question on HOH Vol 2 - multiple inflection points

[DMC0627]

I am having trouble with one of the problems. Pages 223-227 discuss a situation with pocket eights utg. He advises raising to 400 (or folding) if playing the hand to tie yourself to the pot and give odds to call an all in from another player. Why not just go all in then? I do not understand this, if you are willing to call an all in, isn't it better to push all in unless you are slowplaying a monster?

I went through his vol 1 without many problems, but am struggling with the inflection points. I also seem to do well full table, but once its down to 5 or 6 players, I have trouble adjusting. I bubble frequently in sit and go's, and am trying to play a better shorthanded game. Any advice or suggestions as far as what book (besides HOH) to help with this is appreciated.

[DMC0627]

Should I have posted this in a different forum? I am still getting used to these boards.

[KoH]

That would be a tough call. According to that book, though late in the tourney, you're not short-handed, but have 7 opponents still in the hand. If you had fewer folks to plow through I would be more enthusiastic about the all in play utg.

I couldn't fault going all in as an option utg with 8-8 (in the *late* stages of a *tourney* only). The odds are on your side that you have the best hand pre-flop since the odds of being dealt a pair are worse than 1 in 16, and an all in will either protect your hand and let you pick up the now substantial blinds, or possibly get you perhaps one caller who probably has two big cards rather than a pair, making you the slight favorite.

Still, utg it is a reckless play...but in the end stages of a tourney, I tend to play that way and it's been successful, especially if my opponents have proven to be the cautious type and I have the bigger stack.

I would have to say the all in move is also good if you don't fully trust your post-flop decision-making and you're up against crafty players since now they can't out-play you...again though...that's a lot of opponents to get to lay down.

The down-side is that if you get more than one caller, you're almost certainly a dog in the hand (and with 7 opponents...). Interestingly however, using a calculator and pitting 8-8 against 2-4 other unpaired hands that those at the ends stages of a tourney might hold, and if they think you're bluffing could call you with, the 8-8 tends to hold up better than I expected.