Blind steal mid-late tourny

Quercus · #1 07-13-2005, 12:13 AM

I find myself in this sort of predicament fairly often in the middle-late stages of a tournament. I'd love to hear thoughts on whether I'm playing it out correctly or not.

3/4 of the field is gone, my stack is about 60% of par which works out to about 10BB. I'm holding A9o on the button and it folds around to me. I bet out 3BB and get called by the SB who has a few more chips than I. SB has defended with a call once before and folded to a strong flop bet.

Flop comes K26 rainbow and is checked to me. I bet out about half the pot, which is half my remaining stack. SB calls. Turn comes 6 rainbow. SB checks, I check.

River comes K. SB bets, I call all-in.

Did I play this correctly?

bruce · #2 07-13-2005, 12:32 AM

I believe this to be very player dependent.

With you having 10x BB in general open pushing is the strongest play.
If you open for 3x you are very close to being pot committed, so you might as well push and see all five
cards with a hand like A9 which plays well heads up.

If you do open for a 3x raise I would bet the turn and check the river. In general this is a better play because
you are giving your opponent an opportunity to fold on the
turn. If you check the turn your typical opponent will bet
the river with just about anything. Betting the turn may
induce him to fold bottum pair. If you are deeper stacked
I would be more careful about betting the turn in fear of
being checkraised.
Bruce

daveymck · #3 07-13-2005, 08:49 AM

Easy push pre flop with less than 10bb's I am not even thinking about it.

If you are playing a 3bb raise game with less than 10bbs then you have to push the flop. If you follow up you pf raise with a pot size bet then you are comitted anyway shove them all in.

durrrr · #4 07-13-2005, 09:16 AM

push or limp preflop... limping is ugly, so push

-durrrr

Quercus · #5 07-13-2005, 10:40 AM

How many BB does one want to have to raise rather than push?

12? 15?

SaintAces · #6 07-13-2005, 11:54 AM

Push preflop

and I don't think it's close.

SaintAces · #7 07-13-2005, 11:56 AM

[ QUOTE ]
How many BB does one want to have to raise rather than push?

12? 15?

[/ QUOTE ]

What's your hand? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

If I am stealing I will push with 10 and less.
If I have a high pair I push with 7 and less.
If I have AK, AQ, I push with 10 or less.

At 11, I can at least raise to 4xBB and fold if re-raised all in.