I agree. I hate going to showdown too. I lose half the time, and that's when I'm dominating. Occasionally I might win a flip.

So which is more likely to take it down pre-flop, shove or smaller 4-bet?

I suppose the smaller 4 bet generally reps a bigger hand so maybe that would take it down more often. This would be read dependent on villain: does he see the shove as weaker and call wider? Is villain going to try to get fancy and flat and see a flop?

I just like simplifying here and jamming. I don't think in practice the difference will affect most villains' calling range. Most villains raised with the intention of getting it in or folding, not reevaluating depending on bet sizing behind them. If your read is that villain is good enough to distinguish your raise less than all-in then raise less. Although then if villain does shove I have to call and hate it. Put the decision on him.

Considering your psychotic image at this point, wouldn't nutcracker call a bit wider?

I like the shove for two reasons:

1. If they muck, you maintain the madclown image.
2. If they call and you show AK..it makes them think WTF??? He's been pushing that stack around, and now that I man up to him he's got AK??? Kinda lets you continue to abuse them if you dont win a flip.

need more specifics on psychotic image. are we talking preflop psycho or postflop and thereon. have we cold 4b before? has anyone played back at you before? Are either villain money scared?

guys I was sweating this and he wont bet 5 betting light if we 4 bet small. His range for getting it in is QQ+. He snap folds AK/JJ here even with ss' image. If you need to know why please look at ss' thread where he flops 3 6s. Hint: 3rd guy is an idiot.

so in this case we can shove a very wide range correct?

obv. in fact I am disappointed to learn ss was this strong in this hand.

Just out of curiousity, if your crushing them throughout, do you never flat with pos on the raiser, knowing shorter stacked btn has to call? Something I've seen you do before which is why I'm asking.

we has A high...there is a ton of money in the pot and I don't want them to call or shove with pairs

but wait a second, opener being a nut, is he nutty enough to shove over us light if we cold flat the 3b? What is his value range for shoving? Will 3bettor ever call the shove and fold to a 5b back raise being ICM aware? What range is SB shoving in that case?

I understand this is really fancy but if SB is folding such a wide range I think with the nut no pair hand there might be a better value line.

As it stands btn can fold to the raise if you folded (just saying). With you calling he can't fold ever. Btn would have to either shove or call. Seems to me you want them calling with pairs as they will stack each other (or cripple SB non-idiot). If Btn shoves, SB has to call, you fdon't.

If it's 3 handed, you flop well and you stack both. You don't and it seems to me button cannot do anything but shove the flop with a pair and a PSB left.

It obviously not standard but just thinking about it. Seems a good way to get HU

Its really close between clicking it back and shoving for me. I'm just wondering if SB will ever me lighjt if we make it 375k and he has 1.250 mill. But I think just jamming is really a huge overbet and everyone is just going to play perfect against us. 4betting makes it a little crazier and nobody is going to flat your 4bet here.

If SB had just jammed then I still would call cuz he can have more hands than just pairs and all his monsters are discounted.

This is a wierd spot where future hands are so +EV that getting more value is IMHO less important than minimizing variance. If we 4-bet shove and get folds we are in an awesome position.

I fast-watched the entire replayer and the nut is just terrible although I think the guy that went out 4th was worse. He's not calling here. If he has AA,KK then c'est la vie but from the looks of it he's folding here every time so we can be shoving pretty wide. Nothing stood out much about SB but that was mostly because they looked like a genius compared to the rest of the last 4 (except OP who played well and weathered a few suckouts) I would mostly expect SB to fold confident they can make it to HU outlasting BTN. Although they did not: later AT in SB runs into OP AK.