$11 - Tough Spot in Early Stages

[Bavid Denyamine]

I do not proclaim to be a great STT player, so any advice you guys can provide would be great. Still in the first level of a sit and go, I think it was the third hand. Don't have the HH saved, I apologize.

I am UTG+1 with 1500 chips still at 15/30, with JJ.

UTG minraises to 60. Hero...?

I call. Folded to the button who shoves for 610 more. Folded back to UTG who flat-calls.

Hero...?


Here's my thought process. I realize JJ is the hand where all three options are justifiable but are all probably bad. I flat-called figuring I can play this hand pretty cheap, in position on the raiser, can fold a bad flop and can win a big pot. I don't think preflop is that bad. I thought about raising to isolate my hand, but I had no reads on anyone at the table, so that seemed a bit thin, especially this early. I figured it was call/fold.

When the button shoved, I was really hoping UTG would fold and I could call, because I figure a call there is pretty massively +EV. A smaller pair is definitely within his range. However, that all went awry when UTG flat-called. But, it was the flat-call that got me thinking...what hand would he flat-call me with that he wouldn't just reshove to isolate? I initially figured this guy's range was huge after the minraise preflop, which makes figuring this spot out a big problem.

AK-AJ makes sense (I guess), a small pair seems very likely, as does a big pair. By flat-calling I'm assuming he's calling my shove regardless, so I can't put him on a hand range here.

The flat-call just makes this hand so suspicious. If he reshoves, I insta-muck, but now I think a shove might be +EV here.

What do you do? I hate spots where I don't know what's going on. I've heard from some people that when you have no idea what your opponent can have here, you're usually good, but I think the risk/reward element of playing JJ this early for all my chips really leads me in the muck it direction.

Opinions? Thanks in advance.

[Elvex]

It's too early in the tournament to commit all your chips to JJ. You have no reads on UTG and his min-raise followed by a flat call of 10x the initial raise seems incredibly strong. It seems to me UTG was anticipating a reraise, his play doesn't make sense otherwise. It could very well turn out UTG is extremely loose and made an awful call...
I would say easy fold, you have only 60 chips invested in the hand, it's easy to let go. If a player is willing to commit themselves this early in a tournament they'll have AK at the least... but they're probably dominating you with QQ+.

[vers]

yeah just muck and be happy you only invested 60. Not really a great spot. Just seems like utg has an incredibly strong hand, and usually at best you are in a coinflip. I have seen some pretty bizarre utg min raises and flat calls w/ hands like A5s so basically muck the hand and then write a note about what hand he has an remember the play, it will be valuable later on in the sng I'm sure.

[Bavid Denyamine]

Hmm, button had AT (I knew I had him destroyed), and UTG had AK. I still think it's a pretty close call, as AK makes so much sense given his play.