ducks on the button... what's your play?

[JPaps18]

Late in a $20 MTT on Stars. 31 left of 954, 81 paid so already into the money. Next bump is at 27 from $76 to $104. Average is ~35k, i forget exactly, so I'm a little below it. I have gotten AQ twice in the last orbit pushed and got no callers. I have also used position to pick up a few blinds and bb is aware of this(he has played back at me)I am dealt 22 on the button and everyone folds to me. How would you go about playing a small pp in this position with all relative information? Limp? Raise? All-in? Fold?

Since I had pushed twice and hadn't showed down I decided to just raise and see what happened. Even if the raise was wrong in the first place, what do you do once you're reraised all-in against a bb you know is able to make a play back at you? Is 18k enough to fold and make an attempt to win at this blind level (1500/3000)? Or did I commit myself with my original raise?

Small PP's late in tournaments seem to be a big leak for me so any general comments on playing small PP's or specific comments on the hand itself are welcome. Thanks, JPaps18.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t3000 (8 handed) converter

SB (t43695)
BB (t44655)
UTG (t44596)
UTG+1 (t30454)
MP1 (t42845)
MP2 (t69057)
CO (t3839)
Hero (t27186)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
5 folds, Hero raises to t9000, 1 fold, BB raises to t44505, Hero calls t18036 (All-In).


Final Pot: t72441

[Exitonly]

that's what the 10bb rule is all about... when you make a 3x bb raise w/ less than 10bb, you commit yourself to a push...

so yea oncee you raise you gotta call, but i would have pushed, don't let that guy think he has any fold equity over you.

plus w/ antes in there that's a nice sized pot already.

[Dave D]

[ QUOTE ]
that's what the 10bb rule is all about... when you make a 3x bb raise w/ less than 10bb, you commit yourself to a push...

so yea oncee you raise you gotta call, but i would have pushed, don't let that guy think he has any fold equity over you.

plus w/ antes in there that's a nice sized pot already.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is definatly push or fold country, you don't have enough to just raise. I push and hope nobody calls.

[DyessMan89]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
that's what the 10bb rule is all about... when you make a 3x bb raise w/ less than 10bb, you commit yourself to a push...

so yea oncee you raise you gotta call, but i would have pushed, don't let that guy think he has any fold equity over you.

plus w/ antes in there that's a nice sized pot already.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, this is definatly push or fold country, you don't have enough to just raise. I push and hope nobody calls.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well I guess the question here is, are you looking just to make the next payout cut or do you want to win this thing?

You could probably fold your way to the next payout level but at that point you're crippled and have literally killed your chances of a final table finish. Push here and hope to either pick up the blinds or get a caller that can double you up when you hit a set or your deuces hold up versus some overcards. I think it's worth a gamble here as you either take the cautious route to win another $32 or you take an aggressive line to win the big prize.

I'm in it to win it - hero pushes this one.

[fnurt]

Definite push.

I would definatly push here.

[Hickboy]

Folding here would be terrible. push.

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
Late in a $20 MTT on Stars. 31 left of 954, 81 paid so already into the money. Next bump is at 27 from $76 to $104. Average is ~35k, i forget exactly, so I'm a little below it. I have gotten AQ twice in the last orbit pushed and got no callers. I have also used position to pick up a few blinds and bb is aware of this(he has played back at me)I am dealt 22 on the button and everyone folds to me. How would you go about playing a small pp in this position with all relative information? Limp? Raise? All-in? Fold?

Since I had pushed twice and hadn't showed down I decided to just raise and see what happened. Even if the raise was wrong in the first place, what do you do once you're reraised all-in against a bb you know is able to make a play back at you? Is 18k enough to fold and make an attempt to win at this blind level (1500/3000)? Or did I commit myself with my original raise?

Small PP's late in tournaments seem to be a big leak for me so any general comments on playing small PP's or specific comments on the hand itself are welcome. Thanks, JPaps18.

[/ QUOTE ]

So what you're saying is, in a hand where you wanted to make a move, didn't mind going all-in, but didn't really want a call, you raised less than all-in against an opponent you knew was waiting to play back at you?

Why would you do that? Why did you need to "see what happened"? Didn't you know that this is what would happen? Why would you deliberately put yourself in a difficult situation?

The reason you raise all in here is so your opponent has no ideas about being able to make you fold! You don't really want a call, since you're racing against just about any other hand (unless he has a pair above you, in which case you were going to bust anyway). But you want the blinds and antes, you are willing to take a race if he wants to gamble, since you're short.

Sorry if my tone is a little harsh, but I've run into posts like these, where someone decides to vary a play for the hell of it without thinking about what the results might be or what they will do at a future stage of the hand, and as a result they get stuck in a difficult spot, because they've proceeded without considering what might happen next.

I'll end with two quotes from HOH2 that I think sum up how to play a hand like this:
"When you have a medium-strength hand, there is a strong argument to be made for ending the hand quickly."
"Train yourself to look for plays that make future decisions easy."

(OK, since I've laid into you a little, I should answer your question: I'd call in your spot, but I'd hate it which is why I go all-in in the first place. In general, my small pairs strategy in the late stages is to usually play them strongly first in -- although if i am a medium stack in early position I may just let them go. A small stack I am more inclined to push, and as a big stack I'm happy to use my leverage to pressure everyone else, and I don't mind taking a flip with a short stack.)

If you were in EP with a big stack, how would you guys play this hand? Raise 3xBBs or 5xBB or push? Say there is another stack yet to act which has you covered.