Possible blind steal - do you push!?

[gmac]

Okay, interesting position last night in the $3 rebuy, sitting good at 50k at 600/1200 level (I think)... and I had just changed tables recently. I had no reads on the villain when he did this...

Villain (t25,000) BUTTON
Hero (t50,000) BB

Villain opens the pot to 4800
SB folds

Dealt to Hero [A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]]

Do you push all-in...?

I am asking as I don't know if this is a purely standard play to make as you have him covered and he COULD be on a blind steal with a wide range of hands... but should I wait in this position as I have no reads on him and find out if he does it again next orbit or so and then act?

[runout_mick]

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Do you push all-in...?

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I do.

Even if he's NOT on a steal, we're way ahead of his range. This isn't a resteal, it's a value raise...

[gmac]

Apologies... the Villain had a stack of about 35,000... so that would effectively cripple me if I do push all-in, leaving me with 15,000 or so in chips.

When deciding what to do in this sort of position, does the fact that he can cripple you if he does ACTUALLY have a hand come into play and if so, what do you do if I'm playing this as a value hand. Still push and take the risk or?

[ImOnWheels]

I think pushing is telling him you don't have a big pair. So you might get a call with 99-JJ. I would like to have more chips so I can make it 22k or something and give him terrible odds to call so he has a chance to lay down.

If we make this reraise to ~22k and he comes back over the top for not much more we have priced ourselves in and ,must call. Therefore I guess we might as well just put the whole stack in. We're way ahead of his raising range and prob not in too bad shape against his calling range.

[gmac]

So I'm assuming folding here is a big mistake and raising prices us in anyway, so we are forced to push all-in.

Is this just a standard move you have to make even though you will be crippled if he does actually have a hand, and do you make this move without a read on him to dictate that he'd push any two here?

[J.A.K.]

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Do you push all-in...?

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I do.

Even if he's NOT on a steal, we're way ahead of his range. This isn't a resteal, it's a value raise...

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Would you ever stop and go here?

[FortunaMaximus]

I might on occasion if I figured opponent wouldn't be able to let go of fairly strong pairs postflop (99-JJ) to a SNG shove.

Even if he folds, you only need to flop 1/3, and for only 3 extra BB when you have ~40BB in your stack...

[seke2]

I push here, but I do find that many times the 4x raise does indicate a stronger hand if that isn't the person's normal raise, and often when someone opens for 4xBB it means they want to go to the felt, so you may have less FE here than you think. But I agree this is more of a value push than a resteal, you should be ahead of his range.

You say you have no read--have you played any hands where this opponent raised preflop before? If so, how much did he raise?

[gmac]

I have no reads on him at all and only sat down at the table a few hands prior and I had not been paying attention to him... basically he had QQ here and hit his Q on the flop so my flopping an Ace was therefore irrelevant.

What are the numbers for him having that strong a hand here... is it still a +EV push here regardless and to do anything else here is daft?

[seke2]

Don't quite get your last question. Without any sort of read at all, not having seen the other player raise preflop, in a $3r, I push all day.

If I've seen him raise 3x preflop consistently and suddenly he goes to 4x, I might just call (and go broke on the Q-high flop anyway).