Two questions from a recent MTT

First, late in 45 man MTT, villian is 63/11 over 73 hands

Poker Stars No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50.00/t100.00 Blinds - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: t7555.00 M = 50.37
UTG: t3975.00 M = 26.50
UTG+1: t1802.00 M = 12.01
MP1: t1240.00 M = 8.27
MP2: t1110.00 M = 7.40
CO: t2446.00 M = 16.31
BTN: t2980.00 M = 19.87
Hero (SB): t4027.00 M = 26.85

Pre Flop: (t150) Hero is SB with J J
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t200, 3 folds, BTN calls t200, Hero calls t150, 1 fold

Flop: (t700) 4 6 3 (3 players)
Hero bets t600.00, UTG+1 raises to t1602, BTN folds, Hero ??

Second hand, even later (3 from final table)


Poker Stars No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t200.00/t400.00 Blinds - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: t7300.00 M = 12.17
BB: t3600.00 M = 6
UTG: t7272.00 M = 12.12
MP: t15441.00 M = 25.73
CO: t1885.00 M = 3.14
Hero (BTN): t5550.00 M = 9.25

Pre Flop: (t600) Hero is BTN with 9 8
3 folds, Hero raises to t1200, SB calls t1000, BB calls t800

Flop: (t3600) 6 5 5 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero ??

1st one shove.

2nd one just fold or shove if they´re really nitty, usually fold imo. You can´t raise there and expect to do much post if called, also bad spot if you´re put all-in, think ahead of that when you raise.

Do yourself a favor and switch to the $1.10 turbos. They are 10% less rake and that's really going to add up.

Would you rather pay pokerstars a dollar to play 10 SNGs or 5?

1st shove pre
2nd fold pre, shove with ANtes

Hand 1: Shove as played, shove pre

Hand 2: Raise to 2.5x or just fold pre, as played I guess I'd just ship with those awkward stack sizes. Folding seems awful and betting some random amount seems awful.

Edit: Hand 2, just shove pre or fold, depending on opponents. Didn't see we were so short.


Lirva, the answer is obv to stop playing $1 donkaments entirely imo.

Move up to where they respect your raises IMO.

Thanks all for the feedback, I figured I really screwed up the first hand, the second was more difficult, but figured out how to play it to lose the maximum possible anyway!

LirvA is right, don´t pay more than 10% rake, you can get more turbos (which are the cheap ones) into sessions anyway and your edge / expected ROI should be about the same playing donks.