Should I have picked this hand to take a stand with?

I was in a tournament tonite and was doing well, above the average stack most of the night, but I wasn't catching any cards (saw one A -- ATs, KQs, and JTs, but other than that junk). The blinds were at 200/400 and were about to go up to 500/1000 next hand.

I was in the big blind with K7o and had only about 2000 more in chips. Average stack was 4000 but there were a lot of short stacks, and since the small blind for next hand would be 2.5x bigger I thought it was I good time to make a move and try to double up.

So I pushed...and got three callers!!! K9o, A8s, and trash. And then the flop came 7-A-A! So I ended up 13th out of 50, just short of the final table, which started six hands later.

So should I have taken a stand there? Played two cards that I thought had a good chance of being live before the blinds? Waited for the SB? I thought I was getting decent odds before the flop...

[yvesaint]

i dont know but i wouldve pushed a lot earlier before getting down to only 2400 .....

[el_dusto]

[ QUOTE ]
I was in the big blind with K7o and had only about 2000 more in chips. Average stack was 4000 but there were a lot of short stacks, and since the small blind for next hand would be 2.5x bigger I thought it was I good time to make a move and try to double up.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm confused. What do you mean when you say short stacks... are you one of them? How many are there, and more importantly, how many of them are in this hand ? Having lots of short stacks in this hand is dangerous, because they are likely to be thinking the same thing you are (and getting gambly, too).

The advantage to being in the BB in this situation is that you get to see how many people have limped in ahead of you. It sounds like there were four or more limpers, which is a very scary situation for K7o. I would have agonized for a bit and then probably waited for the next hand; you're pretty screwed here if you get a call.

That being said, you were already in a bad spot by folding your way down to 5 big blinds at 200/400. I usually loosen up and start to push with one live card at 7 or 8 BBs.

I was trying to but I was catching nothing but 62o, T4s, etc...the cards were not coming tonight!

So you're saying that I should've picked a spot before the blinds got to me and taken a shot with two random cards? I think the all-in was good in this case but I just walked into better hands.

[el_dusto]

worst-case, you're a 20/80 dog PF with any 2 cards. Take a 20% chance (at worst) to get yourself up to 6000 and a (likely) seat at the final table, or take a 40-50% chance to get up to 4000 and still only have 4 BBs left when the blinds go up next hand?

[ellipse_87]

You should've pushed with T4s if you were opening. I know, sounded weird to me also until a few days ago. Buy HOH.

[ QUOTE ]
Played two cards that I thought had a good chance of being live before the blinds?

[/ QUOTE ]

don't know why you though you had a good chance of having 2 live cards (especially if this was in a home tourney where people play naked K's like they were the nutz). good chance you are dominated if you get any callers. You had a better chance of having live cards with 2 low cards. all in all, I make a stand before I get this low in chips.

I know I let the blinds get me down further than I should've. My mistake. I'm primarily a cash game player and tournaments, especially live tournaments, are still somewhat new to me.

I've been told by another player that at about 10BB's you are pretty much on life support and need to make a move now!!! Before the blinds. So what range should I pick? Any ace? king? any 2 cards, just push without looking?

[ansky451]

read the anthology sticky.