Button Response to Blind aggression

[Hauser_III]

15 left in a 3 -table PP MTT. My table has 8, and blinds are 75/150. Folded around to me on the button, and I have about 2100 chips with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]. I raise to 450, and it's the fourth time I've open-raised to 3xBB in the last two orbits, and none of the raises have been called (which is too bad, since they were all much better hands than the K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]). SB immediately pops all-in for 1125 total, and the BB also goes all-in with his remaining 400 chips. First time that SB has shown any type of aggression; his play has been pretty nondescript prior to this point.

My immediate reaction was the the SB had just had it with my perceived steals, and his insta-call all-in was a pure steal. 725 to call into a pot of 2125, so I'm getting about 3:1 but, if I lose both the main pot and the side pot, I'm down to 6.5xBB. Should I call, or should I fold?

[Glintir]

Well, with 15 left how many get paid? What's the biggest stack in the tourney right now?

My gut says that this is a call. Not so much because of the pot odds, or even because of a read on the SB, but because of the situation. If you want to win this, now seems like a time to take a risk.

First, you may have the best hand right now, but probably not. Even so, you've got a flush draw, and straight draw, and good chance that a pair of kings could hold up. If you beat the SB but not the BB you're up 300, no harm no foul. If you lose, you've got a table that will likely fold to you when you push with 6.5x BB bets. Two steals that don't get called and you're back to 10xBB. If you take them both down, you're down to 13, and your stack is now 3800 or so.

So, if this is bubble time, and a stack of 3800 puts you up there in chips, I think it's a risk worth taking. But that's just me.

[Hauser_III]

Top 5 get paid, so it's not close to bubble time, and I don't remember what the biggest stack left was at the time.

[woodguy]

You have to call here.

It only 650 to call into the 2125 pot. So you are getting 3.4-1

You are only a bigger dog than 3.4:1 to AA and KK.

Folding is a wrong, especially with two seperate pots.

Regards,
Woodguy

[MLG]

If the biggest stack in the blinds is 1125 at this point you should just open push instead of raising to 450.

[Glintir]

not close to bubble time. Never mind then. Let them duel it out. End result is either one less player or 1200, 700 as the stacks to your left, with you at 1700.

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
If the biggest stack in the blinds is 1125 at this point you should just open push instead of raising to 450


[/ QUOTE ]

Good point.

Regards,
Woodguy

[Hauser_III]

[ QUOTE ]
If the biggest stack in the blinds is 1125 at this point you should just open push instead of raising to 450.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hadn't thought about it that way. Doesn't an open push of 15xBB from a stealing position practically scream "weaker hand trying to steal?" Or is that counter-balanced by the fact that flat calling a raise to 450 practially pot commits the SB, so I might as well tell him he'll have to be completely in from the beginning if I'm willing to play the hand at all?

[Glintir]

Imagine yourself as the guy with the shorter stack, and it becomes clearer.

It's harder to commit all your chips before the flop with anything but the best hands. Even if, practically speaking, that's what you're doing by calling. So your fold equity goes up a bit, as I understand it.

[MLG]

the point is to try and get him to fold hands like 22 or A3 which your hand coinflips against. I'm not saying you will, but you don't want them playing over you thinking you will fold.