The other night Derk was sweating me while in the irc channel and said he would call, but it was one of those situations where I wanted more time online to think it through. So I am bringing this to the group to tell me what they would do and hopefully I will learn from it.

This is a satellite 2 table SnG where the top 4 all get a $26 ticket and 5th place some money. 6 players are left and every one is playing fairly tight, trying not to get knocked out. I had stolen some blinds with little to no resistance.


Full Tilt Poker Game #729992373: Tier One $6+$0.60 Sit & Go (4823267), Table 1 - 200/400 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:27:34 ET - 2006/06/21
Seat 2: JackBoston (2,785)
Seat 3: Crustman (9,615)
Seat 4: Sith Lord Chaos (4,610)
Seat 5: MacAnthony (3,515)
Seat 7: nowin2hold (4,805)
Seat 9: Coach Z (1,670)
Coach Z posts the small blind of 200
JackBoston posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MacAnthony
Crustman folds
Sith Lord Chaos folds
MacAnthony raises to 950
nowin2hold folds
Coach Z raises to 1,670, and is all in
JackBoston calls 1,270


I got dealt a decent hand in middle position 6 handed and tried to take down the blinds. The short stack moved in and even with a mediocre ace, I was willing to call, and then the BB unexpectedly calls. Every one else folded, so I could just call and close the action but calling another 920 against 2 other opponants just didn't seem right in this spot. By calling i'm commiting half my chips even though I am likely getting correct pot odds for atleast a call.

Now the best reason I can muster up to vote for a call would be since we are on the bubble and I could possibly check down to see if we can knock out the bubble player.

Thoughts? Fold or call?

You're likely dominated. You might even be in a situation like A7 v AT v 88, in which case you have to catch two 7s to win. Fold. Not worth risking half your stack with an easily dominated hand like this.

You've had a re-raise all-in that you pretty much have to call (and he knows it), and then Jack also calls off half his stack (thinking his hand fares decently against both of yours). I really don't think you're in good shape here.

You have 2550 after the PFR. And the pot already is 950 + 600, about 1550. If Jack puts you all-in for the rest of your chips, you'd be calling about 1400 into a pot of about 3000. You're getting pretty damn close to 3:1 odds. All you're worried about is the big stack after you - but like you said, everyone should be playing VERY tight now. Your hand is more than likely the best at the table when it was folded to you.

I don't play MTTs or anything, so perhaps I'm wrong. But I'm sticking by push would be the better play. If you're going to fold your hand to a raise while you have less than 9x the BB, just don't raise in the first place. With the relative chip stacks here, there isn't many opportunities for post-flop poker. Just push your good hands in good situations.

There wasn't any post flop play at the table. Every one else was pushing. My only chance to get chips without a showdown was to steal the blinds.

The pot was already 4690 with 920 for me to call. Really the only question I had here was if the pot odds are worth commiting more than half of my stack to try and elimate a player.