KJo, good hand to push with? @ final table again with 6 people left

[gambelero2]

You ran into ace king, tough luck. A lot depends on the situation. Here are some other factors:

Is there an ante?
**If there is you have a lot more incentive to push allin (no in this case, must have been party or pokerroom not stars)?

Have you overraised your natural percentage with these players.
***If you have you have more chance of being called by kq, aj or a small pair, all hands that have you beat badly or put you in coin flip jeopardy. If you've played really tough and shown (called or not) big hands then you have a much greater chance of getting through.

Are the big stacks aggressively hunting down the small stacks?
***If overly so, you have a chance of getting called by a weaker hand like qj or k10. If the big stacks are resting waiting for the other guys to break each other, then you have a bigger chance of getting a steal, but little chance of being called by a one out hand like those above.

Have they seen how you played a big hand?
***Let's say you raised the minimum with kk and showed them a big hand. Then you might try a minimum raise here. It seems strange, but at this point in a tourney if someone has a really big hand, they don't usually just bust it all in. If they're stealing they'll usually jam it all in. The other players would probably fear a minimum raise more than an all in. Someone with KQ might even call, then release for a post flop bet when blanks flop.

Generally, I agree with the push advocates more than the wait advocates. Until you get the big bumps from 4 to 3 and then 3 to 2, it doesn't pay to wait on a smaller stack blinding out. The payouts go way up from 4 on. Playing for the minimum payout is rarely correct.

[grandgnu]

I agree with a push, you're short-stacked and need to accumulate chips if you hope to survive and have a chance at winning the event.

[schwza]

not pushing would be very wrong.

[minm2k]

i pushed the hand before this with KQs and everyone folded so I decided to take another shot

[ThrillFactor]

[ QUOTE ]
i pushed the hand before this with KQs and everyone folded so I decided to take another shot

[/ QUOTE ]

That's an important piece of info that should have been included in the original post. Pushing twice in a row makes it more likely that one of the big stacks will look you up with a slightly weaker hand including the baby aces. Not saying that it changes the push/fold decision, but it should definitely be considered.

[minm2k]

oh trust me i thought about it plenty. i wanted to win this tourney not place 5th or 6th, ive had plenty of 2-6th place tourneys .... haven't got my 1st yet though.

[Scooterdoo]

I totally think you should have pushed and hopefully you didn't learn from this experience that this was the wrong thing to do. KJ is a favorite against random hands -- hey, K2 is a favorite against random hands! You can't call as some suggested (unless you plan on pushing the flop no matter what) given that you would have put in 1/4 of your stack to see the flop. Your stack is big enough still to make it difficult for the other players to call you without a strong hand. The typical hands they will call you with are any A, a pocket pair or two broadway cards. Perhaps KTs too. You are a favorite against some of these hands, but are not far behind against most of them so you should actually not mind a call here (by 1 player, not great if two call you).

All in all, I really think you need to push. Once the blinds hit you the next orbit you will be getting close to a situation where you will probably have to win a showdown --- e.g., your raise won't scare the big stacks off.

[nath]

The play is fine, you got unlucky.
If you want to keep shooting for 1st you have to make plays like this.