Pockets in the latter stages

Ok, I have decided to write about a tournament that I played last night. It was a 100,000 guaranteed tournament with over 900 runners. I was playing well and felt I had a chance. We were down to the last 100 and I was in about 60th place with about 10 times the big blind. The blinds have just passed me and I am on the button.

So the scene is set now here are the cards, Everybody folds to me and I am dealt a pair of nines. As soon as I receive these cards I know its going to be a crucial hand and I have a big decision to make.

So what would you do?

1) Fold - a pocket pair and this time is good but you just worried about playing it. Would not have though that many players would choose this one.

2) Call - a cautious play in which you hope to hit trips and if anything scares you fold. Problem with this is that if gives the blinds a cheap flop and anything looks scary.

3) Raise - Again the amount would be worth discussing, it would also show how strong the others are on the blinds. A pocket against two other hands is surely ahead.

Well they are the choices and here is what I decided to do -

Just before the end of my time to act, I decide to raise 4 times the big stack, therefore commiting half my stack approximately. I thought my hand was better than the other two and I would settle just for their blinds.

So the small blind is put off by the raise and the action moves to the big blind who thinks for a second before moving all in. Now I have another decision to make but I decide that I would be very unlucky to be behind and call.

This would be a call for a money place, he turns over his cards and shows kings. I dont hit and leave with nothing. I feel quite unlucky to have run into another pair or maybe you dont like my play. In hindsight( a wonderful thing) a call was best, you decide.

Tricky call.

Easy in hindsight to say I would have folded, but as it goes I would be cautious about what the Blinds had.

I think the correct decisionl here would have been a call. A cautious play as you stated but possibly a cheap (ish) shot at Trips.

I would have put the blinds on over cards so think it was risky to commit half your stack as anything decent on their side meant you were pot committed

Let me reverse it to you. If this was early in the same tourney, would you have made the move you did.


:withstupi

This is where I need to improve my game, I still think that I would make the raise.

I read about this stat too -

With queens, 60% of the time there will be an overcard on the board.

Amazing and something worth thinking about!!

I don't see why you wouldn't make this call.. at worst case scenarion like you seen you were 3.5:1 on higher pockets.. any 2 cards and you are in the lead..

Now if you are willing to committ half your stack to start with to keep yourself crippled if the KK's only just called.. you would only have 2 choices after that. Fold or toss the other half of your stack in... If you are going to push half your stack and then call the other half, push the all-in yourself and make your opponents make a decision.

One thing you left out that I think is important is your table image and the blinds' styles.
If you've been percieved as a gambler, the blinds are more likely to call you with high cards.
If you've been percieved as a tight aggressive player, the blinds might give up the blinds and let you have them - though raising from the button (even from a TAG player) is usually considered a steal, and they'd probably push back.

Either way, I push preflop here. Perfect situation for a 10BB stack - a solid hand, and I don't mind a call here by a bigstacked blind to call with A7 type hand thinking I'm on a steal.

Not sure I agree with limping here with 10 BBs
Tournaments are races for chips, and you picked up a solid hand with which to make a move - so do it!
If you're playing these types of hands that passively, then IMO you have no place in tournaments.

You have to accumulate the Chips as and when but offset gain against risk. This hand is at best a FAIR hand (not solid) as there is still a lot out there that can take you to the cleaners without even having a race,

But hey, we all play differently and get to where we are by utilising our skill/judgement

You have to accumulate the Chips as and when but offset gain against risk. This hand is at best a FAIR hand (not solid) as there is still a lot out there that can take you to the cleaners without even having a race,

But hey, we all play differently and get to where we are by utilising our skill/judgement

I push preflop without really having to think much about it. I don't really care much about who the blinds are either - if they're tight they usually fold and I take the blinds, fine, or if they're very loose big stacks 99 is ahead of their calling ranges.

As a general rule of thumb, it's hardly ever correct to limp from the button first into a pot, and I'd go so far to say as it's never correct with a 10BB stack.

Just because on this occasion BB happened to have KK doesn't make folding or calling correct. If you had KK in this position and BB had AA would you still be thinking you should have limped preflop? If the blinds both folded, or the BB called with AK and you won the race would you even be making this topic?

Incidentally, raising for half your stack preflop is probably the worst thing you could have done (aside from folding). Never make raises that commit you to the pot.

I think you've got to raise with this hand, but maybe only 2 to 3 times the BB. If they don't have a hand they'll fold and you won't have committed so much. When the BB goes all-in with his KK, that's when you have to make the decision based on what kind of a player he is. I would tend to call anyway as it sounds like you're short on chips, although you wouldn't be completely desperate if you laid them down at this point.

Something I notice is that in the later stages of tournaments when the blinds are bigger and people are playing tight, they tend not to put in such
big raises pre-flop in relation to the blinds - usually around 2.5x and rarely above 3. Either that or all-in.

If you're raising and calling a push, with a 10BB stack you may as well just push right off the bat and take the little extra fold equity.

raise 2.5-3x the BB. if someone pushes, use your read on the guy to make the call or fold. totally foldable if the guy is tight or has made the same move before with high PP. if you think its a race, call and GAMBOOOOOOO!

I'd push all in PF, the field was already narrowed down, and you are betting that (1) they don't have anything (2) they are unwilling to call, giving you good fold equity (3) even if they do call, you have a good shorthanded hand.

I agree that 99 is a marginal hand, but based on position and the fact that everyone folded around to you, that increases the value of the hand quite a bit. PUSH !

Easy decision... you push, and if you lose it's simply bad luck. You need chips to win and here's a perfect chance to accumulate some, be it blinds or a call. I mean, you can't really fold hoping to see a better hand as pocket 9's are a strong hand against the blinds.