You're in a $20 SnG at Party Poker. The blinds are 50/100 and you are in the big blind. You have 1100 chips in total (1000 after posting blind) and are currently 2nd or 3rd largest in chip stack size with 7 players left at the table.

You are dealt

It's folded all the way to the small blind, who is the chip leader on 2300, and they raise it to 400.

So, what do you do in this situation??????

He just told you he is willing to play for all your chips. How did he get to be chip leader? Pushing poeple around? Sucking out after over playing a hand? Have I been playing tight passive? Has he been pushing me around? My read on him will tell me what to do.

Without a read Do I want to put my SnG life on AQo?

At this point in a SnG I don't want to go all in on a race when I am covered. If the stacks were the other way around I would put him all in with AQo.

With a good read on him as a bully/bluffer I will go all in. If not I muck. This is a all in or fold there is no other play.

Fold every time, unless he's a total moron who will pay you off with any two cards if you move all in. You're just not a big favourite against any hand that has any interest in calling here. When you're a little short you want to be making the first raise, not risking it all with a hand as mediocre as AQo. If you move all in he's very likely to call, and KQ and AJ are the only likely hands he'll be doing that with that you're dominating. You don't want to be playing this out against pretty much any other hand; even against 98s you're out of the tournament 40% of the time. Why risk going out when a few players are almost certain to fall by the wayside in the next 10 hands or so and you're one of the chip leaders?

Monk
xxxxx

Just to carry this on a little further. I had noticed a couple of times during the SnG that it had been folded to the now chip leader and he had made a standard raise on the button (3-4 x BB), of which on one occasion, the big blind had re-raised him and then he folded.

I think it was this that had stuck in my head which made me think he was trying to just steal my blind. I felt calling wasn't really an option, and, I didn't want the chip leader to feel he could just bully me every time and I would fold. So, I decided to raise all in and fully expected him to fold and I've got an extra 400 chips.

I obviously got the player wrong because he called and flipped over . I was well pleased because I had him pretty much dominated with my .

The board that followed made me feel like someone had plunged a knife in my back.



It just got me thinking afterwards. If I had just called his raise and seen the flop but decided no matter what the flop I was all in would that have been a better play. Surely, in this instance, if on the flop he was faced with calling a 700-800 bet he couldn't have called. I don't believe that can be the right play but am looking for some opinions.

I like your all in there. You cant wait forever, especially at Party where you start with fewer chips.
He doesnt have to have much of a hand to raise in that situation. Its a steal. he'll fold alot of times to your all in and call others when hes dominated like he did this time. Hands like this are why i stopped playing tournaments a long time ago. I hate getting all in against a fool with a dominating hand and losing.
Party just doesnt give you enough chips to play out a hand. Its like youre always short stacked even from the beginning. I say go all in when youre pretty sure youre ahead.

I don't think it's a clear fold at all. Even though he is one of the chipleaders, the way the SnG is structures makes virtually everyone shortstacked when the blinds start escalating to 50/100 and beyond. After his SB, he'll likely only have 9xBB, with blinds sure to go up soon. It's doubtful that he will get a much better hand than AQ within the next 10-15 hands, and the fact that the entire table folded and the table bully made a stealing raise makes the all-in a fairly easy play. If SB folds he's just added 50% more to his stack, and if he gets called and doubles up he will basically be guaranteed in the money. I can't see SB having a hand dominating AQ very often at all here.