I was having this discussion with my friend about a play he made in a MTT. Blinds and antes were such that any pot sized preflop raise constituted about 1/3 of his stack. So his opponent raises pot, and he has JJ in position. I contend that this is either a push or fold situation, but instead he just called. What do you guys think? And what is your reasoning? He had about 4000 chips and the raise was 1200.

Can I assume the blinds were 400/800 making the size of the pot 2400?

If that's true and he has only 4000 (5xBB) he has to push with no other circumstances to consider.

This hand is not a "push or fold" hand. However, it's also not a "just call and see a flop" hand.


This is an absolutely no brainer no question not even close push.

Yea. The only, only question here in my mind is "If I push, will this guy fold?" If the answer is "definitely" I might just call, since I NEED those chips BAD, and this hand is so strong, I'm gonna play it to the end even if AK flops. There's just nothing to be done about it. I'd push against most anyone on the internet that I can think of that might make it this far in a tournament, since the confused fish generally doesn't. The perverse angle here is that positive fold equity is actually a liability in this hand.

Calling gives him the chance to hit the flop with his KT or A7. I agree completely with Xaston, push push puuuuuuuuush those chips in.