Are races good for you?

[Bloopie]

Just wondering what your opinions are on races...
For instance, I pick up 77 on the button, it's folded to me and I raise 3xBB. SB folds, BB goes all-in. My read on this guy tells me he has AK/AQ/AJ/AT.
I know I am a slight favorite, but I still feel more comfortable with the overcards in this position, just because when the A hits the flop you're always like "but of course..." and then you're dead in the water.

Do I shove back?

[fjuanl]

This is incredibly situation dependent. Could be either a insta-call or insta-fold depending on blinds/stack sizes etc. Post a specific hand and you'll get better comments

[Bloopie]

Start of SNG, 9 players left. Both at around 1500 chips. One guy with a pair, other guy with overcards. Worth the risk?

[gametight]

not if you know how to play poker

[Bloopie]

In late stages of MTTs, shoving with any pair or AK/AQ is standard. Is that not poker then?

[TLR]

Early in the Sng it is not worth it if there is little dead money in the pot, because doubling your stack does not mean doubling you chance to make money

[taipan168]

For instance, I pick up 77 on the button, it's folded to me and I raise 3xBB. SB folds, BB goes all-in. My read on this guy tells me he has AK/AQ/AJ/AT.
I know I am a slight favorite, but I still feel more comfortable with the overcards in this position, just because when the A hits the flop you're always like "but of course..." and then you're dead in the water.

In this case, you should fold for the reason that TLR gave - in a tournament, doubling your stack does not necessarily mean that you double your share of the prize pool. The same would of course apply if you reverse the situation and give yourself AT-AK and BB the pocket pair.

[Bloopie]

For instance, I pick up 77 on the button, it's folded to me and I raise 3xBB. SB folds, BB goes all-in. My read on this guy tells me he has AK/AQ/AJ/AT.
I know I am a slight favorite, but I still feel more comfortable with the overcards in this position, just because when the A hits the flop you're always like "but of course..." and then you're dead in the water.

In this case, you should fold for the reason that TLR gave - in a tournament, doubling your stack does not necessarily mean that you double your share of the prize pool. The same would of course apply if you reverse the situation and give yourself AT-AK and BB the pocket pair.

With AK/AQ I insta-shove here, is it wrong of me to prefer AK/AQ over pocket pairs?

[TLR]

For instance, I pick up 77 on the button, it's folded to me and I raise 3xBB. SB folds, BB goes all-in. My read on this guy tells me he has AK/AQ/AJ/AT.
I know I am a slight favorite, but I still feel more comfortable with the overcards in this position, just because when the A hits the flop you're always like "but of course..." and then you're dead in the water.

In this case, you should fold for the reason that TLR gave - in a tournament, doubling your stack does not necessarily mean that you double your share of the prize pool. The same would of course apply if you reverse the situation and give yourself AT-AK and BB the pocket pair.

With AK/AQ I insta-shove here, is it wrong of me to prefer AK/AQ over pocket pairs?

Assuming you know villian has exactly PP<=QQ (i.e. its a race) in this scenario you should fold

[taipan168]

With AK/AQ I insta-shove here, is it wrong of me to prefer AK/AQ over pocket pairs?

I'm assuming you're on the Button with AK/AQ and BB shoves over? In that case it all depends on what you think BB's range is. If he shows you a pocket pair face up then you have to fold it, you're not even a favourite chip wise (let alone taking into account the ICM effect):

equity win tie
Hand 0: 45.016% 44.84% 00.18% { AKo }
Hand 1: 54.984% 54.80% 00.18% { 77 }

Of course, in a real game they (almost) never show you their cards face up, so it becomes read dependent as to whether to fold or call.

[RML604]

For a detailed discussion of this exact topic, check out the first chapter of Sit 'n Go Strategy by Collin Moshman.

If it's the first hand of a SnG, and two players go all in, one showing QQ and the other showing AK, both players are losing equity. That lost equity is being evenly spread amongst the remaining 7 or so players at the table.

[drmcboy]

it is not logical to prefer AK because an ace always comes.

It IS logical to prefer AK over mid PPs because you're only dead to AA and sometimes you'll see a worse ace, whereas with 88 you're in bad shape against more pairs and still only 50/50 vs the overs (people are a lot more likely to shove AQ than 66). AQ not so much since now you have to worry about AK - although even there AQ vs AK is much better than 88 vs QQ.

Also if we see a flop you'll usually have easier decisions with AK.

Also note what TLR said, the price you are getting is important. If you re raise with AK and get shoved on, often the dead money is enough to make it worth the gamble, especially after the first two levels or if the raise was large to begin with. Of course, you also need to adjust your range for villain.

[mcdonough22]

races early = bad
races late = good (mostly)

[JKDS]

heres a specific one!

final table of a 400 player $2.2 rebuy

lerty5 is at seat 2 with 114035.
Villain is at seat 3 with 385620.
HERO is at seat 4 with 229690.
tisuwheel is at seat 6 with 376640.
flamenca is at seat 8 with 323950.
PLAYWITHMY is at seat 9 with 1651065.
The button is at seat 4.

posts ante of 2000

flamenca posts the small blind of 10000.
PLAYWITHMY posts the big blind of 20000.


HERO : 9s 9h


Pre-flop:

lerty5 folds. jraud raises to 82000 HERO...

btw, he never plays pp's this way, so im almost certain its AJ+
doubling up puts me in 2nd, and a little closer to the dominating chip leader while also creating another short stack. M of 6ish vs M of 9ish (rough estimation).

[fjuanl]

I'm not an MTT player but I would definetly be shoving 99 there against an unknown. Its also pretty hard to assume any player is only raising AJ+ and no pairs. Opp could be raising reaaly wide here

[Nakamura]

Mmm, in the hand posted above I'm almost certainly getting all my chips in. It's quite a different example as there are only 6 players left, and it's quite possible it's a CO steal.

Facing a reraise all-in right at the start of a tourney I'm insta-folding 99. It's a coin flip, unless the villian is holding an underpair. If he is holding 10 10+, you are in extemely bad shape.