On the bubble in a live tourny

[Shammu]

Ok, I have been burned by this play before so I decided to post and see what am I doing wrong. Live $115 tourny, 100 players, 15 left, top 10 get paid. Blinds are 1000/2000 and I have about 17,000, I'm a little below average, there aren't many low stacks left. I'm sb and everyone folded to me, I have A8o, what would you do? BB has gone all-in many times in the last few rounds and noone called. He seems to be a solid player.

BB has me covered by few chips

[BBD]

unless we're prepared to play for all our chips(and I don't think I would be), I think we need to pick a better spot. Fold.

[MeanGreenTT]

Do you know the other stacks at your table?

Do you know the stacks at the other table?

You have a TINY M, you can last another 3 orbits.

If the BB is thinking, he knows you're range is "any 2" here.

Will the extra T2k gain you anything?

You're still a good ways from the real money and I'd have a hard time not pushing here. Lately, I've been asking myself what this move looks like to the opponent and even though it may be the wrong play to "us" the right play against this opponent may be to raise "normally" as though you had a strong hand and wanted action...obviously read dependent.

I know a lot of the regulars I play with in a weekly 150 player mtt don't give a rats ass to understand M or even being blinded out...case in point:

I watched a known "solid player" limp (500/1000) in ep2 with only 3500 behind. There was a late position limper then me on the button with TT and only T4000. I HAPPILY poooshed....

Late in the same tourney on another occasion, table folds to me in the SB (300/600) and I have 2000 behind after posting. I push blind....

[fnurt]

I am baffled. Isn't A8 a good hand heads-up?

Since BB likes to buy pots I raise to 5000 with the intention of calling a push. This seems like the guy you want to double through.

[Shammu]

A8o is a good hand headsup but not when the BB wakes up with a better hand, this is not a bad beat post, but I have pushed from his sopt many times and %90 of the time I was knocked out to the point that I am questioning the point of pushing to gain the blinds, I'm starting to think it's not worth it especially close to the money. What do you think?

I'd push into him here, M is a little under 6, and heads up A8 is very strong, and very unlikely to get called here. If he has been stealing a lot, and no one has been contesting him, 80% of the time he will be folding here as he will only call you with top 20% of hands, perhaps top 10% depending, as he knows he can just get his blinds back off of the other players that have not been contesting. Pushing is by far +EV, if you think a stop and go is better suited, by all means, but if this guy has been pushing a lot, what are you going to do if you raise and he pushes into you? Thats NOT a spot I like being in with A8. And he doesn't necessarily have to have a big hand to do that.

[fnurt]

If the BB has a better hand 90% of the time you push with A8, you need to call the police. Anyway, the reason I didn't recommend pushing is that I want to encourage him to come over the top with a lesser hand, since he's so aggressive.

[betgo]

Easy push. Sklansky did an article saying it is EV+ to open push with A6o from the SB for 30xBB.

I assume no ante. With ante, I push with practically anything. Even without ante, I push with any average or better hand. This is a good semibluff. When you look at pot odds and folding equity, you don't need a good hand to push.

[Shammu]

Well, maybe it's my bad luck then, the last three times I pushed from this spot, I had A7o, KQs, and A8o and lost them all to better hands.

[kuro]

Easy Push. I'd be pushing really close to any two here.