Bad spot for a push with 88 (5 handed)

Beck · #1 03-25-2005, 06:32 AM

UTG had only played few hands up till now, so he proibably had a hand, but with 3 of us equally low-stacked, I figured that he would either fold, or at least it would be a coinflip for me. Is this too early to make a coinflip? If I won I would be in good shape for the money, plus I had the fold equity. SB had previously folded to re-raises, so was hoping he would fold too.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (5 handed) converter

MP (t635)
Button (t4261)
SB (t1809)
Hero (t655)
UTG (t640)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
UTG raises to t150, 2 folds, SB calls t125, , Hero raises all in, UTG calls, SB folds.

ReDeYES88 · #2 03-25-2005, 09:42 AM

previous play at the table would influence the answer quite a bit, but we don't know what's gone down previously.

The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that you pushed into two people, not just one. Coinflips only work when two people are playing, not three. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

Large stack SB flat called the raise. Is this normal for him? Does he like to see a lot of flops? Does he have a big hand?

[ QUOTE ]
UTG had only played few hands up till now, so he probably had a hand

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If you know this, then why fight it? (especially after the SB calls, there is a chance that he's coming along for the ride, too. He might be able to bust you both and get in the money. People seem a little more inclined to call in this situation when they can get in the money)

I don't think I push here, especially in to two people. Calling 1/6th of my stack to see a flop three handed probably isn't right, either. I muck with t605 left and t25 SB next hand, happy that two other people are tangling with each other. t605 is semi-workable still, although if either UTG or MP go away, your FE suddenly decreases when you have to push into the big stack in future rounds.

pooh74 · #3 03-25-2005, 12:38 PM

The other thing that should jump out at you besides this guy only playing solid holdings is that he's UTG as well (def not on a steal, or very unlikely)...there's a good chance you're severely dominated here and you KNOW he's not gonna fold to your reraise so there's no FE left which is always nice to factor in to your overall % on the hand

IOW ur on button, folded to you, you have 44...against 2 overs you're a slight favorite when u push your shortstack. But with FE (giving 35% prob of blinds folding) you're now 35% to win the blinds, and a ~55% fav to win the hand if 1 calls with 2 overcards.

This hand has none of this flavor and is not one of those spots you should be choosing with your SS and PP. The hole cards were good but the situation was awful bc of the 100% chance of being called by 1 and maybe 2.