I've been busting out of a lot of tourneys in the early stages lately and I'm wondering if I could stand to work on my early stage game a little bit.

This hand comes about 40 minutes into a Stars 180-man SnG.

blinds are 25/50 and I'm in the BB. I have 1540 before I post the blind.

Folded around to the CO who makes it 200 to go, he has a bit over 5k, I think he's been getting some hands to get that stack, but I have been paying great attention so I'm not sure.

I have TT. What do you do and why?

I just call.

I don't think there's enough value in a push because the range he calls you with sux for you relative to the chips you win when he folds

If you raise to 600 and he comes over the top, you'll be getting over 2:1.
But, knowing what You know then, would you like it?

folding is silly.

There are three choices here:

1. raise to 500 or so. You arent quite pot committed so if he reraises you have to make a decision whether to push back or fold. If he just calls then you are fairly short stacked and OOP, but the flop is going to dictate whether you continue the hand anyway.

2. push upfront. Youre a pretty small stack for 40 minutes in, hes in steal position and youre going to take it down a lot of the time, and get called by worse or racing hands a lot of the time. You dont have to worry about playing a hand OOP with overcard flops.

3. stop and go. Call and push no matter what the flop is. That can pick up fold equity , but is that what youre really interested in...the pot as it is?


I go for 2 this far below average stack.

I'm not familar enough to realize we were far below ave.
But with M ~ 20, do we care that much?

I see a push as winning 275 a lot.
And losing everything 60-70% of the time he calls
now how often he calls i don't know.

We can't see a flop and fold or push depending?

6 Man STT>
I have Ave Stack, 2000

Blinds 20/40

folds to Button who is only real above ave stack with 4100.
She raises to 250
I push with TT.

My only read was she min open-raised Aces earlier from MP.

So, see, I don't post like I play

Nah, with STT I think the chips gained are more meaningful relative to the risk

Plus her over bet screamed AK or 77-JJ

40 minutes into a 180 average stack is probably double 1500 or more...certainly by the first break its 3500 or so. Its not desperate with an M of 20 by any means, and i think the choices are close.


On the push I think his calling range is wide enough that we might be a slight favorite to a call, certainly not as bad as a 70:30 dog.

The reason I dont like calling and seeing the flop (not stop and go) is there are so few flops that TT is going to play well against for 3 streets OOP against a possible steal raise. Its likely to be either overcards, none of which you can discount, or low card draws and set possibilities. He is going to have solid control over the hand.

With what is likely to be the best hand preflop Id rather get the money in than let him see the flop.

you always have good arguments.

looks like we give the CO a different calling range, primarily

Let's say CO calls with most pairs, AK, maybe AQ or AJ. Almost never a hand that we have dominated unless maybe it's an underpair. Does that change things any? I tend to think not.

I like what Copernicus said about not likeing taking a flop because there aren't many good flops for TT. Let's say we call and take a flop; how do we know if it's a good flop? Now we're out of position with very little idea of where we stand. I hate that option.

I also dislike raising less than all-in, if villain pushes over the top we have to fold and now we're shortstacked and may end up in a worse spot when it's entirely possible villain will push over the top with a hand we're ahead of. If villain calls our pre-flop re-raise we're in the same boat as if we had called, but now the pot is bigger and we're pretty much committed to the hand unless the flop really sucks. Again though, it's gonna be hard for us to know what a good flop is.

After thinking it through like that and reading some of this, I think I'm siding with Copernicus. I think the push is probably best.

I'd think any flop without an Ace or two Broadways is pushable.
Not like 1300 is unplayable

I'm just talking here

I don't totally disagree with you, but let's say we take a flop. It comes Jd5c6c, we can't push all-in b/c the pot is too small. So we lead out for like 300. CO raises all-in...does he have the Jack, a set, a draw? I just think it's a really tough spot to put oneself in. Again, I can see the argument. Pushing seems like a pretty big overbet and we're likely looking at a coinflip at best. In a cash game it's an easy call.

why can't you push the J flop ?

I agree with Copernicus that pushing looks like the best play. At 40 minutes in you may have an M of 20, but in 5 minutes the blinds raise and it will be an M of 10.

threw me off a little but ill assume you meant to say that you HAVEN'T been paying attention to the action and now you have no read on the villian. not a good place to start, your only assuming he caught hands. While actually he could be a spuer donkey who hit a 2 outer to win a big pot early on...

but if we had to play without a read, I'd just push it in.

villian is in the cutoff and its folded around to him, a lot of players with a big stack here are going to play some hands and try to steal blinds with very weak hands. chances are likely he does not have a pair better than 10's.

if he has 2 overcards, than its a race and you are the slim favorite to double up. that would be a nice result given your stack size. If you lose, than oh well, you have to win most of your races anyway if you plan to make the final table.

if he has an underpair (anything from 22-99), then you are probably really happy right now going in as a 4 to 1 favorite. also a hand you could very likely put the villian on.

lastly, he could have garbage hands like Ax, Kx, Qx, xx, and hes just playing his position. He probably will fold here if he knows what he is doing, but if he calls, than you should be happy that he did and pray the cards fall your way

yeah, easy push for me.