All In With The Best Hand

[avalanche201]

Hey all- this is a question that i have been stewing upon for a while now and I was hoping for some help. Sorry for the spelling i Know its bad. My basic question is should you get your money in with the best hand when you are pretty sure the person you are facing is on the draw? This may seem like a stupid question if this was just a pure money game but when in a tournament if your out, your out.

Thus for any situation like this you can bet out if they call and if you are sure they are on the draw you can push in trying to get them out or get as much as possible out of the hand or just keep betting and hope they dont get it.

This usually happens with trips or better, for example:

Sitting in a live tournament, I have about 4,000 in chips (start with 500) and the blinds are 100/200. I am second in chips next to the person whom I get into this hand with. She pre-flop was under the gun, and took quite a long time to call but eventually she limps. One other person calls, and I look down at pocket fives. With the blinds being so high, and being early position I decide just to check.

The flop comes: 5d Ah 8h

I have trips so I bet out 400 into the 600 pot, because of the draw. The chip leader raises me 100 to 500, this is the minimum raise in the tourney, wierd I know. The other person folds, and I sit and think. I figure with her pause before the flop and position she probably has A8, which if I go all in she will undoubety call and I will take the pot of the night. The other reason she might have raised was to get a free card. To be honest Im more leaning towards the A8, with 1500 already in the pot I am okay with just taking that if she folds. So I go all in for my remainimg 3400. She calls incredibly fast, almost as if she had trapped me. She turns over the draw (Qh Jh) only the Queen high flush draw!!!

Inevitably the turn brings the flush and I cant pair the board on the river, IM OUT. I got my money in wining and with 75% chance to win after the flop, as many out as she had and had trips, but i loose.

But the question is do I risk all of my money even with that great of a chance to win? or just keep betting, and deal with the flush if it comes. This perplexes me because if you do that 4X in a tournament (get your money in with a 75% advantage) your still gonna loose ATLEAST one of those times

Which way of going about is better?

[Juff]

I'd push with 75% pot equity every opportunity I get in early-mid stages of a tournament if I knew it would get called every time.

Going all in with 75% pot equity 4 times in a row, you won't lose at least once; you'll lose ~68.5% of the time, meaning there's still an almost 1/3 chance of you having multiplied your chips by a factor of 16, putting you in great stead to take a stab at the top end of the payout structure.

Flushes are going to draw out on you; all you can do is make it -EV for the draws to call you. Letting the flush card hit for free/cheap is terrible, and you won't get paid when the draw misses.