Harrington and the ALLIN

Hi All,

Yesterday, after reading Harringtons first volume, I won my first MTT. Entry fee was Two Pounds Sterling. I won £115

God bless Harrington! Looking out for 2nd volume.

Now onto my question. Early in the tournament you are sitting on the button holding KK or even AA. 3 people before it gets to you go ALLIN... Do you fold? What I mean is... what is the expectation here of folding and letting the loonies go out and you survive? surely even with AA against 3 other people the odds are not good....

Any help with this would be appreciated...

Peter

For your 2 pound buyin, only fold AA if you hate money.

I agree, but where is the dividing line? Do you fold KK with 3 other people allin? Do you fold QQ? JJ? Surely if you want to survive there is some kind of line in which you decide that the others can knock themselves sensless...

Peter

[People_Mover]

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For your 2 pound buyin, only fold AA if you hate money.

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x2

I would start dancing on my table

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surely even with AA against 3 other people the odds are not good....Peter

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Define "not good".

Against 3 other reasonable all-in hands you are usually around 55% to quadruple up with AA.

In the rare case that someone else also has AA, you are about 60% to split, or double up with your AA.

If you pass up a 55% chance to quadruple up, you shouldn't play poker...

[ QUOTE ]
I agree, but where is the dividing line? Do you fold KK with 3 other people allin? Do you fold QQ? JJ? Surely if you want to survive there is some kind of line in which you decide that the others can knock themselves sensless...

Peter

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You WIN a tournament by getting ALL the chips, not "surviving".

In a micro-buy-in such as this one, I insta-call with KK. QQ is borderline, and I fold JJ.

Thanks, that clears it up for me. This is pretty much what I was thinking QQ borderline and JJ fold.

Cheers

Peter

Against 3 other hands, AA may not win more thn half the time, but it will win far more than 1/4 of the time.

Plus, I get a big stack early and I can bully people around and build one massive stack before the blinds even get real big.

If you're talking about the Cryptological 2.25 pound tourneys, preflop I would go all in with AA, KK, maybe QQ and maybe AK/AKs.

The reason being is that the blind structures are very fast (10 min) and the play is horrendous. Many times you will get sucked out, but many times you will double and triple up and get enough chips to wait for your big premium hands again.

I'd get my money in with AA KK AK AKs QQ.

-PN