when is 50-50 a good bet

[bellkev]

this is something that i debate alot still. this is directed more for tournament play without rebuys.

what odds are worth a call. an example would be you are on a 99, or TT and a shorter stack opponent is going all-in. you know they have over cards, do you call? do you protect your stack....

so far i have had more luck protecting my stack from these shorter stacks trying to double up and waiting for odds closer to 70-30 before risking it. of course if it is around 2xbb to call then it is not a question.

50-50 odds are good for a short stack, with the possibility of picking up the blinds or doubleing up and getting back into the tournament, but it seems much risky for a larger stack...

just wondering what others think.

[michael1123]

It really depends how small of a stack they are compared to you. If you just have twice their stack, I'd fold, and if I had 5 times their stack, I'd call.

Can you afford to lose that many chips without it hurting to badly? If so, its probably worth a call if you're almost positive its a coinflip. Now, calling with 22 when it may likely be a coinflip, but could easily be a huge dog to a slight overpair, that's a different matter.

[Krapp]

I generally wouldnt put my money in on a 50/50, heads-up against a short stack. Your pot odds are equal and you should wait until the pot odds or more favarable. A couple of caviats:

(1) If your on the final 10-table or playing single-table tournies, you could consider the coin-flip since knocking your opp out is always a good thing to do.
(2) If short stack is signficantly less than yours (<20% in my opinion), I might consider calling.
(3) Overall, I probably wouldnt consider I had a 50/50 shot unless I had 7/7+ or AJ+.
(4) With less players remaining, the better this call is. Especially, if knocking this person-out means placing in money
(5) If the Blinds are big enough to get 2to1+ pot odds, calling is a bit easier.

Interesting enough, there might be other reasons where you dont want to call. I might think not calling them if they are to my right and play tight/conservative. Meaning your have a better chance recovering your blinds. Esepcially true if the opp to their right is a loose/agressive blind stealer. Knocking the tight opp out means youll have a tougher time defending the blinds in later play.

[thnl]

in my strategy with a 50/50 and all in by opponent. if you take the total amount of money that both of you have as 100% if you lose and the opponent doubles their stack if you still have 60% of the total money id easily do it. anything less than 60% and you would have to figure the type of player, and position as mentioned by others earlier.

[Xianti]

{Moved from Hold'em Strategies}