Push ace-crap here?

[Jimmy Mac]

In the $3 rebuy on stars. I havent been at the table long, its been playing tight so far. I have yet to play a hand. Should I push these with an M of just under 5?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

BB (t17440)
UTG (t22529)
UTG+1 (t37153)
MP1 (t11495)
Hero (t11596)
MP3 (t12350)
CO (t13759)
Button (t29768)
SB (t98039)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, 6.
3 folds. Hero ?.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)

CO (t17890)
Button (t20504)
SB (t35728)
BB (t11270)
Hero (t11371)
UTG+1 (t14600)
MP1 (t13534)
MP2 (t28343)
MP3 (t100889)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 5, A.

Push this or wait?

[TrAdam5]

I personally would wait for a beter spot. With an m of around 5, I'm open pushing whatever I am playing, but I 'm not so desperate yet that I am pushing something so easily dominated as a-6 or a5 from mid position or utg (I do that around 3 or 4 m normally). If you were on the button, maybe even cutoff, I say push, but wait for a better spot with the a6 hand from mp.
The utg spot is a little tougher because your m is about to go down, but I still wait there. Your m will still be 4 after the blinds pass, and if you don't get a real hand in the next 8 or so hands, then next time ur utg or utg+1 u can push with crap (pushing there with 8-6 off really is only slightly worse than pushing a hand than a5, as 8 6 is better off against any big a ,while a 5 does better against 88 plus, kq , etc.). But I dont think your quite that bad off yet, give yourself a couple more hands to pick up a real hand.

[drmcboy]

I push one or the other, not both.

[Sprayed]

Hand 1 is a better push situation, but it's not great since you are pushing into the big stack. What are your reads on the players left to act? I don't think that you really need to push just yet.

Hand 2 is a no push for me since you are UTG and there are way too many people to go through. Also, your stack can afford to go through the blinds.

In both scenarios, the best situation would be on the BU or the SB and all fold to you and you push with any two.

[soupie]

A push isnt your only choice. In hand one, you can raise to about 4K and push any flop if you get called. Obviously you have to call preflop if you get raised. A standard raise looks a bit stronger in that spot. I would raise/push in hand 1 because the BB is the perfect stack to raise and will not call with out a big hand usually with a 7M stack. Hand 2 is too many bridges to cross UTG.

All in all, when you get moved to a new table, your first raise is the one that will likely get the most respect. I would tend to not want to squander it on a good hand. Of course, in a 3 dollar rebuy, you cant always depend on your opponents to appreciate or understand any concept beyond what 2 cards are in front of them.

All in all, here is my tiebreaker, if a decision is a close call and the answer is not clear, go with the more aggressive choice. In the long run you will win more tourneys that way, you may make the money less, but you will win more.

Cheers

[Jimmy Mac]

Thanx for the responses chaps. I ended up folding both of these but I often wonder if i wait a little too long - such a huge field in this thing card camping wont the job done.

I hadn't considered raising less than all in, but it's something I'm going to think about. Sucks if they stop & go, but I guess this isn't in many ppls playbooks at this level.