$ 11 rebuy on Stars. 30 players left do you make this call??????

[John W]

Sitting in the Big blind with AK and 263k good for 6th at the time. The button moves in for 163k, the blinds are 10 and 20k. Call or fold.

[augie00]

Call. With 8 BB he's pushing with any hand worth playing. You're dominating him a lot of the time, and some of the time you're slightly behind in a coinflip. If he were putting your entire stack at risk it would be a different story, but you call here.

[SpeakEasy]

If no one else is in the hand besides button, call. If there is someone else who limped in, that would change the calculation.

[Chief911]

Easy call. Unless you feel you are significantly better than most other people at your table, and you can find spots where you are a bigger favorite. Otherwise I think you have to push here.

Nick

[tiger7210]

Instant call. At this stage of the tournament with Blinds at 20k you only have 13BB's and are in 6th place. You have to be willing to gamble to win. More often than not you'll be ahead in this spot if he'e the 1st one into the pot. He's figuring only a big hand would call here and its a chance to increase his stack by 25% normally uncontested. You have to take this gamble and hope he doesn't suck out on you.

[m bozeman]

How many spots pay? Are you in the money yet? Those questions might come into consideration, along with what type of player made the move. Taking all of this into consideration, you still need to call there, being only a big dog to 2 possible hands, which he probably doesn't have, making an all-in preflop raise with that many chips.

[augie00]

[ QUOTE ]
How many spots pay? Are you in the money yet?

[/ QUOTE ]

The rebuy at stars usually pays around 100 players. The real money isn't until around the top 18. If he's playing to win, he calls.

[John W]

Well I called he had two nine and now I'm a short stack and bust out 23rd. I know hindsight is 20 20 but I'm still not sure it is the right call. You still don't have anything yet. Anyway Thanks for the comments.

[shaniac]

Was this during the monster-field Sunday $11RB? Just asking, because in my recolecction, the blinds usually only hit 10/20K when it's down to 2 tables or so.

I don't think this call is as obvious as everyone is saying and I think it's somewhat player dependent.

My real problem in assessing this situation is the blinds, because in my late-stage experience in $11s the blinds are usually more manageable than they are in this situation.

One consideration that no one has adressed is that this is the antepenultimate blinds level (Stars caps it at 20/40k) and ~250K is kind of a nice stack to work with. If you can get to the final table with 250K, you're actually giving yourself a good shot to win. Of course, with 30 players left, you will have to win a hand to take down a pot to make it in that kind of shape, but I'm not sure that this has to be the hand.

You've waded through hours of poker at this point and the real money is finally in sight. In other words, you may very be able to find "better spots" to gamble--specifically when you have fold equity, the "right of first bluff" or a genuine monster hand.

I'm not saying this is a clear fold--far from it, I probably will call most of the time, hard to say from this vantage point--but this is probably the spot where I drain my time bank and give it a good think.

Shane