I need help with a hand I busted out on.

[PukaPlaya]

I didn't save the hand history on this one but it went basically like this:

Blinds 300-600 + Antes
UTG +1 (8500T)with AK raises the minimum
UTG +2 (14000) calls

Folded around to me. I have JJ on the Button and 8k in chips. I contemplate just calling but the SB is the big stack with about 24k and nearly everytime there are 2 or 3 limpers or minimum raisers he likes to come in for about 10x BB pushing everyone out or getting heads up.

I decide to push and hope to either take it down at best or isolate at worst. UTG+1 is the only caller and flips over AKo.

She hits a A on the flop and I don't improve. If she had lost she would have been left with 500 chips.

Is calling correct for her here? Was pushing correct for me? It seems like everytime I have called in similar situations recently with AK I have lost to pairs. I realize the results don't matter but the correct decision does. Either way I honestly wanted to scoop the pot right there.

So what would you have done?

Related comment:
This villain pissed me off by immediately typing "TY" in the chat window after busting me. When I say it was a coin flip and this time you won, she admonishes me saying I got what I deserved for being "greedy". She of course busted out 20 minutes later missing the money as well which made me very happy.

I realize it is silly to get upset when people type something rude in the chat and usually I can ignore it. This time it bugged me and helped prompt me to post.

[Russ McGinley]

People that say "ty" immediately after winning a big hand should be killed. No place in the world for these fu<font color="black"></font>ckers.

[celticGreen]

I think given your take on the big stack I would have done the same thing. I don't see any problem with your push or the villain's call.

-Josh

[ZootMurph]

I don't any reason to push this hand with 13xBB. Personally, I would have just called or min raised hoping the big stack would be stupid. Then you'd have to push.

Another thing to contemplate is this: Do others see the big stack doing this? If so, they may well be laying a trap for him with a big hand as well. In this particular situation, if you just called, I see the big stack putting in a big raise and UTG+1 pushing, thus allowing you to get out cheap, as you can see the UTG+1 was trapping here. At worst, you put in a small raise, big stack folds, and UTG+1 either calls or reraises. Either way, you get out on the reraise or on the flopped Ace, and you are still fine.

All in all, with your chip stack to blinds ratio, I think a push is a bad play. The best you are going to do here is take down a small pot risking a lot of chips... or get into a race. On rare occassions, you will get a terrible call, or be up against a bigger pair, but usually you are putting a lot of chips in for a little in return, with the risk factor being high. In general, I usually want to see flops and let my skill work for me.

[PukaPlaya]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't any reason to push this hand with 13xBB. Personally, I would have just called or min raised hoping the big stack would be stupid. Then you'd have to push.

Another thing to contemplate is this: Do others see the big stack doing this? If so, they may well be laying a trap for him with a big hand as well. In this particular situation, if you just called, I see the big stack putting in a big raise and UTG+1 pushing, thus allowing you to get out cheap, as you can see the UTG+1 was trapping here. At worst, you put in a small raise, big stack folds, and UTG+1 either calls or reraises. Either way, you get out on the reraise or on the flopped Ace, and you are still fine.

All in all, with your chip stack to blinds ratio, I think a push is a bad play. The best you are going to do here is take down a small pot risking a lot of chips... or get into a race. On rare occassions, you will get a terrible call, or be up against a bigger pair, but usually you are putting a lot of chips in for a little in return, with the risk factor being high. In general, I usually want to see flops and let my skill work for me.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah this is the conclusion I ended up coming up with as well. Thanks for confirming it...

I tend to get stupid starting at this stage of tourneys more often than not unless I have chips. I hate losing BB's when I am getting closish to 10X the BB, and would rather take the pot down than play a flop. Huge leak/screwup in my game I need to work on. I love playing flops when the blinds are small relative to my stack, but have a much harder time doing so later in a tourney, unless I have chips to play with.

JJ is also a pain in the ass to play in a multiway pot as well for me. But really the deal was that I would rather have just stolen the 2600 or so that was in the pot. Kind of unlikely as well as lame.