PLO/8 MTT Question

[Cleveland Guy]

Getting late in a low buy in PLO/8 MTT on Pokerroom.

110 entered, 10 paid, 27 left, and I am sitting in the middle with about 5500.

I am in the CO and the blinds are 150/300.

Folded to the guy right before me, and he open raises to 1050. He has about 7,000 - so he has me covered.

I have a [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].

Do I want to smooth call here? or re-raise? If I re-raise, do I need to pot it? or could I re raise to about 2,000?

Thanks for the advice.

[wiseheart]

Id pot it. He is probably expecting
to pick up the blinds and does not
want to get played back at, and this
is a great chance for you to double
up and get into the money if he does.

On a side note. 110 with only 10 placing
sucks in my opinion. I much prefer the
18 places for 101+ at Stars. Maybe the
games are softer there though?

[pokerswami]

I'm not much at MTT, especially in PL O8/B, but there are some basic questions you need to ask yourself here. There are more I could bring up, but I guess the main point I'm making is that you haven't told the readers here enough to know what your situation is and what your goals are.

If you raise here it is because you want to immediately win the chips in the pot without going further.

Questions: Based on everything you've seen so far, what chance do you believe your raise will have to get everyone else between you and the raiser to fold, followed by the raiser folding?
(Remember that the worst money odds to call that the raiser will have is 2 to 1.)
If you are re-raised by anyone, what are you going to do?
Are you willing to risk your entire tournament pre-flop on this one hand?
How important to you is it to make it into the money? Are you willing to take big risks to try to accumulate a bunch of chips while sacrificing the increased chance to slip into the payout?

You may have the mathematical average number of chips but still be in a wide range of positions relative to the other players. Out of the 27 left, are you in 5th place, 7th place, 10th place? At your table are you in 2nd place in chips? 3rd place? 4th place? If you are in 2nd place in chips to the raiser and everyone else is extremely short-stacked, then that changes your situation, especially if the raiser is a very conservative player. If you expect him to get out of your way on future hands, then you may be able to push around short, but not completely crippled stacks.

You can see who is yet to act between you and the raiser. What do you believe they will do? If none of them has more than 1050 chips then you know that no one can raise a call by you.

When do the blinds go up? How will that affect the other players at the table based on their chip stacks and style of play?

etc. etc. etc

Regarding the type of very good hand you were dealt:
This hand will get maximum profit at a full, loose cash game.
Heads-up, big pairs become very valuable. If you expect to have to go to a showdown to win, then you're going to have to improve, most likely. What type of hands has this guy been playing? Is he super-aggressive, likely to have any four cards? Has he been favoring high, made hands, that is hands that include pairs?

Well, gotta go. I know I haven't answered your questions, but I hope you're thinking more about how the answers are situation dependent.

Edit:
Call and not raised pre-flop: 5500-1050=4450 to work with if you fold to a bet post-flop or don't win at showdown after no further betting. You're still in decent shape to make it into the payout.
Raise the pot: 5500-5100=400 left. You are pot-committed at this juncture. If you don't win immediately and are just called, then you don't have enough to bluff your way out, barring a very rare flop/opponent's hand combination. You'll have to showdown enough to get some chips out of the pot.

[pokerswami]

[ QUOTE ]

Raise the pot: 5500-5100=400 left. You are pot-committed at this juncture. If you don't win immediately and are just called, then you don't have enough to bluff your way out, barring a very rare flop/opponent's hand combination. You'll have to showdown enough to get some chips out of the pot.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm in the middle of an STT and realized I miscalculated here. 5500-3600=1900 left. Not much left to work with.