Final hand question
I was playing in the Brantford Wendesday poker series yesterday, I am at the final table, two players already out, I am sitting with about $6,500.00 in chips and if I am not the short stack at the table, I am pretty close to it. I am in early position with AJ offsuit, blinds are 500/1,000
I raised to $4,000.00 and it was folded to the SB (who was pretty much the chip leader), who raised to put me all in, BB folded. I called and he showed pocket queens. I didn't catch the ace and went out in eighth.
Curious to see if I did the right thing and/or to see how others would play it.
I raised to $4,000.00 and it was folded to the SB (who was pretty much the chip leader), who raised to put me all in, BB folded. I called and he showed pocket queens. I didn't catch the ace and went out in eighth.
Curious to see if I did the right thing and/or to see how others would play it.
Comments
You are too short-stacked relative to the blinds to raise less than all-in IMO. Raising to $4,000 you are pot sticking yourself. Neither limping-in nor folding strikes me as a good play in this tournament scenario.
A more important consideration is the case where someone decides to re-raise behind you. When you are already all-in (or at least pot committed), you prefer to play against fewer (ideally zero) players with your AJ. If you make it 4,000 to go, someone could re-raise to as little as 7,000 and possibly induce action behind the re-reraiser. However, if you push the whole 6,500 in right away, a re-raiser would need to make it at least 12,000 to go in order to make a re-raise.
Though this kind of occurance is obviously rare, it's at least doing something with those last 2,500 rather than having them just sit there to be auto-called off.
ScottyZ
But your play can be good if you bet the flop all in no matter what comes it gives your opponent a chance to fold. Say your opponent calls with 77 and the flop comes K Q 9 you both miss but he might still fold to your last $2,500 bet.
That is sort of the thinking I was using, my first thought was to go all in preflop, but then I thought the $4,000 might be enough to get a call, and then hope I hit or he misses the flop. My hesitation from going all in, was due to the fact that I busted out of a tourney a few weeks earlier going all in with AJ suited, and believe it not, lost to pocket 77's.
Basically, with you only having 6x BB left, you had one move, all-in. If you were going to try a move where you fish some cash in and then re-raise all in would be to limp, maybe just call, hope for a re-raise and then push. Of course, this is only a viable move when there's someone raising, and you'd have to have a better hand than A-J o... at least A-K, and that's BARE minimum... pocket pair I'd try it, if they were high, (J or better). Otherwise, you want everyone folding, go all-in.
Mark