating a weaker opponent with a marginal hand, I don't see a reason to get involved without a major hand. Also conider that if you decide to call, the dumb UTG may fold, figuring he has a chance to slither into the money, therefore you can not assume you *could* win third by both losing to the solid player's all in.

Stoneii · #5 07-09-2004, 12:04 PM

That to me is the clincher - awful raiser folds his weak raise and you're left facing a very solid hand and bubble finish.

I might still fancy AK here though if I thought Mr solid was isolating as I figure he'd do this with AQ or even AJ.

If he really had a monster (AA) I don't fancy he'd be trying to blow your call away so readily.

stoneii

PrayingMantis · #6 07-09-2004, 12:13 PM

Thanks for the replies so far. You can imagine I didn't have AA/KK at that spot, but had to make a rather tough decision with AKo. It is interesting to see how some of you consider AK as a call, and some as a fold. I'm still not sure what is the better choice... have to make some more precise thinking.