(Cross posted from PTP -- These are not my hands, and some of them are 6-12 months old fyi/fwiw)


BB (in 2nd place) I've identified as a pretty solid reg based on HEM stats and play I've seen from him (haven't SSed him yet but I would assume him to be a profitable player), so I would assume he understands a bit of ICM at the least. I have as 15/11 over 153 hands. I should be shipping atc here versus a competent 2nd place player correct?


PokerStars Game #48584396152: Tournament #304173384, $3.00+$0.25 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XIII (1000/2000) - 2010/08/23 22:47:36 ET
Table '304173384 1' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 3: TheNZJock (600 in chips)
Seat 6: NighTLesS (31654 in chips)
Seat 8: thadarkman78 (35246 in chips)
TheNZJock: posts the ante 100
NighTLesS: posts the ante 100
thadarkman78: posts the ante 100
TheNZJock: posts small blind 500 and is all-in
NighTLesS: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to thadarkman78
thadarkman78:


Discuss...

I definitely do something here. I think a shove is legitimate in this situation, but far from optimal. The only way I could shove here is if the guy will re-steal the majority of the time.

If that's not the case, I think it makes more sense to isolate here. You can fold if the big blind shoves, minimizing your risk, and even if you lose verses the short stack (and you're not in that bad of shape, probably a 35-40% underdog), you'll still be in the lead.

I can see an arguement for all plays here...

Fold - your hand is crap after all!
Call - Nightless is probably going to check down to get heads up
Raise 2.5x - Nightless will only get involved with top 5% i would think (unless he's got balls of iron)
Shove - He's probably only going to call with top 1 or 2%...he may even fold AA!

I don't think I ever fold -- I got to do something here.

Call is 'ok.' I mean, you don't stand to gain a ton by being aggro here. Definitely won't gain a ton of equity -- so a call is pretty legit.

I prefer a raise over a shove, as I mentioned above. I don't think someone folds AA here though, or JJs+ for that matter. Might not even fold AK/AQ depending on your image. That's why I like raising instead of shoving. It'll accomplish the same thing, but it's slightly more risk averse.

It would also depend on our hand-history with the villain . If he seems to be a reg on the tighter side I'm opening with a raise and if he's really aggro capable of light 3-bet/shove I'm giving up the hand (w rags), would never shove it as it takes out the top of our range and would be just awful when he makes the +EV hero-call (if he puts us on the correct range) . But maybe that's giving a bit too much credit for the micro-regs .