Weekly tournament that I play every Thursday night. $25 buyin with unlimited rebuys for the first hour. Starting chipstack is 5,000. Last night 18 people showed up, so top 4 payed out. Down to the final 7 players with the blinds at 1000-2000.

Folded around to shortstack player who moves all in with 5,000. Folds around to small blind who calls the raise (having about 14,000 behind after call). I'm in the big blind with pocket 9s. My stack at this point is probably 20,000 which is near the chip lead. I decided to go all in with the hand to either get heads up with extra chips in the pot if the small blind decided to fold, or if I am called I like my hand and I could win a huge pot. So that's my reasoning behind the move.

Well small blind is obviously upset and then folds, and then criticized the play saying I should just call to increase the chance to knockout the shortstack. Shortstack had KQ. My 99 held up and I took the pot and the extra chips from the call in the small blind. Regardless of the results, is this a bad play on my part? If it is I'd like to know, and if not, then I'd like justification from these boards! What's the correct play here??

Would the sb have won the pot if he played?

You taking the pot seems to be the correct play by me.

Your play was 100% correct.

Actually don't recall what the sb held. He didn't say. Flop was 10 10 J turn some low card river some low card. Lets say I just call preflop. I'm now looking at a flop of 10 10 J out of position. And also there are a number of overdcards that sb could hold that'll out flop me, and I lose to a bet. I'm not playing to 'knock out' the 7th place player. I'm playing for 1st you know? That's the way I see it. Thankfully my hand help up or else I would've been criticized by the rest of the table who are for the most part happy to finish in the cash.

I would definitely push preflop here. Your close to chip lead with only 10ish BB's yourself? Your trying to chip up to win the tourney not squeak into the money.

Unless SB was trying to get an additional player into the pot with a monster hand, he should have pushed to try and isolate from the beginning. Since he just folded to your push while putting around 25% of his stack in there, he doesn't sound very knowledgeable of tourney strategy and is thinking that ol' one player in, check it down thingy.

Yeah my stack at the time was close to chip lead with 7 players left. Tournament started with 18 players (5,000 chips each). Only 2 rebuys last night. So in play was 100,000 in chips. It becomes a crapshoot towards the end.

Cooperation plays like that may be appropriate on the bubble or in the pay structure, not 3 away with high blinds that threaten even the big stacks. Calling here would be lunacy, its push to isolate or fold. Since shorty'r range is so wide, and SB knows it and can be wide too, I like the push with a big stack.

LMAO...I just remembered some idiot berating me on not making a cooperation play with like 100 players to go.

i dont see why youd want a cooperation play here....taking your 99 three handed would be bad. i agree that the sb should have shoved. but i think he wasnt paying attention and went into automatic "knock out a player mode"

and you definately want to "win" this hand, 99 is good enough to want the isolation and get the chips.

ive seen too many people call short stack all ins with drawing hands like 10j suited and the like knowing that people will check all the way down giving them a chance to see a free board with a decent pott that normally would have bet.

it's dirty, ive done it online on occasion and it pays if you get the right odds and you know noones gonna bet.

sb was just mad cause you made the correct play which didn't let him see the flop cheaply. I would be raising my eyebrow every time anyone criticizes you for not giving them a cheap chance to beat you for a bunch of chips. I bet if you would have just called pf, the sb would have announced out loud that he is willing to check the hand down which is actually illegal as it is a form of collusion.

You made the right play and profited from it. Next time someone says it's a bad play tell them they still could have played the pot with you....you just felt it should cost them more to play.

I think that says it all!

I believe your play is quite good. He could be trapping by just calling with the blinds so big, but at a home game the play probably ain't that advanced. This structure sounds quite fast, how long are the blinds and how big are the level jumps? To be near the chip lead with 10bb sucks.

Starting chip stacks are set at 5,000. Blinds start at 25-50 w/20 minute rounds. Blind structure is as follows:
25-50
50-100
75-150
100-200
150-300
200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1000
1000-2000
1500-3000
etc.

Very standard blind structure I'd say. Allows for good poker in the first 2-3 hours with the tournament usually finding a winner in 4 hours. With the big jumps in blinds towards the end it makes for an all in fest most of the time. The structure is good but most players are conservative which more often then not leaves the stacks fairly even while the blinds increase.

On another note sometime this month the guys are going to run a satellite to send the winner to play in a WSOP event. This is my first year playing in this league and apparently they've sent a player to the WSOP the past 3 years. I'm looking forward to the satellite as the stacks will be much deeper since the buyin will be fairly high (at least $200). I'll let the forum know how it goes.