Good push?

A friend won an entry to a $4000 buck gamesgrid freeroll, but couldn't do it, so he asked me to do it. 170 entered, was about 1:40 into the tourney.

Blinds 400/800 ante 50

I'm on BB with about 7900 chips after posting blind. Gets folded to the SB, who has about 14,000 chips after posting his blind, and has been very aggressive and has stolen my blinds a couple of times, so I figured he had a pretty wide range of hands.

SB raises 3x to make it 2400 (1600 more to me).

I am dealt 22.

Is this a good time to defend my blind, or should I wait for another opportunity? Pushing would be 5000 more to him, and would cost him about half his chips to call me.

Thoughts?

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I am dealt 22.


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IMHO, you shouldnt push with this hand, you are a coin flip 48 cards in the deck, any pair you are a dog.

It sucks getting abused, but i would take a look at the flop,if some mediocre cards come cram it down his pipe.

I agree I am a coinflip at best IF I get called, and a dog to any pair, but as much as he raised, I figured he would probably fold 1/3 of the time. For all I knew, he had 4 7 and thought he could steal some more chips.

BTW everyone, not sure if it makes a difference, but I was playing for a top 3 spot, not for a top 18 money. Since I was playing for someone else, I was getting 60/40 on whatever money I make, and didn't want to get 20 for 18th, would rather get 400 for 4th.

I do think I might have been able to find a better hand down the road, but with those blinds, and them going up to 500/1000 in 2 minutes, I figured I needed to make moves sooner than later. Am I right?

[Dave D]

[ QUOTE ]
A friend won an entry to a $4000 buck gamesgrid freeroll, but couldn't do it, so he asked me to do it. 170 entered, was about 1:40 into the tourney.

Blinds 400/800 ante 50

I'm on BB with about 7900 chips after posting blind. Gets folded to the SB, who has about 14,000 chips after posting his blind, and has been very aggressive and has stolen my blinds a couple of times, so I figured he had a pretty wide range of hands.

SB raises 3x to make it 2400 (1600 more to me).

I am dealt 22.

Is this a good time to defend my blind, or should I wait for another opportunity? Pushing would be 5000 more to him, and would cost him about half his chips to call me.

Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]

He has twice your chips, and you describe him as being aggressive. I doubt he folds here, so I'd assume I pretty much had no fold equity.

With 22, you're quite literally at best a coinflip. I'd push 66 and better here, 22 you can find a fold w/ 10 bbs.

Thanks, I figured I was too aggressive there, I was thinking of folding, but thought that I needed to defend my blinds sooner than later, or these sharks would eat me up.

You were right, I was at a coinflip there, he had ATo and called and made a full house. I used to play very conseratively, but lately have been trying to be more aggressive, and have had good success with it most of the time. I am good at reading my opponents, and good at trapping an overaggressive player. I used to be someone who would have to make moves on the bubble to survive in some tourneys, but have found that being aggressive and firing second barrells has really worked for me.

So yeah, I'll try to add patience to my aggressive game, and try to pick better spots. Thanks for your analysis, don't know why I thought he'd fold there, he might call with k7o and up.

[mikeymer]

easy fold IMO.... you dont want to hope for a flip. get in when you have some FE and/or a possibility of dominating.

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I do think I might have been able to find a better hand down the road, but with those blinds, and them going up to 500/1000 in 2 minutes, I figured I needed to make moves sooner than later. Am I right?

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Anything is basically better though, very much a judgement call.

Do you mind getting blinded out?

You are at 9bb? I think within 2 orbits you _HAVE_ to do something, and within 2 orbits you obviously will at somepoint have a better hand then 22.

If you are also aiming for "Top 3", it doesnt matter how long you wait, its actually beneficial if you wait for a hand.

You're right, if I would have folded that hand, and then folded my sb after that, I would be down to about 7400. If the blinds went up next hand to 500/1000 with 100 ante, I'd be down to 5000 after the blinds passed again, and then would be forced to push on my bb if it got back to me next round (if I didn't steal a hand at all, I'd have 2600 more after posting blind that hand), so I figured I'd be dead money if I waited more than 9 more hands for a hand, having less than 3 rounds in me before I was dead if I folded every hand.

I don't like the push there thinking back on it, but if I would have called, I would have alot less chips and would have definitely had to make a move sooner.

But thank you guys, I should have folded and waited for something better, 2's is 50/50 against AKo, but I probably would have felt better about pushing with something better.

So yeah, bad bad push, I got impatient. I need to work on that.