Hello all.
First I'd like to say I've learned many things being a member here. I usually just lurk and read posts that I'm interested in. I'd like to share a hand that left me bummed out and knocked out (lol) of a tourney. I guess I'm not really in need of help on how to play AQ but maybe an opinion in this situation.

Out of a field of about 1000, chip stack start at 3000 chips, I gained a huge chip lead early on and just protected my stack until late. (Had some great cards)
With about 150 ppl left blinds/antes are 800/1600 150. I'm sitting on about 10K. Caught AdQd on the button. Action is folded to me and I raise 2X the BB.
SB folds. BB moves all in with about an equal stack. I call. He shows AsKd. The board was a rainbow and he caught a K somewhere in there. End of my game.

Although I'm not too bummed out, was this the right move or should I have folded?
Some information that influenced my decision to raise/call was:
1. He was in the BB and could have had a stronger range to show strength over the buttons range.
2. Based on the above... I wanted him to think I was raising with a perceived button range (which is wide for me) and not actually have what I was holding.
(hope that makes sense)
3. Was suited (serious thought)

Some things I considered after the fact:
1. Should have raised flags after he sh*t on my preflop raise.
2. He was new to the table and I only played maybe 3 hands with him.

Lay into me if you must. I'm a beginner and need all the help I can get.

Thank you for your time folks.

6 big blinds + we have an ace + folded to us on button = trivial jam pre

If you have about 10,000 chips, but the BB is 1600, the SB is 800, and everyone paid an ante of 150, there's so much already in the middle in comparison to your stack that the best play is just go all in immediately. If the blinds fold, you're increasing your stack by about 37.5% without a fight (which is a huge increase relatively), but your hand will do pretty well (it's often a favourite) even if someone calls.

And just like that, BOOM. Another side of it provided by you fine folks. Thank you!
I was definitely in the danger zone shove mode but was planning to do it after that hand. All things considered at that table, why didn't I realize it at that moment? Now I see what the play should have been. Results probably would have been the same but I can live with that.
Thanks again.
More hand questions coming lol

I think the most instructive thing about this thread is that you seem extremely concerned about busting a tournament.

Your BTN shoving range needs to be really wide here: when stacks are about 6bb and it folds to you, without ICM considerations, and assuming we never open limp, it appears that our open-shoving range should be slightly more than half of all hands (https://floattheturn.com/wp/pushfold/).

Of course, this means you're going to bust fairly often when called. That's fine. In a large MTT (I'm assuming that this one started with about 500 players?), reaching the final table 3% (for 500 players) of the time is doing extremely well.

Correct, that he states that there's 150 left out of 1000 may mean we're extremely close to the money bubble, so if it's for significant money for the OP then there might be a legit concern here, but we don't know any of this and can assume a mincash isn't going to change OP's life really

If I'm in a spot where the blinds are 1600/800 150 and I somehow have only 10k, if it folds to me I'm all-in without even looking at my cards.

Pretty sure that's a mistake. Even without considering that we're probably very close to the bubble with 150 out of 1000 left.

That said, every Ax is certainly a shove here.

I play on CLUB WPT so just a club membership and no serious loss. It was a satellite I was playing in but I hope that doesn't discourage any help. It feels like the big leagues for me lol
It's always a bum feeling to get knocked out but I won't let my emotions run wild if it was a good play. This post helped me realize to keep my head in the game and realize what my stack size is at all times. I still don't understand why I didn't shove and settled for the raise.
Checking the history I finished #133 and it was a good "payout". Paid the entry and then some.

100% agree with this. OP's M < 4, so his minimal fold equity will be worse when he has to shove through more than 2 opponents.

OP probably should have shoved lighter earlier.

The above is a losing strategy. With a big stack you should be putting pressure on your opponents.

The average low buy-in tournament player plays very loose when stacks are large relative to the binds, and tightens up as the blinds get bigger. Successful tournament players do the exact opposite.

Stop being afraid of busting on the bubble. Take advantage of your competitions' fear of going broke.

If it is a mistake, it's not a big one. We have no chips, if we want to go deep we need chips. Might as well try to steal or go home. If we are in fact close to the bubble (10 knock-outs or so), then I would look at my cards.

You should be playing for more than a "good" payout.

One more point on how stack depth alters strategy.

Early in a tournament, turning down a small +EV opportunity for your entire stack in order to wait for a better opportunity later is valid (as long as your estimate of EV is correct).

Later in a tournament as you stack get under 15 BBs, waiting for that mythic "better spot" is a losing strategy.

Yes, but we have 7 hands to do it before we pay a blind again and still have over 5BB by that time because the ante is less than 10%.

I agree that it’s not a huge mistake because nothing short of abandoning the stack is in our position. But when the chart suggests to shove 50% there, doing it with any two would certainly be some kind of mistake.

Does your 50% chart take into account how often everyone folds?



Most of the time the blinds will be going up before you get to the big blind again because of all the yahoos stalling to try and sneak into the money.


I just hate barely staying alive for an extended period - give me more chips or let me go home.

The chart was literally posted in this thread.

OP - the above is the correct attitude you need to have in a tournament.

That said, there is no *always* or *never* in poker, so when you're in push/fold mode, having high card value vs bigger stacks in the blinds suggests you can fold more often, but push/fold mode starts at about 15 BBs and your range increases as your stack decreases.

However, if you have 15 BBs and the players you shove into have < 25 BBs, you need to consider how narrow their calling range is due to the damage your stack can inflict on them.

In these cases you primarily expand your range for fold equity purposes. Fold equity allows you to continue by keeping your stack at least moderately threatening.

Play to win the tournament, not to min cash. Profitable MTT players have an ITM of between 15% and 25%. In other words, if you're making money playing MTTs, you should expect to not cash 4/5 of the time.

I’m not going to argue that playing “feel” poker is wrong, especially not when it comes to small stakes live tournaments where nobody has any clue and ranges are extremely far off from what they are supposed to be.

That said, (good) push/fold charts are probably significantly closer to optimal ranges than most players could come up with at the table and ICM is a mathematical model that removes a lot of the guessing.

FWIW, on the continuum of math vs. Feel, I'm much more of a math player than a feel player.

It's combining the two factors that yields the best results.

Push/fold charts are only as good as your ability to range your opponents.

My main point here to OP was more on his mental approach.

Unless push/fold charts have evolved then this is new to me, the whole point of push/fold charts was to tell you what you could unexploitably shove (in a vacuum)

Yeah his comment is just completely wrong. He may have been trying to say that they should change a fair bit when you know villains calling ranges.

Satellites have a particularly strategy of their own. If (almost) everyone is getting paid the same amount (often a ticket to another event with a higher buyin), then minraising is often a very bad strategy, and the game becomes "push or fold" even with relatively large stacks (like 20bb+). Depending on how close you are to the bubble, and how likely you are to "survive" by folding, this hand is likely to be either a very clear shove pre (because you need chips and the other players should be very reluctant to risk their own), or a standard fold. (There are times in satties where it's correct to fold AA, if you're almost guaranteed to cash for the same amount as everyone else by folding. Playing satties, I've been in spots where I had 32o and it was "correct" to open jam 20bb, and in spots where I've had about 1 ante and it's correct to fold aces. Satties are weird, because so much of the strategy is based on fold equity rather than your actual cards.)

Congrats on your success!

Thanks again. The information provided has been very valuable! I moved tables 4 times in that game. It was difficult to keep up with the players so the plays with fold equity helped a bunch.
And great advice mentioned earlier keeping my mind on playing to win. Thank you again.