Short Stacked. Did I have a choice?

[OrangeBaller]

Down to $500. MP with blinds at 200/400. Went all-in with Ac9d. Big Blind busted me with pocket Aces. Did I make the right choice or should I have waited? Thanks for the help guys.

[aLOWdAkING]

IMO, it was a good place to go all in. You only had a few more rounds before losing it all to the blinds and A9 is a decent hand with that stack you have.

[Martin Aigner]

A9o is definetly no hand which plays well 3 handed, which is what most of the time will happen to you (stacksizes of the blinds would help though). Although I raise very frequently when 4 handed, in this situatioin I´d rather wait and call in the BB with anything, since most of the time you´ll be heads up then against a random hand.

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[Martin Aigner]

OOps, sorry, don´t know why I thought it was 4handed. Anyway, doesn´t make a big difference. It rather makes me not wanting to raise even more.

[lastchance]

You've got less than 2x BB... I really don't see how you can not push with any ace with less than 2x BB.

Of course, if other people are as shortstacked as you were..., or I misread your stack size...

[adanthar]

You fold A9o 4 handed? That's *horribly* weak tight.

[Lori]

Other than some constructed special cases, I go all in here nearly every time.

Lori

[LinusKS]

[ QUOTE ]
A9o is definetly no hand which plays well 3 handed, which is what most of the time will happen to you (stacksizes of the blinds would help though). Although I raise very frequently when 4 handed, in this situatioin I´d rather wait and call in the BB with anything, since most of the time you´ll be heads up then against a random hand.

Best regards

Martin Aigner

[/ QUOTE ]

How are the other hands any more or less random now than they would be if you waited for the big blind?

It seems to me the only difference is YOU'LL be the one with the random hand. A9 is better than the hand you'll likely have then.

[MikeGuz]

You will never know - there comes a point when you just have to pick a hand and go with it. You did and lost this time. I'd prefer smoething like a paint T or coupled or one gapped say a T8s which has a lot of potential. But bottom line is you are headed for a hand where you have no decision so pick a hand and go with it.

[Martin Aigner]

Nope, this has nothing to do with weak tight. This is a strategical move. Unfortunatly the original poster didn´t mention the other stack sizes, how many players were left, what was the buy in and even which site it was on. I only play on Party / Empire, and therfore the little facts given lead me to some assumptions which fit to Party:

Blinds 200/400 should mean that there probably aren´t more than 4 or 5 players, which means in a buy in event of 50+ the average stack with 4 players was 2500 (in a 5 - 30 buy in averages stack would be 2000 when 4handed. Since original poster has way less, average stack size for the others go obviously up). Since original poster didn´t mention whether some other player was terribly shortstacked, too, I assume that all the others will have about average stacks. We don´t know whether this is true or not, but let´s simply assume it, OK?

Now UTG raises with A9o, but this raise means that he is all in, and that his raise is only a small fraction over the size of the BB. There is definetly no folding equity in this raise. In this case I´d expect that both, SB and BB will call me 95% of the time. If a player behind him to act has him beat he will call 95% of the time, too. So this will lead to a 3 handed pot most of the time, and most probably the pot will be checked down to the river.

On the other side I have the option of being raised by someone when I´m in the BB and to call him to be heads up. Heads up my chances of winning the hand will increase, no matter what I have. I think that survival in this szenario is more important than accumulating more chips with the higher risk of being eliminated.

The fact that the poster had A9 isn´t important to me in this hand. I´d raise only with the very best hand I´d get, maybe something like AJs (hands that also play good multiway) and better. I´d definetly muck the small pairs, BTW.

Don´t forget, if the raiser doubles up in the BB he has enough mo make a raise with folding equity again, which is extremly inportant.

Please don´t mistake this for being weak tight. This is 100% a strategical consideration. If original poster had something like 900 in his stack, he should have raised with any two, but having no folding equity can change everything, IMHO.

Just my thouoghts

Martin Aigner