How should my tournament standing affect the odds I need to call

[Poker_pete]

Situation 20 player tournament pays 80, 60, 40, 20

We are down to four players

Blinds (150/300)

Seat 2: poker_pete ( $6750 )
Seat 5: Zig01 ( $7190 )
Seat 3: broncoes7 ( $3670 )
Seat 9: jaybone397 ( $2390 )

Dealt to poker_pete [ Ac Qc ]

I raise to $600 utg. Button goes all in.

broncoes7 is all-In [3670]


For the stake of arguement let's say you know he has both red jacks. (He didn't btw.) If the amount of money he has changes at what point do you not call. For example, if he going all in but only has 1,000 left, all other things being equal, I think this is an easy call. If he goes all in and he has 7,000, I would fold. The odds required to justify a call are not complicated. I am trying to get a feel for how changing the our relative money at the beginning would impact my call decision.


For instance what if we began the hand this way.

Seat 2: poker_pete ( $7500 )
Seat 5: Zig01 ( $2190 )
Seat 3: broncoes7 ( $3750 )
Seat 9: jaybone397 ( $1090 )

Do I really want to gamble half of my stack in this situation if I am getting the pot odds to call?

[Exitonly]

if you knew he had jacks, you'd be getting odds to call.. and you play for 1st place...

But, it's no certainty he has jacks, 4 handed AQ is really strtong, and i'd call in both of these situations...

You wouldn't be eliminated in either one if you were to lose either.. so i dont think it's even close.

Well, I think you should use a tool often discussed in the STT forum, an ICM calculation. I'm not sure how to do it myself, but there is a link to how to do it in the single table tournament FAQ.

[EnderIII]

I was just wondering how much a flattened pay out structure like this affects the convential wisdom of playing for first. Obviously in a 5-3-2 payout it is vastly superior, but in a 4-3-2-1 payout i was wondering how much that might change things.

I don't think this is a complete thread hijack either, because at a certain point being virtually guaranteed 2nd and roughly even chips for heads up seems like it might outweigh accumulation calls for a smaller chance at 2nd and a 3-1 chip advantage when heads up. I haven't done the math...so if someone has, feel free to tell me my intuition is wrong here.