Quick question
It's bubble time in 1.00 sit n go, and I find myself with pocket 4's on the button, I raised it to 450 (blinds 75/150) and get min re-raised by villain who can at best be described as a fish..... is this an insta-fold? Or call and see a flop?? Stacks are pretty short Hero:1760, Villain 2405.
Comments
If outplaying him postflop fails and he raises you can always just close your eyes and hit the call button if you want to, then the result would be the same as if you would have shoved preflop, just don't see any way he's folding before the flop.
If you would have doubled up though, and end up making him fold on the flop just staying alive is still worth more than the few extra chips you would have won, especially so against a fish, and in a bubble situation
Here is my rationale...
SNG poker is very ABC especially at the lower levels. Everyone knows the basic strategy and especially around the bubble people are looking to exploit mistakes. Your raise on the button although correct looks like a steal to SB and BB, I would be making the same move with a higher pair 88+...44 IMO is not strong enough to play even post flop. The reason being is usually around the bubble stack sizes and blind levels are at their critical point.
I rather play push fold poker (once again dependant on stack sizes) because I don't want to see a flop where I have to fold to a stop and go...IE anything but a 4 hits the flop and I get shoved on (even if villian misses I can't call)
Stealing is much more profitable from early/cutoff positions cause you can open your range a bit more and it looks like you have a legit hand because people's perceptions are different when another player opens from that position rather than the button.
Once again its highly situational but at this point being min-raised usually means a bigger pair than 4s...and he is looking for you to go over the top because most likely at that point you are committed based on what is in the middle
Shove Pre = ok.
Fold Pre = ok.
I lean towards a shove, depending on stack sizes of the blinds.
BlackMagicz, you are the man, and I actually sort of followed Richards advice, I opted to call to see if he looked weak on the flop, it came down A K 5r, he checked, and I moved all in to try and take him of his higher pair, of course he called though and tabled 9's.....
Shame on me for trying to bluff a donk!
I personally hate calling off my stack with low pocket pairs.
If you analyze this instance further you will find that most As or Ks shove preflop so he took that out of your range. Also the way the hand played out cause you opted to call and not re-pop he removed 10s+ from your range so 99 at that point was an easy call for him unless you are tricky and like to shove with monsters. (I like doing that..its fun to watch people call off what they think are bluffs....)
Don't worry about the result, keep improving and you will find that your situation reading becomes a lot better and you can put people on hands right away.
May I suggest 2 books that I just finished reading which helped my game a bit with this sort of analysis.
Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em by Collin Moshman
Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time - Pearljammer/Apestyles/Rizen
You will find these books talk a lot about online play and hand reading with good situational analysis of actual hands from tournies.
I have found Collin's book really good at preflop/post flop evaluation in SNGs as most times you will be heads up with someone after the flop so you can adjust and play them accordingly.