First of all, I'm not telling this as a bad beat story. I just have a legitimate question on how this might have been played differently.

I was in a MTT Tourney yesterday with the top 27 getting paid. There are 28 people left. Blinds are at 250-500 with a 50 ante I think. I have around 5,500 with the average being like 12,000. I'm 25th out of the remaining 28.

I'm in the big blind and the play is hand for hand. I get AA. A guy in middle position raises to 2,000, with about 12,000 or so left. At this point I start thinking about the whole "folding AA when you're on the bubble just to ensure you get in the money" argument. But then I figure I'm so short stacked that at this point even if I make the money I'm not going to do much better than the small profit I would turn for finishing around 25th. So I figure the best strategy is to just push and try to get myself some ammo to make a legitimate run. Maybe he folds and I win the pot right there or at worst he calls and I'm a big favorite.

So I push and he calls and turns over Ks-8s. So I'm happy. Flop comes 3h-5h-6c. Sweet, no spades, no kings no 8s. Turn is a K. Uh oh. River is another K. So to sum it up I'm out in 28th with no money.

I guess I just want opinions here. What could I have done differently? Was this avoidable? Flame if you want, but I would appreciate actual opinions on different ways to play this hand.

I feel you did the right move. As you said you were short stacked and if you would have won you would have made it in the money. After a flop like that I am assuming you would have went all-in at that point. You could have just called and went all-in after the flop, but he might have though he was pot commited so it would have ended up the same way. As I tell alot of people try never to slow play AA, most of the time you will get burned by a smaller hand (straights kill me). You just got unlucky. I would have done the same thing and believe most people would also do it in the same situation. You take the bad beats with the good.

Good luck in future tournys.

I think you played it fine. I might not have gone all in on the flop.
Another option might have been all in preflop.

I think you should be less worried at this point about doubling up as just making the blinds. It kinda goes hand in hand but you have to consider the bubble factor too. Your stack size seems to be a little short for the blinds but your not in extremely rough shape here.

I think you played it fine don't get me wrong I might not have gone all-in on the flop though.

If I was planning on all-in it would have been preflop.

In my opinion you made the right play. Just a typical online bad beat. You are totaly correct about going into the money w/ no chips. I mean sure money is good and all, but whats the point I don't go into a tourny to make my money back, i go to win. And with AA your chances against a heads up opponint is very good. Had you of won this, you would have been sitting much nicer in the mone area. Personally I say you playd like most would. Catching runner runner to make a set. Pre flop your 83% to win. you cant argue that number..after the flop your a 94% favorite. Its just insane to be able to catch runner runner..he has 5% of winning that hand. All luck man..better luck next time.

Dan.

Good push preflop. This isn't even a debate, and there was absolutely no other way to play this.

Yeah... it sucks to be shortstacked and in a bad spot... and bad beats do happen, even on the bubble. But, playing this any other way than the way you played it would be downright wrong.

I just wanted to clarify that I did go all-in preflop. But thanks for the opinion, it was nice to get a unique view on the topic.

Thanks for all the opinions, guys. Honestly, I agree that there was pretty much nothing I could do. Just wanted to see if maybe there was something I overlooked.

The only other choice that crossed my mind is what Lost_one mentioned about calling the preflop raise and then pushing after the flop. Since it didn't hit him at all, I might have been able to push him out of the pot. Maybe not. Oh well.

Thanks again for the thoughts. Keep 'em coming if there's a different perspective out there!

No question at all here. If you see AA with a shortstack at all, you have to push. You made the correct play, and just took a bad beat. To anyone who thinks about folding here, you should stop playing tournaments right now. Even if I had my life savings invested in the tourney buyin, I would push with AA on the bubble.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the "call preflop, and push on any flop" move with AA.

You have a dominating edge on every other hand in the deck with AA. You should try to get all your money in before the flop, when you have THE NUTS and a definite advantage over anybody that will call you.

The "call preflop and push on the flop" move works best when you have either a pocket pair or big cards, and your opponent likely has the other. You can call a stout raise, judge the texture of the board, put faith in your read, and put your opponent to a decision for all your chips.

With a smaller pocket pair or big cards, it's power poker, but in this situation, you're only letting someone with a small pocket pair or a trap hand get away from the hand before they double you up, if they don't like the flop.

With AA you're not intimidated by anything he has, preflop... and you don't want to give him a chance to get away from his hand if he doesn't like the flop. Get it in there when you're way ahead and likely to get called. Suck-outs suck, and bubble suck-outs with AA suck even more... but you played it optimally, and that's what matters.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the "call preflop, and push on any flop" move with AA.

Yeah, I think that occured to me just because I was so pissed off that I was trying to think of any conceivable way to avoid getting busted in that spot. That's all that I thought of. But I agree that it's pretty dumb not to push when you're a huge favorite against any hand.