What would you do?

crazykobycrazykoby
in Poker Strategy
I’m curious to find out how other players would have played this hand.

Live Tournament. 110 players to start. 17 players left. Top 10 make money.

Blinds 1000/2000 with a 100 ante

UTG +2 raises to 5400. He is the current chip leader and has roughly 120,000 in chips. He has been using his stack to bully a lot.

Folded around to you. You are in the hijack seat. You have AQ suited hearts. And you have 26K in chips.

What is your play?

Comments

  • STR82ACESTR82ACE
    Easy push. You're sitting with 13BB and need a double up to get back into the game. Villain is aggressive enough to have almost anything here, and you have a premium hand.
  • JohnnieHJohnnieH
    STR82ACE wrote: »
    Easy push. You're sitting with 13BB and need a double up to get back into the game. Villain is aggressive enough to have almost anything here, and you have a premium hand.

    +1

    You need more chips to make the money, let alone go for the win.
  • JimmyHoJimmyHo
    crazykoby wrote: »
    He has been using his stack to bully a lot

    If you push, do you think he will call? There is a difference between being the bully and raising vs calling an all-in. I assume you want him to call your push, so is he the kind of player that might fold to the re-raise? If he is, you might want to see the flop in position and pray you hit an Q or A and he comes out firing. Out of position I am more inclined to push and see all five cards.
  • crazykobycrazykoby
    STR82ACE wrote: »
    Easy push. You're sitting with 13BB and need a double up to get back into the game. Villain is aggressive enough to have almost anything here, and you have a premium hand.

    this is exactly how i played it, unfortunely Villain had KK. I'm just curious if i could have played this another way.
  • UnknownUnknown
    pokerJAH wrote: »
    I assume you want him to call your push, so is he the kind of player that might fold to the re-raise? If he is, you might want to see the flop in position and pray you hit an Q or A and he comes out firing.
    I think the opposite, if hes gonna call regardless i still probably push but not so happy being close to the money. I'm a lot happier if i think he will likely fold....but with 7 left to the bubble and 13bbs were kinda far from the money

    edit: well im kinda being stupid, hes not folding
  • STR82ACESTR82ACE
    pokerJAH wrote: »
    If you push, do you think he will call? There is a difference between being the bully and raising vs calling an all-in. I assume you want him to call your push, so is he the kind of player that might fold to the re-raise? If he is, you might want to see the flop in position and pray you hit an Q or A and he comes out firing. Out of position I am more inclined to push and see all five cards.

    You want him to fold to your push here most of the time. If he's bullying the table, 3bet shove here will net you his bet plus the blinds/antes, and with AQ that's fine. If he does call a shove, you still have some outs. Raise here pot commits you so you may as well shove, because you're NOT raise-folding. You have no fold equity in this hand.
  • djgolfcandjgolfcan
    Its one of those ugly situations you get into. You really don't have a choice but to push and pray your hand holds up. You need chips to make it to the money, there is no stop n go play with your stack size. Shoving is/was your only option and you got unlucky to run into a monster.

    The reverse happened to me last month at Buzzards, final two tables, I had KK, shoved and was called by AQ - runner, runner queens to knock me out. Sorry you couldn't have gotten the same luck.
  • crazykobycrazykoby
    I know that shoving was the right play. I'm interested to find out if there is anyone who sees a different way to play this hand with a logical argument for why.
  • SteveKerrSteveKerr
    It really depends on what position he was in when the chip leader was using his stack to bully. Like on the button? behind button +1 or +2?, in the blinds when everyone has folded?, has he been doing it a lot in middle position?

    If he hasn't been bullying in middle position, I would think he has a premium hand AJ+, or 10's+, maybe even lower pocket pair.

    If you just call then you are still left with 10x the big blind and have a full round of just paying antes to hope for a better spot where you are first to raise or push all in. If you hit a Q or A then you are all in, if you hit nothing then you fold to chip leaders bet, and wait for what I just said above. That is the only other way I see playing this hand.

    Also the average stack is about 32,500 at this point and you are not to far below this, meaning there are a few other players that are well below you in chips.

    Now with that all said, I probably would have pushed all in as well. But you wanted to know if there was any other way to play this hand.
  • MCflip73MCflip73
    IMO, there are many ways to play a hand…, always!!! That’s the good thing about the game and that every situation from one player to the next is different. Personally, I do not believe that one move over the other is far superior or better or right or wrong. It’s all about you, the player(s) and the situation.

    Having said that, and If I was in your situation, I am thinking 7 away from the money with 13bb, my goal here is to make it to the money (being ohhh so close) and then we’ll evaluate later. Receiving a superior hand like AQ on this spot after a raise from someone who can possibly eliminate me dictates that I must proceed with caution not aggression. Thus, I would only call and if I hit, either a draw (flush or open-ender but not gut shot) or a pair, my money is going in anyways. If not, I can always fold and hopefully wait for a better spot (though that’s easier said than done). Conversely, if my goal was to gather chips heading to the final table, then I’m most likely pushing with any Axs, Kxs or any suited connector 1-2-3 gapper cards from any position just to try and steal the pot.

    But then again, that’s just me…, and what do I know anyways! I’m just a recreational “amateur” player.

    MC
  • UnknownUnknown
    seriously though, if we put a chip in this pot other than our antes then we aren't folding.....there's no way to read this board to fold ever
  • VekkedVekked
    There's no other way to play this hand. Basically no one is tight enough to make AQs unprofitable to push. Only if their raising range is AQ/99+ and they're calling with all of it, but how many people exist with a range like this? Generally if people are that tight they're tight enough to fold AQ/99/TT to a re-raise and that probably gives us enough fold equity to make it profitable anyways, lol. Given your read we can safely assume he's raising at least a few more hands than this anyways, so either you're going to make profit because he folds too much or profit because he calls with worse hands. In short, it's "unexploitable". You profit regardless of what he does. Don't be results oriented, and don't look to get fancy with <20BB unless you really know what you're doing.
  • MiloMilo
    Vekked wrote: »
    There's no other way to play this hand. Basically no one is tight enough to make AQs unprofitable to push.


    Obv never played one of the Rocks . . .

    SHOVE . . . then go to CPF for some "feel good" when you bust.
  • Wetts1012Wetts1012
    crazykoby wrote: »
    I'm interested to find out if there is anyone who sees a different way to play this hand with a logical argument for why.

    Id like to critique that logic if there is one, because theres no other way to play this hand other than turbo-fistpump-shoving.
  • westside8westside8
    Vekked wrote: »
    There's no other way to play this hand. Basically no one is tight enough to make AQs unprofitable to push.

    +1. Unless they accidentally flip up their hand to show me QQ, KK, AA, AK...I break my wrist pushing my chips in.
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