Do you like these pushes? 90man KO bubble

[baudib]

I admit these are a little nutty, especially the first (sometimes they snap call with J9s), but I read weakness all the way. I had been playing really tight here and rarely raising a hand. We're down to final two tables of 90-man KO tournament.

The oversized steal attempts in the last two look like marginal hands that can't stand a reraise and certainly don't want to see a flop. I think I am crushing them there as put them on a range of 22-77, QJs, KT-KQ, A2-AT. Pot odds demand calls on them with any real hand and they folded. I think small pocket pairs are most likely. What kind of hand do you raise 4.5xBB UTG and fold?

Although maybe not the TT hand. That was a little nerve-wracking as he tanked a long time. I also asked him if he had JJ to make him think I'm stronger than that (unethical?).

These hands plus a monster pot with QQ where I dodged an AQs Royal Flush draw helped propel me to first in this.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$24 + $2 KO Sit & Go
8 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG shanedapain57 (13065)
UTG+1 AKChip13 (9204)
MP1 bigballs219 (15450)
MP2 stonecoldcaser (5169)
CO LaidBackAl (14567)
BTN YO MAMMY1 (12955)
SB tireddog (20472)
BB Hero (10575)

Blinds: 300/600 Ante 75

Pre-flop: (1,500, 8 players) Hero is BB
5 folds, YO MAMMY1 calls 600, tireddog calls 300, Hero goes all-in 10,500, YO MAMMY1 folds, tireddog folds

Final Pot: 2,400

Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG bigballs219 (15275)
UTG+1 stonecoldcaser (4994)
MP1 LaidBackAl (14392)
MP2 YO MAMMY1 (12180)
CO tireddog (19697)
BTN Hero (11800)
SB shanedapain57 (14090)
BB AKChip13 (9029)
[bigballs219 is sitting out]

Blinds: 400/800 Ante 100

Pre-flop: (2,000, 8 players) Hero is BTN
4 folds, tireddog raises to 3,800, Hero goes all-in 11,700, 2 folds, Hero says "JJ?", tireddog folds

Final Pot: 9,600



7 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG YO MAMMY1 (18055)
UTG+1 tireddog (11443)
MP Hero (15075)
CO shanedapain57 (9940)
BTN AKChip13 (12889)
SB stonecoldcaser (4813)
BB LaidBackAl (14067)

Blinds: 500/1000 Ante 125

Pre-flop: (2,375, 7 players) Hero is MP
YO MAMMY1 raises to 4,375, 1 fold, Hero goes all-in 14,950, 4 folds, YO MAMMY1 folds

Final Pot: 11,125

[fjuanl]

The 2nd and 3rd look good. 1st is a little too nuts with or without a read imo

[bigspenda73]

the 1st one might be the worst shove I've seen since last night when donkthorne shipped 99 over a nit's UTG minraise with 12BBs.

[mcatdog]

2nd one is good, 3rd one is probably slightly bad, 1st one is LOL just transfer someone your bankroll and get it over with. Sorry to be harsh.

[baudib]

It's OK, I didn't think it was sane. That was the one I was most comfortable with not getting called. The TT was a real nailbiter and I regretted the 88 immediately but she instafolded.

[mcatdog]

It's OK, I didn't think it was sane. That was the one I was most comfortable with not getting called.

I sure hope so, since that one has to work more than 75% of the time to be good, and the other ones are good even if they work only a little bit (or in the TT case, it's still good even if he never folds).

Calling the TT hand a "nail biter" just shows huge misconceptions about what you're trying to do by shoving there, you're way ahead of his calling range so you shouldn't be biting your nails hoping he folds, you should be hoping he calls. The way you talk about the hand makes it sound like you were bluffing with TT.

[baudib]

I know my thinking may be bad here but it's definitely a spot I'm happy if he folds, and it occurred to me he MIGHT have JJ.

I love NL Hold'em because I enjoy utilizing FE, but helplessly watching as the cards fall is not my favorite part of the game.

[bigspenda73]

if he had JJ you would have known about it

[baudib]

I agree.

[mcatdog]

I love NL Hold'em because I enjoy getting my money in with the best hand, but shoving all-in and helplessly watching to see if he calls is not my favorite part of the game.

There's really no difference. Whether your hand holds up or gets sucked out on, vs. whether your resteal runs into the bottom of his range or the top of his range, is just a different kind of luck. As usual you're being results oriented and attributing successful resteals to "skill" just because they happened to work that time.

[dthorne04]

I love NL Hold'em because I enjoy getting my money in with the best hand, but shoving all-in and helplessly watching to see if he calls is not my favorite part of the game.

There's really no difference. Whether your hand holds up or gets sucked out on, vs. whether your resteal runs into the bottom of his range or the top of his range, is just a different kind of luck. As usual you're being results oriented and attributing successful resteals to "skill" just because they happened to work that time.

this.

baudib, you have some serious flaws in your logic and the way you think about the game.

also, diagf spenda. i'm well aware that was bad.

[dthorne04]

also i'm gonna echo everyone else and say the 23o hand is fucking dreadful.

[baudib]

The way I think about the game is to try to make the right decisions based on each situation. Sometimes the cards don't have anything to do about it; most of the time the cards have everything to do about it.

I would be perfectly happy knowing I got it in way ahead of his range and if he calls with KJo, fine. I just don't enjoy having to sweat the five cards knowing that I made the right decision, he made a bad decision, but it still comes down to a coinflip.

I know we talk about ranges and the EV of each situation...Believe me, I have a ton of experience in shoving vs. weak passives. I realize sometimes the button limps AA here but I felt there was 2,400 chips there for the taking that I desperately needed and I wasn't going to blind out on another bubble. I don't think it was a smart play at all but it was something that needed to be done.

[bigspenda73]

I know we talk about ranges and the EV of each situation...

we do, you, don't

[baudib]

I appreciate all the feedback guys. I thought that the 32o hand was similar to pushing ATC from SB into BB, except that I had a bit more information in that both villains thought their hands were not worthy of a raise. Do you like it if I have 87s?

I've been having too much success/luck lately and I know that variance will even out. I'd rather make better decisions than get a big head about getting away with stupid plays.

[DoanDiggy]

I sure hope so, since that one has to work more than 75% of the time to be good

Actually, IMO, this can work less than 75% and still be good. I think it has a few nice implications:

1. We are letting people know our blinds aren't cheap... we should get a few more walks in the future.

2. We are setting ourselves up to shove a big hand later and get called.

3. If we get called by top 10%, we're still better than 25% to win it, and we put the big-stacked caller and maybe the whole table on mega-tilt against us.

Still, it's obviously super-spew. If we want to make a play here, I much prefer to simply raise it up to like 3000 and then show after they fold. It accomplishes the same exact thing as the 3 points above without risking our tournament lives, and it still gives us a chance to win postflop with the worst hand (if we're really feeling crazy, which we obviously are since we're shoving 32o).