[durron597]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Those advocating softplay here, would you also do the same with AA and KK?

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely. The only time I would advocate coming out of "softplay" mode is with the stone cold nuts. AA or KK is not the nuts. It is afterall, just one pair. No one argues that JJ is not a very powerful hand, but it aint the nuts and can be beat by a whole range of hands. How many times have we seen the all in short stack suck out two pair with say K6 on a board of K6xxx, and stay in the game? Happens all the time. Hachem needed Dannenman to make sure tex was gone.

The object in this hand is NOT TO WIN THE POT. It is to knock out the short stack.

TO illustrate, lets change the hands and board around -

Hachem has JJ
Tex has AA
Dannen has 66

Same preflop action. Tex allin. Hachem and dannen call.

FLOP - T32

Hachem pushes, Dannen folds being fearful of the K and not wanting to risk it all, folds. Hachem flips over jacks, Tex flips the aces and Hachem wants to throw up.

Turn is an 8 and river is a six!!

If Hachem had checked it down, tex is knocked out and he makes an extra two million. But, instead, he has 25M and the other two have about 15M each, and he has a real dog fight on his hands.

I think what is clouding everyones thinking on this is that you saw everyones hands during the hand and you saw how the hand played out. You are being a little results oriented here.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is such a results oriented example. How about this one. Say that Dannenman has AK, and Barch has 66. Hachem bets, Dannenman folds, and the river is a King! Suddenly Hatchem wins the 15 million chips (1/3 of all chips in play) and has a 3:1 chip advantage over Dannenman going into HU play. If he doesn't bet, Dannenman has a 3:2 chip advantage the other way. That's a HUGE $EV difference, given the $3.25 million dollar difference between first and second.

With your example, Barch has 15 million chips, and Hatchem has 23 million and Dannenman has 17 million. Hatchem is still in good shape to win here too. Why risk Dannenman winning the hand when even if you lose to Barch you are still in good shape, and if you beat Barch you increase the amount of time you have a massive chip lead going into HU!