KQs on button. Short stacked late in tourny.

[BigZag]

Live tourny, Lucky Chances Casino, CA
Buy in: 200+25
Entrants: 138
Blinds levels: 20 mins, current level: 400/800 100 ante

Playing 10 handed.

Basically this is a situation that came up with 32 people remaining and an average stack of about 10.7k. Only the top 10 places paid in this tourny with a 1st place prize of 11k. This is something I had to consider when the following hand came up.

My previous table had just broken I moved to the new table with 8.5k in chips. First hand I posted the BB, and folded to a raise, then folded my small blind to a raise and promplty found myself down to 7.1k in chips just from 2 hands blinds and antes. My third hand I was on the button with KQs, action was folded to me and I didn't really have much of a read on the two players in the blinds as they had been in either EP or the BB in the previous 2 hands and had folded both.

My question is whether in a spot like this I should raise to 2k, 3.5k or just move in? While also considering I have less than 10 BBs remaining.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated...I'm popping my posting cherry.

[halpgr]

Move all in preflop. You may get some weak Ax hands to fold. At the same time some hands you dominate like KJ and KT may call.

Also welcome to the forums.

[scottywhen333]

very, very easy shove. basically, you never ever want to put in almost half your stack and then fold. so, you might as well increase the chances that the sb and bb fold and you take the blinds. shoving increases this chance.

[sapsuckah]

Welcome to the boards.

Really easy push when opening from the button. My pushing range is waaay wider than KQ in this spot, especially live.

Oh, and you'll see this a zillion times if you read these boards, but I might as well say it here... don't even think about making any raise other than all-inn when you're under 10 BBs. Are you really gonna fold to an overpush if you raise 3 of your 8 BBs? No? Good. Then get all your chips in and maximize the likelihood that the blinds will fold.

Sorry you ran into a big hand or got unlucky... I doubt you'd be posting here if you pushed and simply won the blinds.

[Popped Rod]

I understand you don't have a read yet but what were the stack sizes of the SB/BB? Did you cover them or did they cover you?

Barring that, I like the push as it will probably get you back your blinds from the first two hands. Just hope you don't walk into a BB special.

[ThePershore]

Super standard shove, no matter who is in the blinds or what their stacks are.

[BigZag]

Wow that was quick. Thanks for those responses, they were very helpful.

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry you ran into a big hand or got unlucky... I doubt you'd be posting here if you pushed and simply won the blinds.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeh sapsucka ur right I did get unlucky. I got called by the BB with KJ of diamonds, he had about 10k in his stack, so he had to commit the vast majority of his chips to make this call.

The flop was q83 with the 8 of diamonds and I got unlucky from there. But I kept going over it after the fact and I'm sure that if I bet half my stack then moved in on the flop kj could not have continued.

I guess my point is in situations like this when you're so short, I feel like raising half you're stack might look stronger than a push and possibly less suspicious and also give your opponent 2 chances to fold instead of one should they choose to call you're raise.

The fact is I'm 100% commited to playing the KQ on the button for my entire stack in this spot, I'm never ever folding, so using that as a starting point might it be more profitable to only put half my stack in first then wait for a flop?

For example, I raise to 3.5k with kqs and get called by a5s, when the flop comes j83 and they check and I move in, there's a chance they fold, probably a decent one. The actual scenario that unfolded would have been very similar to this.

Thoughts?

[sapsuckah]

Well, the scenario you present is possible. But it's also possible that he calls your smaller raise with A7 (which he may have folded if you pushed) and the flop comes A-9-2.

It obviously can work both ways. All you can really do is make EV+ decisions (and pushing here clearly is) and hope things go your way.

In this case, yu got the best possible result -- a bad call from a hand you were dominating. Beyond that, it's out of your control and losing to a runner-runner flush is freaking gut-wrenching. But you made the correct play and you got a delicious call.

One other note... you're likely gonna have to do many more preflop pushes to climb back out of the short-stacked hole you're in. If you start making bizarrely small raises when you have a strong hand and then push with worse hands, the table will (ok, may) pick up on that. So you'll be more likely to be called light in future situations where you have to push preflop (which is not what you want).

Matt

[PantsOnFire]

Not only would I shove all my chips in immediately, I'd do a fist pump and riverdance.

As far as raising and not pushing, I don't have the math with me right now but in your situation, I'm almost positive you will get the most value from pushing.

[ZenMusician]

I shoved before I even opened the thread [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

-ZEN