Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

This is a Pokerstars $11. At first I thought I had an easy call, but now I am not so sure, especially given the stack sizes.
Blinds are 50/100

UTG ~700
Hero ~2,000
SB ~6,000
BB ~5,000

Dealt to hero: A9s

UTG shoves his remaining 700

Hero??????????

Re: Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

Fold...Thats too much to lose with 2 big stacks left to act. Also the fact that he's pushing UTG generally means he has a somwhat decent hand.

I also generally put $11 donks on tighter pushing ranges with <10xbb...kinda goes along with the loser calling ranges.

Re: Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

This is an easy fold for me. Flat calling leaves you vulnerable to being muscled out by the blinds and pushing is far too risky here. You just don't have enough of a stack or a hand to gamble here, you're not likely much better than a coinflop vs. UTG's range.

Re: Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

I got fixated on the possibility that I could be the one to knock out the short stack. I feel that I am generally too tight on the bubble in these situations, where I am in 3rd place and I just wait for a big stack to knock out the shorty. Then, if I do survive the bubble, I am extremely shortstacked gainst the other two players and usually end up in 3rd. I also was worried that one of the big stacks would call with a much worse hand than I possessed, so I figured I might as well be the one to call the all-in. Tell me the problems with my logic, please.

Re: Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

You should be pretty snug with your stack in this situation, you have 20 BB's.

It sounds as if your abundance of bronzes are the result of not being aggressive enough with 4-6 players left. I've had problems with this myself, and I've found that playing more aggressively in the "pre-bubble" phase improved my distribution a bunch, as well as my hourly rate, since you either bust or get to the true bubble with a stack and a shot at first.

Check for missed pushes/other spots when there are 5 and 6 players left.

Re: Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

[ QUOTE ]
You should be pretty snug with your stack in this situation, you have 20 BB's.

It sounds as if your abundance of bronzes are the result of not being aggressive enough with 4-6 players left. I've had problems with this myself, and I've found that playing more aggressively in the "pre-bubble" phase improved my distribution a bunch, as well as my hourly rate, since you either bust or get to the true bubble with a stack and a shot at first.

Check for missed pushes/other spots when there are 5 and 6 players left.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this completely.
For this paticular situation however, calling when there are two larger stacks left to act is a mistake...If one of them gets frisky and goes all in behind you, you have to fold...giving up a larg portion of your stack for nothing.

Pushing over the top is an option, but I think in this situation, folding is correct. When down to 4, I need a fairly big hand to call an all-in with more players to act behind me. Pushing is my move of choice to build my stack 4-handed to not be shortstacked ITM, not calling all-ins.

Re: Facing a Bubble Push from Short Stack
 

[ QUOTE ]
This is a Pokerstars $11. At first I thought I had an easy call, but now I am not so sure, especially given the stack sizes.
Blinds are 50/100

UTG ~700
Hero ~2,000
SB ~6,000
BB ~5,000

Dealt to hero: A9s

UTG shoves his remaining 700

Hero??????????

[/ QUOTE ]

Anyway, I did call, the two big stacks folded, and I lost yet another coinflip when UTG turned over 77. (BTW, I still ended up taking third.)