When to push or call against an All-In specialist?

[Texter]

Down to the final 5 of a home tourney (20 players), top 4 get paid. 40%/30%/20%/10% payout.

I have a stack of about 5k, the big stack has about 12k, the other stacks have 7k, 4k, 3k.

Anyhow, the 4k stack is on the button when I'm UTG and he proceeds to go allin every time he's on the button, the big stack is in the big blind and let's this guy steal the blinds over and over and over. I get crap cards UTG so can't really do anything.

Eventually, I bust the small stack and now have about 8k and am slightly the small stack now.

Mr. Allin is now going after my big blind everytime...and I continue to get garbage. I consider calling with 10c2c, but don't.

Eventually I have to call with Qd3d and lose to a straight.

So How should i handle a guy like that?

[mlagoo]

in this sort of situation, blinds are very important. when you call depends a lot on the blind levels and how long you can wait before you are blinded off/lose your fold equity.

so, what were the blinds, and how fast were they escalating?

if he was stealing EVERY time he was on the button, his range is pretty big here. your calling range should loosen as well. not as much, but it should loosen.

i dunno. without any specifics its very tough to give advice on this. eventually you'll have to look him up. its better to do at it a time when doubling up still means something (read: you still have a decent amount of chips).

[flyingmoose]

When the blinds are substantial, you should be stealing with all-ins, too.

Keep in mind that the structure of your tourney makes cashing no big deal. Moving up every spot pays exactly the same as moving up the spot before. Given these conditions, you should try to be very aggressive against anyone just trying to make the money and tighter when in the money (and everyone who is just happy to cash is going crazy).

[Texter]

Blinds were 400/800 with no ante and were going up every 20 minutes.

[flyingmoose]

So the blinds represented ~1/4 of your stack. You should be the move-in specialist at this point. Steal the crap out of them.

[DesignProdigy]

yea, maybe consider moving in before he does

[Texter]

I was really hoping the big stack would do her job and smack him down a couple times.