Hi all,

1/2 Maryland Live. Been at table about 1 hour. Hero $120. Villain $180. I should have a tight image as I am raising very infrequently (once every three orbits or so - been card dead) and playing very few hands. I have red QQ UTG and raise to $17. UTG+1 calls, folds to MP/V who shoves AI. Hero?

Thanks,
DT

This should be a call but reads are important, so let's hear it. Also, what was UTG+1's stack size?

Call seems fine absent any read that he's an ubernit.

Calling here and pretty happy about it. They generally don’t do this with AA so I think we are looking at a range of 1010-KK, AK.

+1

Along with $17 being a standard open and not a tell for JJ+ or something. Only 60 BB’s deep shrug call.

with zero reads it looks like kings

throw up and fold.

it's 1/2 who jams like that with JJ and under

Seems like a very big opening raise. Has 17 been standard for you / the table?
You've been there an hour - what are your reads on Villain? Has he played many hands? Raised much? Should have something to go off of after an hour.
If this were my first hand at table, as played I'd call. Seems like you kind of put yourself in a weird spot here though by opening so big and playing so shallow.

In a 1/2 game this short I don't think OP's image is relevant since the average rec 1/2 player doesn't pay much attention to image.

What's important here is V's image. Have you seen him do anything like this yet? What type of hand was it?

As Playbig2000 stated, players at 1/2NL live just don't shove like this with 99/TT/JJ pretty much ever unless they're pretty agro.

In a typical rec 1/2 game I can find a fold here often enough. You really have to decide if V is capable of doing this with AQs+ or a pair JJ or lower.

V has been playing relatively tight/agg. He raised his button with 33 once and c-bet $30 a 10-high flop where I had J-10 (he rivered a 3). He is mid-to-late 30s WG. $17 was about norm for the table, maybe a little bigger since I was going to be OOP for the rest of the hand.

I really wanted to call but I was 5 hours in and up for the night and didn't want to lose it all to AK, KK, or AA. I thought if he'd noticed how I was playing he put me on a tight range, especially UTG, so I felt he was strong. He certainly wasn't a fish. He did get it in once before pre with AK suited, which is probably the bottom of his range.

UTG+1 - young Korean - had us both covered. (He folded, so he wouldn't have called my re-shove.)

This is a huge leak. There are reasons to fold here, but this ain't it.

You have QQ with 60 beebers and villain is not a known nit. Easy call.

Yeah based on your description of V I'm definitely calling here. Sounds like he could easily make this play with 77 or 88+ and AJs+

Against someo me raising 33 otb this is always a call.

Gotta be a call. Especially raising to 17. You only have 60BB. Not folding here ever. If he has it he has it.

Inexcusable reasoning. And didnt you say your stack was $120? How is that up?

Eff stack is $120. AK does this. So does JJ sometimes. Reads matter in these spots, but with no reads, and getting roughly $160 for calling off $120 with QQ its a call at default. We can definitely find folds with reads, but there isnt much itt. And really, considering the only info offered with how he played 33, its a snap call.

Sorry. Calling off $103 to get roughly $150. we cant fold unless guy is a known super nit. Guess that was said. But yeah, its a call. We are seeing AK and in MD, 99+ is all there.

Why are you playing short-stacked in all of your HHs and why are you opening 8.5x with a short stack?

Call, fold, timeout, whatever, plugging "leaks" isn't going to make you win at this game. You just have to straight up play a different style of poker.

"8.5x" is about a standard raise, maybe a little bigger to account for being OOP with a semi-vulnerable PP. This isn't a tournament, it's a cash game. People don't raise 2.5 at 1/2. If they did, they'd be letting almost everyone without complete trash into the pot and they might as well limp in.

Are you suggesting just shipping it instead? I'd rather save that for KK or AA where I know I am ahead. With QQ I don't want a call from AK and have to flip for my whole stack.

Bankroll issues prevent normal stack play. I prefer short-stacking to not playing, at least for now.

Well, there are numbers between 8.5 and 2.5. I would go with one of those, even from EP. If people want to call with garbage, then all the better. They don't have the implied odds against your stack to justify calling wide ranges even at a relatively low cost.

Short stacking is all about exploiting what is essentially a loophole in the poker rule book: that short-stacks play at the same effective stack in all situations, whereas deeper stacked players are at varying effective stack levels, meaning they often have to make plays that are +EV against most players, but -EV against some. So a short stacker can play back at a 5x raise+calls aggressively knowing that they have little more than their initial reraise at risk AND they get to realize their equity. Deep stacked players can't play back in the same way because they have to worry that another player who also has 250bbs or whatever can force them out of the pot or risk losing a boatload of cash all just to play back at a lowly shortstacker.

This also means when a short stacker's raise gets called, and people start calling behind them because they're priced in, they're priced in against the deeper stacked players, but are draining EV to the short stacker. They shut down main pots by shoving into flops with equity, knowing they get to make it all the way to the river at a discount while everyone else quibbles over the side.

All these sorts of situations are why pro short stackers have aggressive strategies that attack dead money with a heavy emphasis on straight hot-and-cold equity. Not waiting for primos and then blowing everyone out of the hand so they can scoop the blinds.

In any case, it's basically impossible to beat the rake short stacking 1/2 regardless of what strategy you go with. Just thought it was worth bringing up the discussion because evaluating these parts of your game is gonna do way more to make you a winning player than deciding what equity races to take.

Honestly my man this question is dependent on a lot of factors but before you play again you need to decide for yourself based on reads on V and some other table dynamics that only you would know for yourself

I probably snap given stack sizes but folding is also good

I don't see V doing this with many hands worse than QQ besides AK and MAYBE JJ

Also raising to 17 is a lot

How can you be up for the night after five hours with a stack of 120?

The hard hitting analysis we need, but not the hard hitting analysis we deserve.

He said in the OP he was at the table for 1 hour and in the latter post that he was up after 5 hours of play. Reading between the lines I'd say he table changed and put chips in his pocket.

Sorry my man, but short stacking, this is a slam dunk, fist pump, high five the dealer and the cocktail waitress as you shove your chips in the middle kind of hand.

Yes it's +variance. Yes it's +EV.