27-man $5.50 NLHE SnG with 7 players remaining. 5 players cash.

Two chip stacks at about $10,000 each, and then five of us (including myself) with about $4,000 and within $500 of each other. At this exact moment, I'm in 6th position with just under $4,000.

Blinds at 200/400 with a 25 ante, two more minutes on this level until 300/600 with a 50 ante, so the blinds are really starting to become an issue.

From UTG+1, I get dealt JJ, and UTG folds.

The two big stacks are in the CO and the BB. One interesting thing I'd noted about the CO is that in earlier levels, he'd tend to call a min-raise and auto-minimum-bet the flop if checked to (or first to act). BB would tend to stick around pre-flop in those hands, sometimes (check-)raising the CO on the flop and sometimes folding. Seen a lot of this kind of action between the two of them over the last twenty-plus minutes, although I've seen very few min raises on this level. CO's been losing chips this way, so I don't know if he would continue this strategy.

Usually, I tend to get a lot of respect for my raises in these events, but I'm not sure how I'm being viewed in this particular tournament (I'd been low-stacked A LOT, and at one point had to go all-in practically blind on back-to-back-to-back hands, so this is the healthiest my stack has been in an hour).

Here's ultimately my question: how do you play this?

Part of me really doesn't want to see a flop with this hand given the blinds and the chip stack. There's already 775 in the pot, and getting a hold of this wouldn't be bad. Doubling up would obviously be better and put me in a much better position to take this thing down.

Part of me really doesn't want to see me just take down the blinds with this kind of hand either (despite their value). I really want to extract the maximum from this hand. I also don't want to be an idiot and call/bet all-in on the flop when the overcard hits and the villain has one. (But maybe villain calls me with middle/bottom pair here, depending on the villain?) Do I have enough chips to make some kind of non-all-in raise before the flop and dump my hand if it's no good? And how would I know if it's really no good or just a play (especially from the CO)? I think the blind level increasing in two minutes really reduces the viability of this option, but maybe I'm overreacting to that.

Your thoughts, please.

Any effective raise is going to pot commit you anyway.

If you raise to 1600-2000, which you really need to do with JJ, because you want isolation, you're committed, and need to push the flop regardless, where you will have zero fold equity and may or may not be leading.

If you don't lead, or are not first to act, someone with AQ, with a flop of K73, is going to put you all in...you gonna fold or call?

Push preflop, there's nothing wrong with taking the pot right there...and you'll get called by AK, maybe AQ, maybe even AJ, AT, KQ, and probably most pocket pairs.

I agree, if you are not going to push all-in with JJ when will you. You are a short stack and that is the only play to have a chance to win pre-flop or possibly double up.

If you are playing just to cash, then fold (but do not do that!).

definately not the time to get cute w/ your hand.

push allin, get called by a-j, double up

Push.

Too easy.

I'll take some heat from the purists on this, but I believe in using the same tools that everyone else has at their disposal. Take your full complement of time before pushing, and, assuming you survive, kill time on all of your decisions until the blinds increase.

Even though the increase doesnt put any other stack in immediate jeopardy, the increased size of the pot is going to make it more likely that a big stack will call a push from another small stack and you want as many of those small stacks to subject to that as possible before it gets back around to you.

I like to play fast and see as many hands as possible at this point. I push a lot here and am looking to time it so that I get called with the best hand and hopefully double up.

Playing fast seems better to me particularly since the big stacks aren't too big to not be hurt by losing to your all in. You should be able to capture enough blinds to lay low for a couple orbits in the near future and see if someone busts.

Guess this was an easier question than I thought.

I did end up pushing, but I wasn't sure if I had enough chips in play to make a different move.

(I did end up losing the hand. SB, the shortest stack, calls with KK and doubles up, leaving me with barely enough chips to ante. This isn't why I was asking the question, but I did wonder, "How many chips do you need to have in order to not go all-in here?")

I think you're right on the bubble of a push/fold stack, but I definitely push here with the antes. You're going all in no matter what here pf, because if he reraises, there's no way you can fold with JJ. Just push pf, hope someone calls with Ax, and hope for the best. I would probably need 5k+ to not autopush this hand.

I agree with Zimmer. 5000 chips is the lowest total I don't push with here. At this blind level, I like to open bet 1000 chips (2 1/2 x BB).

I say you splash that pot as quick as you can..... push that junk and hope it holds up...

What's the point of taking as much time as possible when there is only one table and you slow down the whole table? That's only going to make the blinds a bigger factor and you won't see as many hands before they get larger.

I thought I said it pretty clearly, but I'll go into more detail. With two minutes to go and an average hand at this level taking less than 45 seconds you want the blinds to increase just after yours or at worst when you are in the SB. That maximizes the number of hands that 4 other small stacks are going to face before your next blinds.

They are now under even more pressure to go all in because M's have dropped from the increase, but the bigger stacks have better odds to call their all ins with an extra 475 in dead money.

The next level is going to eliminate 2 or more players, and you have the best chance of not being one of them by starting out in late position.