In the money call. Wildly self-delusional? Or shrewdly reasoned?
 

Ultimately, this hand had no great bearing on the action, but as I decided to play it I was wondering about others' thoughts on the matter.

It's the PokerStars 25K rebuy, we're in the money but a long ways from the deep gelt. About 60 folks left, average stack about 100K. Blinds are 6K/12K with a 600 ante. I'm in the BB 128K and looking at J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], not exactly the long-sought monster.

UTG folds, and short-stack in UTG+1 goes all-in for 36K. All fold to me. As I'm preparing to muck my garbage I realize I'm looking at a pot of about 58K that I can see to the river for 24K, against an all-in short-stack. My read on Mr. Shorty was that he was a reasonable, not overly aggressive player who likely had been around the block enough times to know that he had to do something, anything, soon.

While I in no way thought I might be ahead, I did think that his potential range of hands justified a call with almost 2.5-1 pot odds. So I stepped up to the plate and took a swing with my mighty J6s.

Does anyone else think this was reasonable, or was I talking myself into a stupidly loose call?

Results to follow.

Thanks
Doug

Re: In the money call. Wildly self-delusional? Or shrewdly reasoned?
 

The calls fine. Even if you loose it will make people think twice about going after your blinds.

The results--pretty much anti-climactic
 

The short-stacked all-in turned over A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] which at least left my J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] as live cards. I flopped a 6, he rivered a 10 and the shooting match was over as he collected the 83K pot.

But he was out in about 10-15 more hands and I managed to get back to where I had been in a few hands and held on until 28th. It would have been a nice pot to win, but I did not feel, either then or later, that it was a make-or-break situation. It seemed more like a decent opportunity that would leave me in either good-but-not-great-shape or a-little-below-average-but-not-really-desperate.

Doug

Re: In the money call. Wildly self-delusional? Or shrewdly reasoned?
 

Looks like a good call to me. Even if he turns over AJ or 99, you're still getting odds to call, and your stack size is such that losing is not having a dramatic effect on your immediate fold equity anyway. And with 3XBB, he could turn over all kinds of hands. I think this qualifies as an edge you can't pass up most of the time.