Hi guys, long time since I’ve posted but having a debate with someone about a particular hand and want your thoughts on what to do and why. I already have my position - and I wasn’t involved in this hand at all, wasn’t there.

It’s $1500 buy in, day 1, fair way off the money. $250k up top. Blinds 500/1000/100, 9 handed. No reads - so looking at the hand in a vacuum (other than the field is very soft due to the amount of qualifiers - in fact the bulk would be qualifiers).

UTG+2 raises to 2400
HJ raises all in for 15k
BTN holding TT - ???

BTN has approx 30bb, UTG+2 has both covered.

Sorry, I don’t have exact stacks.

Very clear shove, can't see us just calling with anything and folding is obviously out of the question.

EDIT: BTN had 42k

Don't have the ability to do some napkin math at the moment, but TT is running into JJ+ here at least 1 out of every 5 or 6 times. With early action and a shove for 15 bigs I think this is really close without any reads. I'm the type that would fold but I don't think I can argue against anyone who says shove, either.

The interesting dynamic that might tell me that shove is a better option than fold is that you can still win a nice side pot vs UTG+2 if he calls. If this was a tough table I'd almost certainly shove here. In a soft field as you described I think I sigh fold.

I agree that you can never call.

You don't mention either blind - are they non-factors here?

Good point, apologies.

Blinds would be at risk to call (not short, sitting around 25-30bb). As I said though no other reads.

The original opener has around 55k.

Also, apologies for the lack of info & detail - I’m going off a Facebook post, had a debate with someone about it. I thought it was an interesting spot.

I'm with Hawker Dave on this one. Most of the edge in soft fields comes from outplaying people after the flop. There's no end of bad decisions that they can make, and we should have a good sense of how to induce mistakes.

It's hard to outplay people after the flop if we're locking heads with all-ins preflop.

HJ's range includes a lot of flips vs. unpaired overcards where we have a slight edge (but not a huge one); some smaller pairs that we crush, and a few bigger pairs that are bad news for us. HJ's stake is small enough that we dent our stack but aren't dead with a bad outcome, and we do improve our stack nicely if we win. If we had HJ truly isolated, it's a comfortable shove for us.

But we give away some of that edge if either of the blinds wakes up with JJ+ or the original raiser has a really big hand. Essentially, the only additional action that we'll get is action that we don't want. It's a smallish risk, but non-zero.

Against a soft field, with blinds going up slowly, I'd wait for better. It will come. Versus a tough field or in a turbo, I'd take my chances.

I like this analysis. Against pure GTO, highly skilled players I'm probably jamming here.

But in a very large field MTT with a ton of qualifiers I find a better spot. It's definitely not a fist-bump jam as other posters have mentioned.

EZ Fold. Guy just 3-bet an EP raiser 5x. You have no fold equity and you're behind. Bad players don't 3-bet AK for value.

Fold.

You're flipping at best vs the All in unless he somehow has 99, maybe 88 specifically and who knows what the OR has.

It's a fold especially if you think you have an edge on your table.

So I think this is a close spot, but it's a shove. If you shove and If UTG+2 folds you are risking 15K to win 34.8K.

In $1500 buy-in tournaments, the structure is still pretty fast. You can't sit and wait for spots where you have Aces all the time. It's a marginal spot, but a chance to pick up a lot of chips.

To those people who say fold TT, are you also folding JJ? QQ?

IF.

OP has given us no info on UTG+2 other than he has us covered. So let's try the other IF. IF you shove and UTG+2 breaks our neck with AA we are risking every one of our chips.

QQ is a shove. JJ is borderline.

I agree it is a fold, but the 3 bet was all-in which is correct given his stack size. We do have *some* FE against OR but there is also a ~5% chance that one of the blinds wakes up with a monster. I think it is a thinking fold, not a snap fold. The good news, we get to see both hands!

I can't read. Didn't realize 3-bettor was AI. Thought he had us covered. My bad. Derp.

I probably ship JJ+, AK+. TT is pretty close though.

What are your shoving ranges if you're button?

^^^ In a soft field with a long way to go and possessing a decent stack, QQ+ & AK. If I have a read on UTG+2 then I might flat with AA/KK sometimes. I usually adjust my ranges based upon my reads but none were provided. In a vacuum, I tend to play way too tight.

Thanks all for the replies. I do apologise for the lack of information available, as stated I wasnt in the hand and didn’t actually play the tourney, so I’m flying a little blind myself. I just thought it was an interesting spot to discuss.

I think the majority of the decision comes down to the OR style and opening range, and what their fold % would be versus the 3b jam and a 4b jam.

In the end the opener had AA, and the 3bettor had 88. The hero ended up jamming pre.

i'm likely folding JJ and hating QQ. TT is easy.

Against 15BB open shove from HJ it's an awkward call or shove decision, but never a fold.

grunch, hadn't read post above