Would you call here?

Your 5 hours into a $100 buy in tournament. You've played solid, solid poker all the way through and their are 13 players remaining out of 55.

9 places pay out. $190 for 9th upto $1600 for 1st.

The average stack is $38,500. You are currently sitting on a stack of $23,000.

The chip leader, who has been throwing a few big bets around, and is sitting on a stack of $95,000 suddenly announces all-in.

You look down to see AQs (hearts fyi). With the blinds about to rise to 2000/4000 and your BB next hand...

What do you do?

Call or Fold?

Here's a thought to ponder however.

This chap is sitting on a massive, massive chip lead. Why, why on earth would he raise all in here? It just dosn't make sense, if he's got AA, KK, QQ, AK - he would surely put a small bet out in hope of a call. With a lead like that, he surely dosnt want a call here? Or does he?

I'll tell you what happened later...

BF

I'd put him on a small PP, which is a very dumb move IMO. I would fold though and wait for a chance that you can push in.. if that ever comes.

Instant fold, I would put him on a very dominant hand - AA-JJ.

I think if he was bluffing he would would probably isolate a player and put them all-in rather than simply push all-in.

Hey Tony,

Thanks for the input but your saying that he has between the range of JJ-AA?

This guy has everyone covered by a good $50,000. Why the hell would he raise all in with anything other than a marginal hand (at best) to steal a pot of around $4500?

A raise of around $12,000 would have been more fearful - and had that been the case, i would have folded in a flash in hope of coming out of the blocks on my own terms with a shove in the next few hands, which would have been a powerful play at that point.

I actually called his raise, i thought it was suspicious - an all in raise for $95,000 into a pot of $5000...I put him on a small PP and was at best 50/50 with him. If i won, i stood to take a pot of around $60,000 which would have put me right in contention for the final table.

He didnt want a call at this point, no one really wants an all in call with a low PP.

He did indeed have pocket Sevens. I got no help from the board and subsequently lost.

BF

No way I call here, you can't be better than a coin flip. I wait for a better spot, but i play a little scared

I had a similar situation, but vice versa, last night in my 2nd place finish $1 turbo MTT on FT. Blinds and ante's we're very high I think there was about 20 people left, I sat in the BB with 44. It folded around to the SB who only made 5-6x BB raises usually with AJs+, but he was starting to get low and was pushing all-in to pick up blinds. He pushed all in for about 1/3 of my stack. I figure he had 2 overs and knew I wasn't better than a coin flip so I mucked. I'd say it was a good move for me because I ended up knocking him out at the final table.

Dude, what determines a better spot? I fold here, 6000 outta my stack the next 2 hands if there isnt an ideal situation to shove for the steal and im down to 17,000 (still not a bad shoving stack), i wanted to win the tournament, not hang around trying to pick up scraps.

At this stage, with only 5 BB's left in me a coin flip for a $60,000 pot is good. Very good. It's shit or bust, i wasn't going to sit around 'cuddling my chips' waiting for yet another premium hand to arrive, i read the situation correctly and gambled.

I'd been stealing the blinds for the last 40 minutes, just to keep my stack up. All in with A5os, A4os, KQos and it was going good. At 50/50 going into a whole new blind level, playing for double the average stack in chips - i thought it was a pretty good deal...but the help just didnt come.

BF.

Umm, it can't be our BB next hand if someone is shoving before us. I'll assume that big stack is UTG and we're UTG+1.

I probably call this - if we fold then we're pretty obliged to shove any two cards UTG next hand, and while we'll have fold equity if we do so (that we obviously don't have in calling a shove here), neither the thought of shoving 5BBs into the loose bigstack's BB with two cards nor the thought of folding and letting the blinds decimate us give me any reason to be optimistic.

His range probably includes a couple of weaker Ax hands if he has been playing as loosely as you suggest, so we may well be marginally ahead of it, but even if he turns a low PP face up I call and take the race here. You can't 'wait for a better spot' with just over 5BBs.