$50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

Would appreciate your approach to this situation. Party $55 SNG. Down to final three.

SB T680
BB T6510
Hero T2210

Blinds just went up to 200/400. BB has made some marginal calls. Hero gets A7s. Correct play?

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

Push it. A7s is a great hand to open with 3-handed. Folding would mean you're looking to sneak into 2nd with almost no shot at 1st, and thats not what you want.

My guess is you pushed, SB folded and BB called you with QJ or something and won.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

M, this, M, that. Blah [censored]ing blah. It's a push, obviously. I can tell that without doing a single ICM calc or giving a flying [censored] what M has to say about it.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

Raise to 2000. Fold to a push.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

Easy push, too lazy to do any calculations but I am almost postive that it is +$EV, regardless of the BBs range. As a general rule, I almost never play for 2nd. I can remember maybe 2 or 3 times in my career when I have.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

This would be the certain fold so make sure of the 2nd place. Easy desision. What is this M?

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

This is the easiest push ever.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, RESULTS
 

[ QUOTE ]
Raise to 2000. Fold to a push.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hero only started out with 2210, so a raise to 2000 is out of the question.

What happened: Hero pushed, SB folded, BB called with KQ and caught a K.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, RESULTS
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Raise to 2000. Fold to a push.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hero only started out with 2210, so a raise to 2000 is out of the question.

What happened: Hero pushed, SB folded, BB called with KQ and caught a K.

[/ QUOTE ]

Raising 2k gives you a chance to steal blinds, but if played back with gives you a chance to try to fold into second.

Re: $50+5: 3 left, A7s on button, M=3.6
 

I hate to be contrary, but if SB only calls with TT+, AQs+ and BB calls any two, this is -1.0% $EV. BB has to be folding about half the time to make this break-even, and about 70% of the time to hit the +.5% EV threshold.

Open-folding here is actually slightly +$EV, presumably because shorty is just too short to matter at the moment. Double him up at BB's expense and leave the positions the same, and this is an easy push.

Against a BB that's reasonably loose (or with a SB who's too tight), I'd fold this most of the time and worry about attacking the SB.

I've noticed that sometimes in situations like this, BB will spite call a push more often with a marginal-looking hand (like say QJo) than he will if the raise looks more "normal". I don't do it much, but I wonder if a smaller raise might get more folds, and hence be more +EV. You'd still have to call a re-steal, of course.