Mid-pairs late in tourneys

#1 10-31-2005, 02:26 AM

A situation I have been in a lot lately is a hand of pockets 9's, 10s, or jacks late in online sit & go's. What do should you do if you have a medium stack and get in a confrontation where someone has you covered. Latest situation, $10 sit & go 6 people left top 5 pay. Blinds are 200/400 50 ante. I am utg with 10's and a stack of 5800, slighty above avg. I make 1200 to go and get re-raised another 1200 by a weak agressive player who has a stack of 12000. This is the third time I have been in a simialr situation in 2 days and I lost the first two after going-in pre-flop against overcards. What I want to know is, the obvious argument is either push-in or fold, but what about calling and going all-in on the flop. It is one thing for someone to call an all-in with 5 cards coming but a little more difficult when 2 cards are coming. Tell me what you think.

lotus776 · #2 10-31-2005, 02:41 AM

you might consider only raising about 2X the BB when you have such hands. If you get reraised, depending on the stacks, you should call or fold but I wouldn't take chances on a money seat unless I was pretty low. In other words, if you RR all-in and you show a medium pair and he has you covered and nails his draw or shows a higher pair there's not much you can do.
Anyway, raise only 2X see where the strength is and try to see the flop cheaply...Most importantly be prepared to \
LET GO of the hand. pocket pairs only constitute about 6%
of all hands so PP against PP is moderately uncommon.
good luck

KneeCo · #3 10-31-2005, 02:41 AM

Calling pf OOP and then pushing any flop would be the 'Stop and Go' move (click here for a thread where World Champ Greg Raymer describes it).

It can be a powerful move, but can't be used every time you think you're up against a coin flip (for various reasons not the least of which is that it is a pronounced move and lots of opponents will remember it). You have to be willing to take those flips (especially with the favoured hand) even though it can be frustrating to go trhough a strech where 99-JJ seems to always run into and lose against AK.