Late in MTT:Medium PP in UTG/EP

[98romaine]

Seeking thoughts/advice as I'm trying to improve my play with medium pocket pairs 9-9 or below UTG, UTG+1, and EP during the late stages of MTT, two tables left or final table. My last two live MTT tournaments and my last online MTT they have been my undoing when we have gotten down to the final 15-16 players or less.

I think I am playing them too fast but I'm thinking (maybe incorrectly) that with rapid blind levels (typically 15 mins) they need to be played aggressively.

Example: Final table of live 30 person MTT, blinds at 500/1000 ante 50 I have 7-7 UTG+1 and raise to 3500 (my stack around 17k) only caller is the SB who moves in with a little less than 8k with 10-10, I call and lose more than 50% of my stack. I guess limping is possible in these situations but shows weakness and gives players yet to act the opportunity to bluff/steal/push me off the pot losing the chance to pick up blinds/antes. Reading the earlier thread on varying your raise amounts by position still presents tough decisions as even raising 2.5x BB you figure with the the BB and ante's there are still good odds for a call of the SB all in.

Any constructive advice on handling these situatiions would be much appreciated...

Maybe H. Lederer said it best when making a call based on the size of the pot,"Make the laydown, and realize the chips that you leave yourself with may prove to be the chips that you win the tournament with."

[EnderIII]

If people are in all-in mode, then from early position i would probably just fold. You don't want to call an all in with low/mid pockets, too likely to be dominated or coinflip at best usually. And if you raise a reasonable amount you are getting too good of pot odds to lay down to a short stack's all in. From late position i would try to raise and take down the blinds, but in early position when the chips are shallow 77 isn't that good. You've still got 15+ BB, so thats a fair bit of room to work with. If the table won't let you limp, i'd toss em. With JJ or TT i feel a lot better about calling a short stack's all in, but 77 and 88 not so good.

[JaBlue]

When you made that raise, you committed yourself to calling his all-in. If you're not comfortable with that, fold. Limping is just too weak and should NEVER be done at this level unless you're trapping an aggressive player behind you.

[JohnG]

On those ratios play them aggressively or not at all. Either could be ok depending on the dynamics.

[RainFall]

I disagree with a limp being a bad play... 77 is a tricky hand but i will definittely limp them UTG here. not raise, because then i am commiting myself on a weak hand. Most loose players will be calling your raise with dubious holdings AJo etc even when you raise. They are not playing your hand they are playing theirs. I feel more confident limping a hand like this and playing it in position agains the blind if i have to. I also feel confident calling raises depending on my opponents (or even a shortstack allin). I find at this stage if you are going to be flipping its a hand that he would've pushed you in with anyways whether it was correct or not (AQ,AJs, etc) .

I could be wrong about this post, but thats how i play it. 77 is a hand i can get away and i dont feel the need to put 20% of my stack in.

[JaBlue]

You can't limp-call here for set value. You're just throwing chips away. He only has a 17-Big-Blind stack. Limping he has 1,000 invested to make a 3000 pot (I forgot if there were or weren't antes). A raise would surely be up to 3,000 - 5,000. Then you're calling off anywhere from 1/5 to 1/3 of your stack to try to hit a set.

If you are unwilling to play it aggressively, muck it.

This late in the tourney you should almost NEVER be limping. If you had 77 on the button and there were all ready limpers in, then limping along is a good play. As it stands, you're under the gun. Another big difference: if he was a big stack, he could also start to consider limping. Then he may be able to play for set value, and if not its not nearly as bad to throw away 1/40th of your stack as it is to throw away 1/17th of your stack by limping.

[98romaine]

Thanks for the replys to the post...

JaBlue, I think you make a good point with the timing in the tournament. By making a strong raise from EP it makes the players yet to act with semi-strong hands like 9-9, 10-10, J-J, to possibly fold and any pocket pairs lower to fold. Q-Q and up call as well as AK probably call. At this point in the tourney, a strong raise from UTG/EP will win you the blinds and the antes unless you're up against a monster.

Thanks for the info............