Two FT hands MLG played last night that have me thinking...

[WinBig]

Two hands from the $22 rebuy final table on Stars that MLG played last night. He was the chipleader to start the final table and had been reraising a lot when it was down to 18 players and was successful at getting players to fold preflop and on the flop quite a bit to build his stack.

Hand #1 - Blinds 8000/16000. Folded to MLG in MP with a stack of 526K and he raises to 48000. The four stacks to his left have between 148K and 188K. The raise is the 3xBB standard raise that he would make with a wide range of hands since the medium sized stacks will fold a large number of hands.

SB goes all-in for 188K and MLG calls getting about 1.9 to 1 odds for a call. Assuming the SB has a range of hands here that includes AA-JJ and AK-AJ (is this too small?) what will MLG need to have to call? I would guess it could be a pretty wide range of hands getting those odds.

I guess my real question deals more with what range you raise with since you know you will call any push from the smaller stacks getting decent odds. You are the chipleader and can push around the smaller stacks but do you do this with trash or with decent holdings like AJ and up or 88 and up?

Hand #2 - 8 players left and MLG now has a nice stack of 733K which is almost double what 2nd place has. Blinds still at 8K/16K and MLG is in the BB. UTG with 176K limps and it is folded to MLG who pushes. What range of hands would you push with here? An UTG limp shows some strength so is the range small? Lets say AA-QQ and AK/AQ?

I found these two hands to be interesting because I struggle playing a big stack and saw a lot of aggression at this final table that appeared to border on a maniac style of play. I try to raise more when I get a big stack but I am fearful of doubling up a smaller stack with a marginal holding when maybe I should push the issue and raise preflop and call when getting 2-1 odds. Thoughts?

I'll post the hand results later this evening.

[A_PLUS]

Rather than give you a fish........

Problem #1:
The SB has a range of X, MLG was getting 1.9-1 on his call, what does he need to call?

1/2.9 = 34%

MLG will need 35% equity vs the range of hands that you think the SB will hold.

Download Poker Stove

and input your range for the SB, and play around with various hands to see when you reach 34% equity.

And pretty much in all cases your range was much to small.
You mention how MLG was a borderline maniac, so Im sure the other players knew this, if that is so, do you really think the player in Hand #1, would fold TT there? The neat thing about the problem I showed you how to solve, is now you can figure out what hands the SB should push here, giving MLG a wide range.

[locutus2002]

MLG is probably playing his hand in conjuction with the fact that none of the players want to go out
9th ~$500
8th ~$800
7th ~$1200
etc. when 1st is ~$9000.

He may just be playing their fear.