Do You Call With QQ Here?

[CrisBrown]

Hi All,

Situation: Four players remaining, and you're the third stack. Short stack (Hall of Famer Chip Reese) pushes all-in UTG. Second stack folds on the button. You're in the SB, and you call the all-in -- about 1/3 of your stack -- with QQ. Big stack (considered by many to be one of the best NL players in the world) moves all-in from the BB. It's to you. Do you call with QQ?

This was the situation faced by the one amateur to make the final table in tonight's WPT broadcast. The amateur (I don't recall his name) got up to walk around and think about whether to call for all his chips, and the WPT went away for a commercial break.

This occasioned a discussion between my oldest son, my partner, and myself on whether he should call. I said he shouldn't call, because I didn't think the big stack would make this play with any hand other than AA, KK, or AK. So at best he's a small favorite, and possibly a huge underdog.

If it were a cash game, or early in a tourney, I'd be more tempted to call because it's more likely (4:3) that he's on AK rather than AA or KK, and with the short stack's all-in (most likely an A or a K), they probably hold some of each other's outs. So, on average, I'm a roughly 35% favorite to win this pot, getting 7:3 pot odds, which is clearly a call in a cash game, and probably also early in a tourney.

But at the final table, where most of the prize money is in the top three places, I can move up a spot just by folding and letting the big stack bust the small stack. I'll still have chips to play with (about 2/3rds of the second stack) and I can pick a better place to die than a small-favorite-big-dog spot like this.

Well, the amateur called. Short stack had K5s. Big stack had AKs. The amateur was a 50% favorite pre-flop, but the flop was A-K-6 and the river brought another Ace, so both 3rd and 4th stacks went out, leaving the big stack heads-up with a monster chip lead.

Second question: should the amateur have moved in with QQ to isolate? I doubt big stack would call in that spot with only AK. As it turned out, Chip Reese would have doubled up with the K on the flop, but I still think the amateur would have been wiser to push hoping to isolate rather than call and be put in a situation of calling himself all-in, in a 3-way pot, with only QQ.

Your thoughts?

Cris

P.S. I thought the amateur had played brilliantly up to this point, and I certainly don't mean to discredit him by referring him as "the amateur." He was a very skilled and talented player, who made some very strong plays.

P.P.S. It was sad to watch Chip Reese get run over in this final table. Every time he tried to get into a pot, someone repopped him, and he never had the right hand to make a stand. You could see the frustration in his face; he just never had a chance.