[JNash]

Hi Mantiss

I'll answer you, but my reply is really for all those who were nice enough to take the time to answer this post. I guess I have not spent enough time on this forum to realize that this topic has come up so many times that it pisses people off. Won't make that mistake again...

Btw, I am not spending any time obsessing about the AA preflop question, and I agree that situations where it might make sense come up very rarely in practice. I never posted this question before (i.e. not guilty of asking the same question twice)--I had brought it up as a purely theoretical possibility in a reply to a different question. I did not realize then (as I do now) that this is considered the equivalent of bringing up flag-burning.

I thought this situation might be one of the rare times when it MIGHT be correct to fold AA preflop. I posted my question before doing the math, and tought it would come out a close call. Several people who took the trouble to think through the math pointed out places where my assumptions about various EVs were "off", and I now agree that for this case the EV favors betting instead of folding.

That said, I am surprised that some posters will go as far as saying that folding AA preflop can NEVER be correct. Anyone who has read TPFAP knows better.

Now, a question for you, whose opinion I respect having read many of your posts. Let me rephrase the question...

Hero is in 2nd with a medium stack, up against a chip-leader with about 70% of the chips in play and two small stacks. Blinds are pretty large (the small stacks have only about 3x each). How good does Hero's hand have to be for him to be willing to take on the big stack? I think it is important to remember that in a SNG 1/2/3 get 50%/30%/20%. That means that the value of improving from 2nd to 1st is 20%, but the downside of coming in 4th rather than 2nd is 30%.

I don't think you'd be pushing small edges here...so the question is, how large does your edge need to be for you to be willing to go allin against the chipleader in this situation?