Final Three Decision Point
Nearly six hours into this no-limit tournament, I had been battling three-handed for some time when the weaker of my opponents, Fast Freddie, started moving all-in preflop around 33% of the time. My other opponent, Tired Tim, had been playing a relatively tight-aggressive style but I felt his discipline was breaking down in what had become a test of endurance. FF was the short-stack when he began pushing in; he doubled-up when I called him with AQ and when TT called him with 66. In a subsequent hand, TT (now the short-stack by a small amount) called FF's move-in with A7o and wound up splitting the pot. FF's frequent successful blind steals were taking a toll on TT and myself. The blinds were $1500-$3000 and the chip counts were approximately $140,000 for FF, $41,000 for myself, and $29,000 for TT when I picked up a pocket-pair in the small blind and had to decide whether to call another of FF's all-in moves from the button. The tournament paid $450 for third place, $730 for second, and $1050 for first. In light of the flat payout structure and TT's increasing willingness to take a stand with moderate hands, what is the smallest pocket pair with which I should be willing to call in this situation? Assume I only wish to maximize my tournament EV and do not care about the glory of a first place finish. [You may also assume that I had a large skill edge over FF and a small skill edge over TT.] Please register your opinion in the poll below and feel free to post your thoughts. Thanks!
-PG
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