Picking a Spot in a Stud Tourny

[Elon_Poker23]

So I entered a 2k garunteed stud tourny on FTP for $26 and was short stacked most of the night. I managed to pick up some pots and stay alive but it was getting late. About 100 entered and we were down to last 30 with 16 paying. The only reads I had were for people not involved in the hand.

The blinds were 200-400 and i had about 1200 chips. The first guy completed the bet off the bat with a 6 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] showing and about 1700 chips. it was folded around to me with Q-J-10offsuit and only 2 players left to act behind me. There was one 6 on the board and 2 clubs. Is this a good time to cap it and get us all in? If not what type of hand should I be looking for?

[Elon_Poker23]

The limits were 200-400***, can you tell I'm a holdem player by trade? haha

[cgrohman]

I try not to get all-in with just high bags. Also, I like to be the one opening the pot.

[PoorLawyer]

[ QUOTE ]
I try not to get all-in with just high bags. Also, I like to be the one opening the pot.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would agree with this. With a hand like that I may complete, but the intention of the raise is to steal the BI and antes, not to get all my chips in the middle. Since you don't really have enough chips to just call and fold 4th, I would just fold 3rd and wait for a better hand like a big pair or mid pair with a high kicker that doesnt necessarily have to improve much to win. When it gets that late in the tourney, there should be some opportunities to steal to keep yourself afloat.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

TPFAP covers this somewhat, but you are clearly a hold em player. Actually, with any form of limit game including hold em, toss out any notion of what puts you in the desparate red zone in HOH if you normally play no limit. You can still afford some level of patience. 1200 at 200/400 isn't short enough to feel obliged to go berzerk-o with anything half-decent. The hold em mentality of picking a hand and just going with it is less correct because it is much easier to find yourself in spots where you are worse than having two live cards in hold em.

The hand you should be looking for is relative to the size of your chip stack, the action in front of you, and the cards behind you. You would play more hands if you only had 800 and even more if you had only 400. To give you an idea of how tightly Sklansky would have you play, he gives an example of a hand (p174) he would fold at the 150-300 level when you have anted 25 and have only 50 left behind you.