Two ministep 5 hands

[EverettKings]

PP $400+$30 ministep 5

Both hands I'd love comments just on the hand itself, but similar situations.



Hand 1: The fact that the villain is NUTZREALBIG may assist with a read.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (10 handed) converter

MP1 (t915)
MP2 (t490)
MP3 (t645)
Hero (t1835)
Button (t845)
SB (t1060)
BB (t905)
UTG(NUTZREALBIG): (t1225)
UTG+1 (t995)
UTG+2 (t1085)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
<font color="#CC3333">NUTZREALBIG raises to t1225 (All-In)</font>, <font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, Hero calls t1225

What hands do you call with in this spot? NUTZ is a high stakes multitabler, and was playing two regular (1k) step5s at the same time. I felt that he was capable of making this play with a wide range of hands. The table had been quite tight.

Note that I had the remaining players covered so a call vs a push is irrelevant.




Hand 2:
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (9 handed) converter

BB (t915)
UTG (t490)
UTG+1 (t945)
Hero (t610)
MP2 (t1045)
MP3 (t960)
CO (t3255)
Button (t895)
SB (t885)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t610 (All-In)</font>

Getting short, soon to be out of fold equity, and a very tight table told me to shove it here. What hands would you push with here?



For those who aren't familiar with the payout, here it is:
1st: 2000
2nd: 1000
3rd: 500
4th: 300
5th: 200

-Kings

[citanul]

hehe, judging from the stack sizes in the 2nd question, looks like you lost the first hand. me, personally, in the first hand i wouldn't be that happy calling with AQ, you're chip leader, the blinds are decent, and you're playing in a game that has a minimum of 2 spots that can be called the bubble, depending on who all is populating that game with you. it's very very likely that you could have an easy time coming up with the chips that you may or may not be ahead of nutzrealbig ev-wise. if you absolutely knew his cards and knew you had him dominated, i'd of course call, but since you don't, why gamble with 2/3 of your very good stack, when you can get those chips with much less variance most likely in another fashion?

if you had more chips or he had fewer chips, i'd be very very inclined to call with AQ here, but with those stacks it seems like an unnecessary risk.

the second hand, in that spot i'd be very likely to push any two, and Q4s is better than a lot of those hands, because only really one stack behind you can afford to call and be wrong, and you're in shitty shape.

citanul, who feels like a lot of the super weak tight sort of stuff he's been spewing lately is going to lead to him having to make a lot of spite calls against 2+2ers in the near future.

[GoldenHorde]

Hand 1: I don't think his range is that big this is still a full table and he is pushing UTG, I would put his range as AK 10's+. Makes this an easy fold.

Hand 2: Borderline but probabaly a push, you still have enough to threaten the blinds so your FE isn't horrible.

[EverettKings]

With regards to Hand 1, I agree that folding might let me pick easier spots to accumulate chips, but...

1) I think that he pushes hands like KQ, ATs, etc here if he's any good. The table is tight and he's about to lose a quarter of his stack to the blinds.

2) I simply drooled at the thought of dominating him, having a 3k stack, and towering above the field with few or no remaining good players in my way. It would be disgustingly in my favor.

I didn't really consider how much it would suck to lose and have 600 chips, and that I could still fare quite well with 1800 and not 3k chips, but I think it's a close decision.

As for the other poster about hand 2, the point is that this may be my last hand with any fold equity (I can't afford to post) and Qxs will have to do. I might not push 23o, but I push a lot of hands given this tight table.


-Kings

[Apathy]

I actually like both hands one and two. Nutzrealbig is on a fairly large range of hands, and there really isn't as much of a bubble as citanul is saying imo. In the mini's you can't use your stack to steal blinds nearly as much in a regualr structure SNG.

The second one is an easy push for the reasons already mentioned... (plus.. its s00ted!!)

[microbet]

Is the blind structure different? Do you normally have that many players left with the blinds that high in these?

[GoldenHorde]

Pushing all in UTG with K-Q or A-10 on a full table when you have a workable stack doesn't seem like a very good move to me, I really think his range is smaller than that.

[scott8]

I play these regularly and once level 5 hits the table usually turns into an all-in fest.
Since I play these regularly I play with nutz often and he is certainly capable of a lot of different play.
With that said I would have laid down AQ in that spot.
He isnt stupid and the blinds werent going to cripple him.
I expect you to so rarely be dominating with such a call and more likely are calling your chips off for a coinflip or you are the one dominated.
This is a player and position comment however and I could certainly see other situations where this is an auto-call.
-SC

[EverettKings]

[ QUOTE ]
Is the blind structure different? Do you normally have that many players left with the blinds that high in these?

[/ QUOTE ]

The blind structure is the same: it's a rarity for 9 players to still be around at this point. Like I said, it's been pretty tight.

I'm still debating which is more +EV:
1) Fold, preserve pretty big stack, pick up some more steals.
3) Call, with a debatable chance of dominating the raiser, racing with the raiser, and being dominated by the raiser. In the event of a win, proceed to abuse the field. In the event of a loss.... well, be crippled with 3 BBs and hope for some fold equity (or a monster hand or suckout).


The reason why I don't put the UTG raiser on solely a strong range of hands is the following. The table was tight, and unless NUTZ wasn't really paying attention, he knew that the blinds were about to eat him and he could steal easily (his 1200 chips covered most everyone). I presume he's a good player that would recognize this spot. I don't imagine this player to play for anything but first, as he direct bought in and has no interest in cashing out 2, 3, or 500. And after reading Giga's HH where Giga pushed Q4o UTG+1 with a healthy stack, I wouldn't put it past a strong player to make this play with any two cards, given the amount of respect his raise would get.


The results I don't feel change much.
Hand 1 I called and the BB agonized and called as well with AK. NUTZ had JJ. I didn't hold.
Hand 2 the BB called me with 88 and that was that.

-Kings

[EverettKings]

Thanks for the input. I just made a post why I thought he could make this play with crap cards as well, but I dont know him as well except that he's a winning high level player. What makes you say that, in this spot, he would rarely be dominated?

Thanks
Kings