Hi Guys,

Ive recently been playing a lot of MTT, but one question is bothering me. If we put ourselves around 60% ahead in a hand, but calling an all in would be risking almost our entire stack, (or all of our stack) should we be risking our tournament life on this coin flip? I often find myself open raising from the cutoff/button, then having a shortstack shove over me when I have a pocket pair. Most of the time im putting myself up against any ace or broadways, sometimes im gonna be behind but I think majority of the time im ahead (if only slightly) here. To flip or not to flip?

This has always bothered me, many times in an MTT with escalating blinds and antes you can't play GTO, if you have to make a call of 75% pot you can only do it with Aces in theory, that is not possible in reality, some spots are -EV no matter what you do and you can't wait, I'm only looking to be a mathematical favourite and not according to odds, if I am >=55% vs 45% against an estimated range I'll just take it. I'm not a tournament player, I don't play tourneys often (partly because of some of the things mentioned here) so maybe I'm just all wrong there, maybe someone will advise you better or point you to a proper thread.

Completely situation dependent.

The old saying is that to win a MTT, you have to win with AK in a coinflip and beat AK in a coin flip, so you can't always avoid them.

Really depends on stack depth, reads, ITM or not, payout structure.

Not enough detail in the post to really answer the question.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/32...y-spot-1543388

If I can get a coin in which it lands heads 60% of the time can we bet on it for money? I get heads you get tails?

60% is not a coinflip. And your probably shouldn't be passing up spots like this unless there are serious ICM considerations.

i never believed in tournament life.

i mean, how good would u have to be to pass up 60/40. not me....

plus u can always reg for a new tournament.

at chip ev stages of the game i'm pushing every edge. but then again i'm not a mtt guy...

and u gotta think of how much is in the pot already. i would flip with 40/60 if there's enough in the middle.

so if there's no payout considerations, i'm happy to get it in and reg for the next tourney. it's a long way to first. also, u have to win every chip to win a tournament. =p

At times it can be well worth while calling a shove when you think you have only 10% hand equity. If the pot is already large it can give you a decent overlay, enough to make it worthwhile calling - be a little careful with what really is a coin-flip and what is a break-even spot.

Like most things in poker the point calling allin makes sense depends on quite a few factors. Your overall 'edge' in the tournament will come into play but even then the 'edge' you should apply will vary with many factors like how well your stack plays if you fold, how much your chances improve if you call and win.

Personally I don't give up much edge in most situations, if you do you also have to remember that anything you give away may often get compounded later, you are giving this 'edge' to another player ie, an opponent. If you fail to call a 5bb shove from the button shoving a wide range then in the next orbit you can face a 6.5bb shove and if you fail to call here this player has now got a stack with some decent fold-equity

I think it is better to view this issue from the more common small stacked situations than the almost hypothetical 200bb shoves, calling or folding against these won't make much difference to your overall roi as it hardly ever happens.

Everything requires some judgement and thought really.

Part of learning to be at good tournaments is learning the $EV of various decisions. There are calculators to help: http://www.icmpoker.com/

When someone makes a $EV mistake you can profit even if you're sitting at a different table.

yes to flip, if u think u have even a slight advantage then its terrible to fold because u get good money.
you already put in a raise, +the blinds+the antes all that you would lose by folding a likely better hand

if you really are afraid and fold more often then not in a spot like that you can simply openshove and let them decide to call or not preventing them from trying to bluff you out

This and only this