am i a fool?

[Tomazores]

Let me first say I greatly appreciate the advice and strategies I have learned from reading the posts here and a couple of the books y'all recommend. It has helped my play immensely, and I probably wouldn't have made it to the final table if not for your help. So, I get to the final table of a Party Poker $6 nl tourney (998 entrants). A couple of goes around the table and I have 220,000 chips, blinds are 10,000/20,000. Big stack is around 500,000 and there are 2 people w less chips than me. I am dealt ATs utg+2, best thing I've seen in a while. Folded to me, and I didn't want to 3BB raise for that would leave me with only 160,000 so I figured my best bet is either fold or push. I decide push, figuring AQ and AJ will probably not call, and that only AK, or a PP would call. I am basically on a blind steal here, at least that is what I was thinking.

So, what do y'all think? Stupid, marginal, or ok? For the record, 1st paid 1100, 10th paid 50. Any advice or criticism is welcome. I'll tell you the results of my play later.

[Hartlin]

I definitely pick a much better spot to push for blinds. Raising would be fine, raise to 50k (2.5x) will do the same as a 60k (3x) raise as well.

Why won't AQ call you? The bigstack won't call you with AQ?

What if a short stack (say 1/2 your stack or 2/3) calls you with 77? You have 3 outs (3 aces). Not a good position at all. Any shortstack with a decent PP is going to probably gamble with you here.

I wait for a better hand to make this push, losing your blinds will put you to 190k, a big enough chip stack to do damage to ANYONE willing to call you.

[fasin8ing]

At least you thought first. If you wanna base all that work on pushing A 10 .. I wish you the best .. FT 998 entrants.. look how hard you worked dude.. for a UTG push of A T . If you lost , sorry .. If you won .. you got lucky.

[taipan168]

Bump to MTT forum...

[vqc]

moved from STT

[drmcboy]

it's not terrible. Unless 3x is being consistently called, I would go with that instead.

What if a short stack (say 1/2 your stack or 2/3) calls you with 77?You have 3 outs

equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 54.0624 % 53.88% 00.18% { 77 }
Hand 2: 45.9376 % 45.75% 00.18% { ATs, ATo }

[Tomazores]

Hartlin wrote:

Why won't AQ call you? The bigstack won't call you with AQ?

What if a short stack (say 1/2 your stack or 2/3) calls you with 77? You have 3 outs (3 aces). Not a good position at all. Any shortstack with a decent PP is going to probably gamble with you here.


Well, I don't know if I would call an ai w/AQ and risk half my stack at that point. As for the short stack w/77, ATs has 6 outs, but that is irrelevant, bottom line, you are correct, I should have waited for a better spot. Fasin8ing pretty much said it all; those were the same questions I was asking myself after I did it, although, believe it or not, I didn't get lucky! Someone who had just taken a big hit must have been on tilt cause she called me with A8o, and sure enough, spiked her 8 on the river and sent me packing with a measly 50 bucks. Bummer. A lot of work for 50 bucks.

Thanks for the replys. I was just reading someone else thread concerning final table strategies and I think that was pretty much what happened to me too. I was so excited to be at the final table I got a little impatient. Oh well, another lesson learned to hopefully apply in the future.

[Sprayed]

I am dealt ATs utg+2, best thing I've seen in a while.

Don't think like this. I know it's tempting. ATs is not a bad hand to make a push with in EP. However, if there are some shorties I may wait or make a 3 banger raise. You wanted the call from the A8o and you were a favorite going to the flop. Chock this up to experience and open up another one.

[Anaemik]

You got unlucky with the best hand - but you got lucky to have the best hand in this position in the first place. Apart from donks who call with A8, I can't think of any hand that calls your raise that you are beating here. Others may disagree, but I'd be tempted to call here and see what comes out on the flop. If the action is quiet, you might have picked up the pot with a bet on the flop, especially with only SB and BB behind you, and A8 in front of you, who would have had a hard time calling a flop that completely missed their hand. Just a thought.

[chardrian]

If you have actually waited a couple of orbits at the final table and it is still full - I like the push here.

ATs is a very good hand - it's very vulnerable yes, but very good as well. I don't know if party has antes, but even if it doesn't you are talking about close to 15% of your stack by just taking the blinds.

You could just raise 3x here and hope to steal and then go into push/fold. But with your chip stack in relation to the blinds (i.e. an M of 7) I have absolutely no problem with your push here.