Re: 50/50 situations in tournaments. Advice?
The original oversized raise was the problem. You put a third of your chips in and built a pot that you were then commited to. You need to win coinflips in a tournament but they are to be avoided for all your chips.
The thinking here is twofold. First, you are getting 2-1 pot odds for your call. You are most likely a coinflip but might have him dominated. Your subjective estimate on whether he has A-K, A-Q or A-J makes a big difference. Either way, the proper cash game play is a certain call.
The second issue is what going broke in a tourney means. You only need to lose a coinflip for all of your chips once to be done. This has to effect your decisions. If you know that you are a coin flip, even if the pot is laying you better odds, I can't say that you should always make the call.
If I make a bet with you that if you flip a coin 5 times and lose the moment you hit tails but win if it is heads every time, then you would be foolish to even accept 2-1 money. Over the course of a tournament, if you are willing to get broke on small edges, eventually you will.
(Note: In this case, the pot edge was rather large. This one is a tough spot)
Matt F.
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