dont be that guy!

There are times in poker where your card just do not matter at all, this is usually dependent on two things and those are your position or your chip stack.

Before we get into it there is one concept you truley have to know and that is fold equity, So what is fold equity? Well to put it in my own words fold equity the chance the guys behind you will fold to your shove. Really anything below 10 big blinds might hurt your chance at fold equity and at that point you can only push with real good hands because the guys behind you will be given correct odds to call and there call no matter what their cards are might be correct and +ev. For those that don't know what EV is it stand for expected value, it is basically what you can expect to win with a hand over a time period.if the odds are there you will get a call with a 4bb push everytime and we don't want that we want a chance he could fold and scoop the blinds or he will calland we will win. Going to make a real simple example here.


we have 5k in chips and the blinds are 500/1000 with a 25 ante.
so preflop there is 1750 in the pot.

now if we push from the cutoff or the button or even in from the small blind the problem is the person or people after us are getting pretty good odds tocall us with almost anything. You see with 1750 in the pot and your raise to 5000 it is only 4k for them to call into a 6750 pot, that is like 2.5 to 1 so unless they think you have a absolute monster they will be calling. They will not put you on a big hand for the reason you are very desperate and will callyou lite with gapped suited connectors getting 60/40 odds to call. If you would of done that with a 10k chip stack which is 10x the big blind things would be different and they would have to fold alot of hands even some small pairs.so the thing is when you see you are getting low on chips then it is time to start playing position poker and picking up some blinds, if you can pick up 2-3 blinds you will add a good some to your chip stack what is commonly known as chipping up.

The worst thing is sitting in a tourney for 3 hours just to make back the money your money back. If you are not playing to win then dont play at all!! one final table will pay for all the times you push less then 10bb and get called and go out before the money.

Aggression and understanding this simple factor are real big in later parts of the tourney and I hope this helps.

very very very good post. I must be honest, lately ive been that guy. I have barely made the money in about 75% of the MTT's ive entered lately and while that feels really good im just not makin the final table. Thanks for the help and advice, I need help with my mtt's im tired of just makin my money back, I need to start final tabling!

you are not alone there are alot of you....well dont want to say it like that.

start over

there are alot of player out there that are just playing to just make the money and you can spot them out real quick at your table. You can easily take advantage of them by shoving on them. Even if you are also shortstacked, this is a good play because they will be like
wow this guy is shortstacked also and is shoving he must have big hand.


no we dont we just dont care about the bubble because unlike you sir we are not happy with making $20, we want the 5k.

there are alot of times where situations come up that are +ev for you to shove. If there is 5k in the pot and you only have 8k in your stack and its folded to you in the small blind and all there is to act is big blind this is +ev to shove. You will be adding over 50% to your stack and even if you are called it is very very very unlikley you will be dominated. Adding 50%+ to your stack as a 60/40 dog is not that bad of a move and going from 8k to 13k is very very good.

you know how they say your position is more important then your cards? this is soooo true in later stages of a tourney.

The best time to make that shove is when everyone in front of you has folded, or only a very loose player has put in a bet. Look to see how much it costs them to call you. If it's more then half their stack, you have good fold equity, especially near the bubble. When you're UTG, the next couple hands is blind time and if that will significantly cut into your fold equity, that's your hand.

the only time you should be open shoving under the gun is if going through the blinds again will severely destroy your fold equity. (assuming you don't have monster under gun of course)


ex. you have 6000 and blinds are 1k/2k at this point you open shove UTG regardless of what you have. It doesnt matter at this point what the cards are.


