Was this a correct fold?

[fasteddy1970]

Most of my posts lately have dealt with reraising marginal hands while shortstacked near the bubble. Almost always, the good advice given to me was to fold those A-J, medium pp to a raise and wait for a better opprotunity. So here is a different situation where I folded but possibly incorrectly.

Second hand at final table of ps 180: I'm second big stack with about $40,000 in chips. Big blind is $1200. Big stack (who I haven't seen play yet because it's a new table) utg opens for $3600. and next to him a guy goes all in for $11,000. It gets to me and I'm holding JJ. Obviously if it was only the all in guy I either call or reraise big to isolate. But I'm worried about the big stack's raise. So I think for awhile and fold.

Showdown big stack has QQ and other guy 44. Is this way too tight, weak tight whatever or can any of you see doing this with the second biggest stack at the table? Had I called, the call whould have been for one quarter of my chips on the flop and I didnt' want to do it with JJ. It is not something I would have done two months ago but I believe it was the reason I went on to win the tournament.

It worked that time but I don't want to be results oriented but would rather make the correct play. Your thoughs? thanks

[Jamma]

Im obviously going to be affected by the results you included, but if you push to isolate one of two things will happen -
You will either be a favorite to win ~15k chips when UTG folds, or you will be a big underdog for all your chips in a threeway. Flatcalling puts you in a very unpleasant position as then your stack is only 1 pot.

Had your stack been smaller the push would be much more appealing, but here I think you can wait for a better spot.

[HerbieGRD]

JJ is a really borderline hand here - calling is pretty bad I think your only reasonable options are push or fold. QQ is a push and TT is a fold, JJ.....meh. I probably push about half the time and fold about half the time, depends on how weak/strong I feel the other two players in the hand are

[Well_TiMeD]

i hate pushing without info on the big stack. why is callin so bad? if he pushes u have an easy fold, he might fold pre (unlikely), and if he calls your in position and can reevaluate on flop, protect your hjand/fold/etc as necessary

[diebitter]

I fold due to lack of information. I'd all-in with a stack of 18000 or less in the same spot.

[fasteddy1970]

Another reason I didn't like flat calling is not only was it a quarter of my stack but flat calling gave me no information about his hand. I stand to lose a lot more money if undercards flop or be in a tough position if even one over card falls and he bets. Yes, I had position on him but it just didn't feel like the hand to make my stand with.

[Well_TiMeD]

it does indirectly. hes over pushing QQ- AA almost always over yoru smooth call, easy fold. yes its 1/4 of ur chips but ur stack is still vbig. if he smooth calls and flop comes unders i think ur good 90% of the time or so unless he flopped a set on u

[Well_TiMeD]

i should note that i think a fold is also fine, maybe better. i just dont understand why people think a push is bettee than a call

[fasteddy1970]

well timed; But we're in agreement that in this situatio he would almost definitely have pushed when it got to him right? By the way if you're him and one guy reraises all in and I smooth call, do you almost automatically push? Had he lost the hand, he's the ss at the table when it's over.

[Well_TiMeD]

i dotn think he always pushes there. in fact, i think he only does it with QQ-AA, maybe AK, liek i said before. being a bigstack, his range is much wider. he could have a TON of hands he doesnt wanna push but he will raise utg. AJ, AQ, 66- 1010 (depending on how he plays maybe more) QKs/QJs. the reason this is wierd/close is because we are informationless with regards to the big stacks playing style. the more i think about it, due to lack of info, i might fold. but its tough because a lot of times i think big stack flips over a hand worse than yours.