A Couple of Basic Pre-Flop Hands

[parappa]

#1

PP 10+1 9-handed. Blinds 50/100

SB 830
BB 1825
UTG 740
UTG+1 810
MP1 465
Hero 525
CO 1620
Button 1190

UTG Limps. UTG+1 Folds. MP Folds. Hero has A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] T [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]


#2

Party 10+1 6-handed. Blinds 100/200
SB 725
BB 635
UTG 2135
Hero 1570
CO 1520
Button 940

UTG folds. Hero has 5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]5 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[unformed]

#1: Fold or push. You need to make a move soon and this may be the best hand you get for the next few hands. You may be able to take the pot right there, and hope for it.

#2: Limp in, expecting to fold or if you don't hit a set or other pair on the flop. You have enough chips you don't need to push .... just look for the set

I'm no pro, but that's what I would do.

[NotMitch]

Hand #1 push

Hnad #2 push or fold, dont limp. Limping is the worst play by far. Leaning towards a push if you have been playing very tightly and because the big stack cant call.

[kevyk]

My feeling is that both hands are clear pushes.

The first hand, your stack is small enough that you can't make a raise without pot-committing yourself. I can't believe that it could be correct to fold here, especially if it is folded to you in late position; similarly, you can't call for 20% of your stack.

The second hand is a push because folding a pocket pair at this point is pretty silly, expecially since no one has shown strength. Calling 15% of your stack fishing for trips seems to be pretty weak as well. You're better off making a play for the blinds. I say push because other than the CO, you have everyone behind you covered by a mile. The short stacks will have to have a hand to call you here.

[Victor]

Hand 1 is an easy push. You have are pretty shortstacked and can only last another round so this hand looks pretty good. You have an A so you can win unimproved and your kicker is pretty good. Push and hopefully it is folded to the limper who will call with a middle suited connector. A low pocket pair is also a possibility but a coinflip is a good situation for you here.

Hand 2: I assume the blinds will not go up in the next couple hands so you will face 100/200 blinds. So this is a fold. THe reason is your position is bad and at best you will be a coinflip and one of the blinds will def call you. Delay since you can last another round. However, you must go for a blind steal when you get the chance next in LP.

[Victor]

[ QUOTE ]
The short stacks will have to have a hand to call you here.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the short stacks will probably call with just about any 2 cards here, especially the BB. Their stacks in relation to the blinds are so small that with the money already in the pot they pretty much have to call. This will most likely force a race which you do not want right now. This is a bubble situation where you need to play uber tight in EP and steal blinds from LP.

[adanthar]

#1 is a push, IMO, although it's relatively close if UTG is a tight player. Change this to A8 and it's a fold.

[ QUOTE ]
The second hand is a push because folding a pocket pair at this point is pretty silly, expecially since no one has shown strength. Calling 15% of your stack fishing for trips seems to be pretty weak as well. You're better off making a play for the blinds. I say push because other than the CO, you have everyone behind you covered by a mile. The short stacks will have to have a hand to call you here.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is terrible.

You are risking over 1500 chips to win 150 (incidentally, limping would be 6.5% of your stack, not 15%) in a tournament with bad players that will call with all sorts of trash. Of course, you don't care how bad their trash is, because 98o still almost ties you.

If the blinds were 150/300 with the same chip counts, a push would be much better. At this level, there is zero point to doing it other than losing a big chunk of your stack against KTo or a pair of sixes. You'd be better off raising, though I don't like this much either against short stacks which can pot commit you; IMO, the best play is to limp/fold to a raise.

[NotMitch]

[ QUOTE ]


This is terrible.

You are risking over 1500 chips to win 150 (incidentally, limping would be 6.5% of your stack, not 15%) in a tournament with bad players that will call with all sorts of trash. Of course, you don't care how bad their trash is, because 98o still almost ties you.

If the blinds were 150/300 with the same chip counts, a push would be much better. At this level, there is zero point to doing it other than losing a big chunk of your stack against KTo or a pair of sixes. You'd be better off raising, though I don't like this much either against short stacks which can pot commit you; IMO, the best play is to limp/fold to a raise.

[/ QUOTE ]

Blinds are 100/200 not 50/100. Limp/fold is awful here. And it sucks at 50/100 too.

[SmileyEH]

easy push in both cases. Doing anything other than folding is criminal....and folding is pretty criminal too.

-SmileyEH

[NegativeEV]

I don't disagree that hand one is a push. Hand two is a fold IMO. With hero on a strong stack, 6 players left and 4 left to act in this hand, folding a baby PP is correct here. A push would be correct if any of the following were true:

1.) Hero's stack was smaller (forces hero's action).

2.) Hero was Button (maybe CO if button has a stack size similar to the blinds in this case).

3.) There were 4 players left (bubble).

4.) Hero was a signficant stack leader with a relatively uniform field (i.e. similar medium/small stack for other players).

In this specific instance, hero has a strong stack but is crippled if he get's called and loses on a push. It is still too early to make this move given the number of players, relative stack sizes and the vulernability of a weak hand like 55.

These thoughts are for the $11-$55 tables. I have little experience at $109/$215.