This hand is from a satellite to the EPT in Barcelona. Five
people will win a $16500 seat. I am currently in 6th place.
I have played only 1 hand since coming to the final table,
where I pushed K3s from the button as the short stack with
an M of 4 and doubled up. I have since played no hands for
about 1/2 hour.

Poker Stars $760+$40 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1000/t2000 Blinds - 7 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: t70720
UTG: t17674
UTG+1: t101375
MP: t99601
Hero (CO): t33650
BTN: t83730
SB: t178250

Pre Flop: Hero is CO with Q K
3 folds

The converter doesn't show the antes, which were 200.
So the cost per round is 4400.

Do you play this hand or not?
If you decide to play, do raise 5000? 6000? or Shove All In?

looking @ stacks. you gotta shove.

You cannot fold this hand obv.

You're in 6th place with 33K, and 5th place has 70K. With KQs on the CO, with 3 folds in front of you, you have to play this.

Now the effective stack size is not very good, but it's not terrible. Shoving would be a good option, but I guess all that matters here is FE, so I'd want to make my move looking as strong as possible. I would probably raise to 5500ish here and call a shove. If you get called, you're in the pot with a hand that flops quite well, and even if you miss completely, you most often have at least 25% equity. Given that I think their 3bet shoving range is imo never larger than their calling range on a shove (+ I dont mind postflop play), I would raise this. A shove is a very close 2nd

So if you were dealt AA, KK, QQ you would never shove those hands
in this spot?

i think shoving is way ahead of raise calling.

I agree.

Raising 5500 looks weaker in this situation than
a straight push, and I think has less FE. The BB can
call and see a flop for < 10% of his stack without
affecting his overall ranking as 5th. You give him
options. If he calls a push and loses, however, then
he loses his 5th place and drops to 6th. You deny him
options and put him to the test on the bubble. I think
this is much more threatening then the smaller raises.

open shove> fold> non shove raise

Based on

- with a M of just less than 8 you are obv looking for a spot to get it in
- raise call is too weak a line
- atm you are quite a way behind the 5th place stack, so there is no real bubble issue yet

Raise/calling doesn't make a whole lot sense. If you raise and someone shoves, you probably have to fold because of ICM -- unless their reshipping ranges are super wide, in which case your small raise really didn't look strong at all, did it?

I shove here, what range do people shove if they know SB is calling with any 2?

^^ You need 65.5% to break even $EV-wise according to ICM, so {77+,AQs+} is +$EV. AKo is 65.32%, so it's a fold.

Should the SB be calling with any two? What's you're calling range there?

But why would the small blind be calling with any 2?
The small blind is folding AA here, if he knows what he is doing.
Its the calling range of the BB that is interesting.

It seems like most people favor a push over a smaller raise.

Suppose my hand was AA.
Would you still push in that case also, or would you make
a smaller raise?

you should be shoving your whole range here IMO.

No, the SB's calling range is interesting because people are idiots

raise/calling is suicide.

i raise/call with aces, because people are completely exploitable.

minraise>shove>fold

If we want to get it all in and double up I would rather play it like I were holding a weaker hand. The cards are going to fall the way they do regardless and you obviously want to have a show down. If that's the case I would rather trap here for the pure fact that I know I want to get his chips in and this would conceal my hand much better than an open shove.

The question then becomes how do I get his chips if I've already committed my entire stack to play? Even if he folds post flop you will at least have gotten some of his chips instead of nothing

Am I wrong or is OP in 5th place with UTG bringing up the rear with ~17K? Why not fold and put the onus on UTG to put his chips on the line?

7 players left. 5 get tickets. OP is 6th.

So OP need to get more chips to get a ticket and are a double up behind 5th place.

I see what you mean.

I tend to give other players too much credit in these situations,
assuming they will do the intelligent thing, and it can get
me into trouble. In this particular case, I was fairly confident
that the button and SB would fold...it was the BB I was worried
about.

Results......

I considered a smaller a raise of 5500 or 6000, but decided to push for several reasons.

1. I want maximum fold equity against the BB.
2. The small blind is a tricky player who has shown that he is willing to mix
it up. I am fairly confident that he will fold to a push, but I don't want him
to call a small raise, see a cheap flop, and then bluff at the flop giving me
some difficult post flop decisions.
3. I don't want to raise 20% and then fold to a reraise. Some friends of mine
said I can make the smaller raise and then laydown to a push, as I still have
enough chips to fight it out. But I think the stack sizes here are crucial. Note
that my stack size is about half of the 5th place player. If I can double up,
and especially if I can double up through the 5th place player (BB in this case)
I go into 5th place myself and have a good shot to win it. But if lose t6000
through a raise/fold on this hand then my stack is reduced to 27k. Now, a single
double up won't be enough to win this....I will now need at least 2 double ups
instead of just 1. So the extra 6000 chips are very important at these stack
sizes, and I don't think that I can afford a smaller raise and then fold to a
shove.
4. An interesting dynamic in this hand hand is the presence of the small stack, In
some cases, it might be better to wait out the short stack, but in this case i could
actually be worse off once the short stack is eliminated. With the short stack still
alive, the two big stacks will tend to fold (since they are locks), but with the
the short stack eliminated, there is a greater chance that when I enter the pot
the other players will "tag team" me. Also note that if I double up against one
of the big stacks, then i will only be tied for 5th place. I really want to double
through the BB, which will put me in uncontested 5th place. So I think that this
is a good time to push.


Button and SB folded, as I expected. BB called with AKo, one of the dominating
hands I feared. Now the flop came three small unconnected with 2 spades.....
very interesting flop as I now pick up 9 flush outs in addition to the 3 queen outs.
So I have close to 48% equity even after the disaster scenario of the BB calling
me with a dominating hand.

Unforutunately, I didn't get there.

Gotta keep working on those postflop suckout skills!

Thanks, everyone for your input.