Live Satelite ATs NL Hand

[ohkanada]

Playing in a live NL satelite at the Mirage on Sunday afternoon when this hand came up. We are playing 11 handed. Everyone starts with 300 chips. Blinds are 10-15 (1st level). Rounds are only 10 minutes so there is very little play. It is the 3rd or 4th hand and everyone has about 300.

I have AcTc in late position. There are 3 limpers. I limp. Button limps. SB makes it 50 to go. BB and all the limpers call.

Q1) How many people raise with this hand in this situation? If we started with 1500 or even 1000 then I likely would raise but I felt with the # of chips and round length a limp is fine. My friend disagreed. I assume no one folds.

Q2) The problem with raising is if I raise to 70 and if I get re-raised (likely all-in) I don't think I can call, or can I?

The rest of the hand for those who like closure went as follows. Flop was 9c8h5c. Blinds and 1st 2 limpers checked. Next guy bet 25. I raised all-in with my nut flush draw and backdoor straight draw. Original raiser called (QcQh) and one of the limpers called (8d7s). The turn was a 6. River changed nothing and the limper took it down.

Comments are welcome,
Ken Poklitar

[ohkanada]

Anyone?

[45Player]

Q1) IMO a raise here would be very poor. If no one had limped then it can be considered, as I consider AcTc a stealing hand. If you raise to 70, then there is 140 in the pot. The 3 limpers are getting just less than 3/1 on a further investment of 55. So. I reckon you’ll get at least one caller, and probably more ( especially if the first limper calls). I think you can find a better spot to raise. Of course you are also allowing an EP limper to reraise you, then you know you’re in trouble.


Q2) if you raise and get reraised all-in, there would be about 430 in the pot. You have about 230 left, so your odds are less than 2/1, and you ‘know’ you’re behind. You cannot call a reraise.

As regards your play on the flop, I would not raise all in. I would be happy to call the 25.
It’s difficult to knock out 5 players from last position. Somebody will be suspicious.

[DaNoob]

I would have limped also, although with ATs, you can't feel overly confident if an A hits the flop. Once the flop comes the way it does, I push in here. With short levels and a small stack, you need to make a move and this looks like a great place to do it. Sorry it didn't work out.

[Copernicus]

I fold it. I dont like drawing hands in a more normal tournament structure, and I view ATs as a drawing hand. There is no flop less than trips that I feel confident betting out on its high card value.

With this structure the early round bets are such a large percentage of the stacks that you simply cant afford to bleed chips on draws, even for limps or small raises. You need them to pick up other chips when you do have a high hand.

If the other players are competent and understand the effect the struture has, there should be less risk to playing low to middle pairs from late position, and that is where I would loosen my game up from normal tournament structure. If the table is appropriately tight I might also add JJ and TT from middle position.

I would also be inclined to make larger than normal "isolation" raises from EP and MP. The blinds are very valuable here, and losing everyone with a strong hand should be less of a disappointment.

[45Player]

Sorry, the 10 minute stages didn't register. You have to take a chance at some point, and an all-in on the flop is the only way to go in this situation.

[ohkanada]

In the 1st round of most NL tournies I would call hoping for a monster flop. I hadn't really thought that folding was an option based on the lack of play. In this type of satelite with very few chips/time, I do agree that I might get trapped for my entire stack if either an ace or ten flops.

As it were based on the hands and the flop I did have the best chance on the flop. Thats all I can ask for when I go all-in.

Ken Poklitar