Two MTT final tables in two days sounds like I'm good - I'm not. I was a losing player in my first attempt at poker (2008-2013) and still am on my return last month even though I routinely FT the 45/90 man on Stars and have gone deep in GGPoker. MTTs

In all games, when I reach the FT I bust out early, missing out on decent paydays, hence why I'm still a losing player.

In this hand, I was 2nd shortest stack, the big stacks were forcing us to push or fold and whenever I was in EP and ready to go all-in, the short stack directly to my right stole my thunder so when I was dealt AQ, I decided it was good enough to call a shove from shorty as well as shove myself. That said, I nearly folded due to the Q kicker.


6b5eedab (UTG): 154,616 (26 bb)
3fcf88f (UTG+1): 168,873 (28 bb)
b507892c (MP): 79,002 (13 bb)
Hero (MP+1): 107,746 (18 bb)
4dec8369 (LP): 297,829 (50 bb)
f71a20e7 (CO): 386,419 (64 bb)
a835c947 (BU): 215,793 (36 bb)
8e090a01 (SB): 353,968 (59 bb)
6c3329b2 (BB): 255,754 (43 bb)

Pre-Flop: (15,750) Hero (Hero) is MP+1 with Q A
2 players fold, b507892c (MP) raises to 78,252 (all-in), Hero (MP+1) 3-bets to 106,996 (all-in), 3 players fold, 8e090a01 (SB) calls 103,996, 1 fold

Flop: (304,994) T♠ K♣ 2♠ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (304,994) T♣ (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (304,994) T (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: 304,994

Showdown:
Hero (MP+1) shows Q A (three of a kind, Tens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 38%, Flop: 40%, Turn: 31%, River: 0%)

b507892c (MP) shows 9♣ 9 (a full house, Tens full of Nines)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 44%, Flop: 52%, Turn: 64%, River: 100%)

8e090a01 (SB) shows 88♣ (a full house, Tens full of Eights)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 17%, Flop: 8%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)


Was I right to call shorty with AQ and flip in a bid to build my stack and give me a shot at making the big money or should I have folded?

PS: apologies for the large diamonds and hearts, I had to use the chat icons as when I pasted the hand, they were in black even though the hand converter displayed them in red.

This is absolutely fine. Can probably go with AJ too.

If you are making a lot of deep runs who are probably decent enough and just need more games and obv try make a few improvements and top 3 results will come. Variance is pretty nasty 2 tables in

OP, I would encourage you to learn how to use ICMizer so you can analyze these spots yourself.. but this spot is interesting so I'll do it for you. I'm getting a fold and that's with a very liberal range for MP1. Don't beat yourself up over it, these type of ICM spots are difficult without a lot of study.

It’s not a bad play but if you’re in a shove/fold position with 18bb (which is probably way too soon) you really want to be the first one in the hand. But all in all, you were only 6 outs away from tripling up. Truth is I think it was the right move with the wrong result. If you knew they had 99 and 88 would you make the same move?


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EDIT: I just realized this was a bounty, in that case this is a slam dunk

Thanks for the replies and thanks bumpnrun

Not heard of ICMizer so don't understand the screenshots but I'll check it out. The chip count in the example were not the same (in number or in stack relation to one another) as the hand itself, would that make a difference?


It's tough but yes. My initial reasoning was that I was flipping at the worst (and likely dominating) and was getting the chance to run deep and stop being pushed around by the big stacks. Is that still the right call, wrong result?

If I had folded then I'd have been the only short stack at the table.


How does that change things?

the stack sizes are the same, have a look at the bb counts (although I admit I forgot to put in UTG1). I just changed the blind level to 50/100 so I could input the sacks based on bb, make it a little easier on myself.

maybe watch a youtube tutorial video if you are that unfamiliar.

as for the bounty I probably should have asked how big the bounty on MP is before calling it a slam dunk.. but because we stand to win a bounty by calling and winning we make more money by calling, basically.