What's Your Play?

[Khabbi]

Reads: No one is playing especially outstanding. The table is pretty tight. I've already taken down a couple smaller pots with standard continuation bets, but I've also had to give up after the flop when I hit nothing and have had callers betting out ahead of me.

Game #1198325023 (Level IV, Game #7) - 30/60 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/01/05-22:16:53.0 (CST)
Table "Maroubra" ($5 tournament) -- Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: syller (1,480.00 in chips)
Seat 2: tombstone_95 (420.00 in chips)
Seat 3: shast (2,795.00 in chips)
Seat 5: Diavola (1,800.00 in chips)
Seat 6: nottakenname (760.00 in chips)
Seat 7: leo7788 (1,730.00 in chips)
Seat 8: monkybiz (550.00 in chips)
Seat 9: Me Numba 1 (465.00 in chips)
nottakenname: Post Small Blind (30)
leo7788 : Post Big Blind (60)
Dealt to nottakenname [ As ]
Dealt to nottakenname [ Kd ]
monkybiz: Call (60)
Me Numba 1: Fold
syller : Call (60)
tombstone_95: Call (60)
shast : Fold
Diavola : Call (60)
nottakenname: ???

[MAX]

I Push here.

[GatorJH]

You are in bad position with what is most likely the best hand at the moment so you have to raise, if for no other reason than to eliminate players. The question is do you put in a standard raise or do you push?

The pot is currently at 330, and two of the players have short stacks with yours not much better. The minimum raise here should be in the neighborhood of 250-300, which would leave you with just under 500 chips. Dangerously close to critical, but not dead yet. I also don't see how you could lay once you get that far into the hand.

I think a push is the right answer here.

[Khabbi]

I thought this was an interesting hand because even if I wasn't short-stacked, I don't know how much the answer would change.

I have 5 limpers ahead of my SB. After the first earlylimpers, guys are probably thinking their suited gappers are looking good on pot odds and calling with weak hands.

AKo is a horrible hand to play out of position against multiple opponents, so I want to bet enough to ensure I get it down to at least 2, preferably 1 other player.

I figured my standard raise would take me to about 300 chips. I figure the shorties are pretty much a non-issue. If they are going to call 300, they are going to be pushing after me and I'm going to be calling that. I didn't want to make the pot look juicy for them becaseu I wanted to get this pot heads up.

I figured my only option was the push, so I went for it.

[GatorJH]

I thought this was an interesting hand because even if I wasn't short-stacked, I don't know how much the answer would change.

One thing I may do differently if my stack were near the chip leaders would be to bet the exact amount as the higher of the two short stacks. That would appear like I am sending a message that says - I have a strong enough hand to take you out of the tourney so I am targeting you specifically.

What happened after the push?

[Khabbi]

It doesn't matter what happened after the push (see I Don't Want This to Become a Bad Beat Thread).

But seriously, I got my dream caller... A8s. I figured I might get something like that to call. I was thinking AQ or AJ, but there's really no dif. He made a flush and I went to bed.

[GatorJH]

Oh well, at least you went to bed knowing you made the right move.

Good post.