Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 140/280 Blinds 25 Ante (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t5736)
Hero (UTG) (t4585)
UTG+1 (t5853)
MP1 (t21042)
MP2 (t3171)
MP3 (t14935)
CO (t24740)
Button (t12730)
SB (t3610)

Hero's M: 7.11

Preflop: Hero is UTG with J, A
Hero raises to t4560 (All-In)

so obv i am getting really impatient but my rational is doing this UTG looks extremely strong. thoughts? BTW the blinds go up in 2 min.

Too much to risk with not enough return, you're never getting called by worse here. Id probably just openfold

I would fold also. Eat the blinds and wait for a better spot.

What if our M was 5? Knowing the blinds go up are we ok with an open UTG push then?

The most id push with AJs utg is like 13bbs

Wow, you nits. Our M's around 7 and it's about to get smaller with the blinds going up, and just about everyone at this table has us covered. We can't really play with anyone here given our situation unless we double through. I'm not sure what we're waiting for. The chances of getting called are small and if we are, usually we at least have a reasonable chance on the bad end of a race, plus our suitedness gives us some sort of outage if we're called by AQ or AK (about a 30% chance). We're at 40% vs any possible pair, 42% if you exclude the very unlikely AA or JJ. If we're only called by 77+ or AQ+, we take the blinds/antes a little more than 60% of the time. When they do call us, our equity is about 36%.

At least limp with the intention of shoving if you're raised behind from LP or from a LAG. You can dump it if you think a raiser behind has serious strength. If we see a flop, we can get out if it doesn't hit us.

Why are we wanting this to look strong? So u only get called by better handss????

With less than 20BB, the only way you can play any hand without spewing is strong.

I probably just open for a 3x raise here and shove the flop if I hit A or flush draw. If I get re-raised all-in preflop this puts me in a bad spot where I could possibly let it go but I would probably risk it here.

If you open raise to 3X here it's gotta be a fold to a re-raise I think.

Raising 3X UTG with our stack size looks really strong, and any re-raiser is going to recognize that we're normally going to call a shove and only push strong hands.

I'd raise to 700 and fold to a reraise. It's not necessarily for value but more of a semi-bluff. It's important in tournaments to remain active in picking up pots and to stay aggressive. This is a good spot to do that.

I hate shoving this, and this is exactly why.


I love it.

Unless we were just moved to this table, I don't see how we could possibly have no reads though. I think having solid aggressive players behind us could sway this to a fold.

I can't find a good reason to open shove though.

This gets called by at least 2 players, especially with most of the table fairly deep. What do you do on the flop when it comes down rags, misses us. What do you do we check and one of them bets into us with position?

If we're c/f'ing the flop most of the time when it misses us, and folding to a raise, why are we opening for 700 at all?

With an M just above 7, and in 2 hands it will be just above 6, this is a standard push.

If there were no antes, you can fold, or raise to 750ish.

Even if no worse hands call, you want to stay ahead of the blinds, at the very least.


And some of the huge stacks will call with worse hands.

Some of the other stacks will fold better hands.

I like this best ^^^


I don't mind the shove all that much. Looking at "range" terms, you're easily in the top 50%. I think only 4 hands call the shove (AA, KK, QQ, AK). Plus you're SOOTED! If a big stack calls you (or iso-raises to get you all alooooone), it could easily be with a small PP (66-TT) and, of course, you'll need to hit, but it's a good double up shot...

I don't understand how we can just standard raise without committing ourselves to this hand? If someone 3bets, there is too much in the pot for us to get away from this hand. Plus, we are about to be in the blinds, I'm shoving this hand, hoping to just pick up blinds and antes.

Plus, our range is much wider than you guys are giving credit in this spot with our M at 7.

Edit: Sorry, didn't look at where the blinds were.

You guys are right. Standard Raise/Fold. Damn, I'm stupid.

It is retarded to stick 18% of our stack in with a raise and fold to a push from anywhere......especially with the blinds going up almost the very next hand....... so we'll have a shorter stack while eating a bigger blind?

This is either a push or fold. I do not see see the 3rd option on the table here.

I know alot of people here have said that a shove would be bad in this spot. I really don't like folding this hand here either. The problem is that there are so many big stacks at our table that can call with ATC and we can easily whiff the flop. We have about 16BBs right now and villain says that the blinds are about to go up. I don't really remember ever seeing this structure on FTP, but assuming the next level they go up we're down to possibly about 14-13BBs and Hero is going to be the BB and SB next 2 hands. I honestly don't see a problem with shoving here.

I think we have to look at villain as being in shorstack ninja mode right, given our stack, the blinds, the other stacks, and out position (UTG) we're at right now. Given all this info, I don't think a shove is that bad here.

If everyone folds we had a little over 600 to our stack. If we get called, so be it I think, we might not be that far behind.

^^^^^This, and I probably shove here.

I think raise/folding is probably better than shoving here, it's close between all 3 options (fold too).

I agree w/sennin that I shove ~13 BBs or less w/AJs here

Just ran the numbers and none are too good. Raise/call is the best although that and raise/fold are a bit borked by the inaccuracy of the reshove range of 8 people to act so Fold seems best. Raise/fold and shove are both close but both < 0

Even if we're next in the blinds and blinds going up soon?

If we raise/fold then there is a possibility that we will then have less than 10BBs when the blinds hit us and the blinds go up.

well, if that's the case, I'm definitely leaning towards fold.

But do you agree that a raise/fold here would be bad, no matter the amount we raise?

I guess I'm a little more aggro, so I'd lean towards shoving. You're a nit.

if you twiddle the ranges a bit, all 4 options are essentially equal. I'd guess shoving is more variance than the other options except for raise/call but variance isn't neccessarily bad so really, do wtf you want. With the blind increase and our stack dwindling to 15 BBs I can see the argument more for shoving to get a more powerful stack.
I think I generally raise/fold here (without the blind increase), one factor not accounted for is people flatting your raise which is probably a good (ish) spot for you to be in.