20 man tourney $20 buy-in

Down to final three...in the money.

Blinds are capped at 500/1000.

I have ~10,000 in chips and I am in the BB with AKo.

SB has ~15,000 in chips.

UTG has ~35,000 in chips and raises to put me all-in. SB folds.

He has obviously played strong, hasn't really lost a called raise all night.

Do I call? I would think the answer should always be 'yes'. Was I committed? I wanted to win, but should I have played a hand that ""I"" had control of(i.e., I'm the one pushing)?? I just wanted some input from you guys.

I called all-in and lost to pocket 4's.

With a marginal hand that isn't likely to be best, then you definantly want to be the one pushing. Say you had KTs here... it's still probably best, but your edge is tiny and you need that fold equity to make it profitable. But with AK you're a big favorite against most of his range of hands, a coinflip against most of the rest of them, and only a big dog to two of them.

If you had pushed with AK, you would actually WANT a call, wouldn't you? So go ahead and put your money in.

Yea, I wasn't too disappointed. However, I was wondering if there was any math showing that CALLING an all-in is -EV when in the final three....and if not, what hands are +EV? I would think that even AKo (drawing hand) could possibly be -EV.

Originally Posted by Beavis68

Without the payout structure, no caclulations can be done.

20 man tourney $20BI
Only top 3 get paid
1st place -- $200
2nd place -- $120
3rd place -- $80

Warning, this math is hosed, I forgot to add in the money you win if you lose the hand. Corrected answer is that calling is worth ~$113


your $EV if you fold is ~$109 according to the idependant chip model.

it is about $135 if you call can win which you will do about 62% of the time. That eqauls $83

I am not sure how much value I put in the ICM, but it is the only way I know to approximate $EV.