Hey all,

I'm an ex cash game pro who flukes tournaments occasionally somehow.

I got in to a spot in a 9-handed, $215 turbo the other day and was unsure of what to do.

Eff. stacks are 22 BB's and my image is aggressive.

I open the HJ with AsJs to 2BB's. Folds to bigstack in SB who 3bets to 5.5BB's.
I decide to jam thinking I'm fairly near the top of my range and assuming most players in a $215 tournament can be light here fairly often. Is this jam correct and if not, why not?

what are your reads on villain?

Sample size was too small to even look at my HUD stats so no reads.

I don't think villain is 3 betting light here simply because of you have a good rejam stack, but you're right this is def a spot where they could be light if you were a bit deeper, it's close though. I think readless I fold

I think fold, in my opinion in this spot in mtts they normally shove weaker for 20bb and 3bet stronger holdings. Given he's in the sb he's more inclined to 3bet premium rather than flatting that range in position. Flipping at best I think

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Flipping at best, as stated above


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I probably just call (with position) rather than jam if I'm playing the hand. Are we the stack with 22 BB's or is SB? If we have > 22 BB's then I'm leaning towards playing the hand.

I wouldn't jam because its unclear what kind of FE we have here. And if he is 3-betting light we get to play in position and villain is likely to miss the flop. If we hit the flop then I'm going to continue regardless so I think we give ourselves the opportunity to get out cheap if we miss. Also, there is the chance that SB misses and checks the flop. Our hand then looks like a PP and we can just take it down with a bet.

I think this is fine w/ your image and stack. What was his (big)stack?

No, this jam is fine. The trend lately from the SB among good players is trending towards 3b or fold their range. Additionally, your position in the HJ and your image makes you a target for a light 3b.

Let's imagine his 3b is a 13% polarized balanced range. He calls off with the top 6%.

54% * 9.5bbs + 46%[(46bbs * 37%) - 20bbs] = 3.75bbs cEV.

That is huge. And if he feels compelled to call you off with his entire range your AJs is going to be over 50% against his entire range.

In MTTs, you want to avoid break even spots, and look for spots with edges, because as opposed to cash, survival of your stack means something. Most pros set the edge around 1/2 bbs. So if a play has minimal equity, say 0.10bbs in an MTT as opposed to cash this should be avoided. If your cEV is 1.0 or above this is above the edges required so this expectation is good. As you get closer to the 0.5bbs mark it becomes a closer decision, where there are times you may accept a risk of slightly lower than that edge or times you may want to pass up edges slightly greater than that edge.

I´m curious of the BB stack tho.
Still think SB vs CO is a slam donk shove.