I just got into a heated debate with my brother about a play I made with QJo.

$3.40 10 person SnG, 5 people left, 200/400 blinds 25 ante.Pot was 725. I had 3500 chips (2nd at time)

Very conservative play from all players except for the player described below.

A player at the table was raising all in preflop to steal blinds when he has position, and had done so about 3 or 4 times during this stage of the blinds. This player had 3500 chips as well, so enough to bring me all in.

Under the gun, I folded QJo because I felt it wasnt strong enough to steal blinds especially with someone who has already gone in numerous times all in and currently has the dealer button.

My rationale was in order to steal blinds I would have to raise to 1200 or 1600 which would put me all in on the potential reraise from the aggressive player who was probably just doing it on rag ace/PP and the sorts. I didnt feel comfortable with that happening giving his love for going all in preflop

SO community, would you have folded or raised?

(i know its hard to tell because you werent there, but you're general impressions would be helpful)

google Independant Chip Model for sngs and you'll find out, pretty sure it's a fold. if you do choose to play it shoving is better than raising and raising is better than limping.

I think you should fold here normally. But keep in mind that if aggro player only has a few more chips than you and any brains then he doesn't want to call an all in move from you without a top notch hand, especially if he's making easy money on the steal. So if the shorter stacks are just folding and waiting for each other to bust out then it doesn't need to be much better than QJo for you to go into shove mode.

When you get to under ten big blinds in a SNG and you're at the late stages (high blid play) you should be playing shove/fold poker.

You don't want to raise half of your stack because you're pot committed to a shove anyhow. You want to maximise your fold equity at this stage in the game and again, when you have less than ten blinds you no longer have any other plays left in your stack.

The guy who was getting it all in was doing so by the sounds of it because he's a good player who knows the optimal way to play at these stages and I doubt he would of called an all in without a decent holding.

I'd read up more on high blind play in SNG's for an understanding of optimal strategy.

Good Luck

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