I know this is what you said I just wanted to give example to reinforce it.

alright guys, I need help. Im in the daily double B on FT and im in 120th with 304 to go , i have 6k in chips with 60/120 blinds and I wanna make sure I dont just barely cash, my table is pretty tight, whats the forum advice on how to play now with the blinds?

you have 50 big blinds?


im confused?


you have tons of play left, just play normal game right now. You are in no danger at all right now.

your nomal game should be raising in position, if you sense someone is weak then play back at them. dont overplay hands like AK and AQ, etc etc etc. Not really sure what you are asking, with the blind level and a 50bb stack right now you shouldnt be worried about cashing or not cahsing you should just be playing your normal game that got you 50bb stack.

yea im doin ok, just wondering if anyone else plays any differently than normal in this position, update 7k chips with 150-300 25 ante blinds, find me if you want to rail for me, its hartattack31

now that antes kicked in its more profitable to steal.

opened your table let me pokerdb some of the players.

alright, yea I gotta figure out what a lot of the things u guys talk about are, i was thinkin of getting poker tracker or somethin like that but whats sharkscope and poker db?

p.s. thanks for railin storm, first hand after break you join up and i get aces to knock someone out lol, now at 12k and very comfy

good table change small stacks to your left and big stacks to your right.

sharkscope tracks all sit and go tournaments and pokerdb tracks all multi table tournaments.


dont minimum bet though, its just says please bet me out of pot. If you are going to C-bet you have to represent the hand you are trying to represent.

yea that was a mistake, i was min betting str8 flush draw, didnt hit

congeegirl is ok player from her stats she is +$3000,


97 tourneys, 17 cashes and 1 second.


abrac is solid

your still fine no reason to shove you can still make standard raises.

yea just tryin to pick spots right, only raise that got re-raised i had pocket treys and was happy to fold to the aces and 7s lol. I feel pretty confident and i think im doin alright, just need one good make or break hand lol

10 away from money so you can pick on short stacks that are trying to make the money. Just try not to get involved with people that can bust you no reason to.

want me to comment on that?

well, not so confident anymore lol. Looks like another bubble for me unless the cards are nice to me again lol

yea any feedback is good, I need the help, i know when i make bad plays like callin that all in but i figured for the price i had to

your in shove or fold mode right now, you should be shoving anytime it is folded to you on button or in small blind.

yea thats what figure, just lookin for the hands to do it with, been gettin j-2 and 9-4 a lot recently lol

well calling all in wasnt bad it was only 1k to win like 7k

preflop was real bad, you can not limp with 33 in UTG+1 with 33, there are too many to act behind you. On flop the bet was bad, real bad. with 33 you are setmining meaning if you dont hit your set dont put any more money in the pot.

izzy is bad, should of shoved on him when he limped from small blind he would of folded like 80% of the time there if not more.


you can tell he is by the way he played that AK hand.

alright, yea was tryin to scare, didnt think he would slow play ak on that flop, but i guess it was the smart thing to do, thanks for help

I believe he was pretty short stacked so a open shove should of been what he should of done with AK if not he should of least raised with it UTG. Open limping AK UTG is just bad.

next bling level is 400/800 so you are going to have to shove after these blinds, you cant go through another orbit.

nice play!! told you.

you just doubled stack in 2 hands.

o well, cant do much there, wasnt gettin hands and I think the shove was a good play, i just gotta stop makin those bad plays like the 33

regardless you played both those hands correctly by raising the limp in small blind and shoving in small blind.

your open shove with KdJd was correct also you just got unlucky they woke up with hands

alright well thanks for the help, im feelin real good so im gonna do the 12k guarenteed at 1 if anyone wants to join or rail me you should.

and again, storm thanks for all the advice, ill definitely use it again

np I have work in 5 hours but let me know how it went

so what was your final finish?

And I assume a rail thread is when someone watches you and comments on here then? lol still getting use to a card forum.

we didnt write in the right section but the rail actully pertained to the topic so it kinda fit.

he went out right after the bubble burst. He made 2 good steals in favorible situation then pushed the button with KdJd and got called by small blind with A-9 and Big blind with KK and flop was AAx so gg. It was correct play and just unlucky.

Well at least it was in the money. Alright well I don't do money tourneys but maybe I'll set up a rail with someone next time I do a free roll then.

if im on ill watch ya, u did rail for me already lol