Hypothetical Situation Between Button and Initial Blind Positions (SM and BB)

Hypothetical Situation Between Button and Initial Blind Positions (SM and BB)


After the table turns in walk, the button decides to shove in our head with approximately 12 bb. What would be the call range? What hands would you play?
In that hand I ended up calling with my 10bb with 44, I found a JJ from BT.
I believe he shooved me to look like a resteal and hide the strength of the hand, what do you think?

If you only have 10 big blinds then it has to go in with a pocket pair if you have ambutions to win chips (if you're on the bubble maybe just fold to survive). 44 is a favourite over AK, running into an overpair is bad luck.

I have to make some assumptions for this, as you don't provide enough info.

MTT, mid stage. No bubble play yet. Antes 10%.

BTN shove range with 12bb would be approx 40% of hands.
22+, A2o+, K2s+, K8o+, J7s+, J9o+, T7s+, T9o+, 96s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s & 54s.

I would personally fold the 44 in this case, as you need a fairly strong hand to call a shove from a player that covers you in a MTT. Sure, 44 is a pocket pair.. It is also easily dominated or counterfeited by the board. You would rarely be ahead and usually flipping for your tournament life.

When someone goes all-in on the button they are sacrificing all of the value of being on the button. Pre-flop there is little to no value being on the button because the people left to act have already put chips in the pot and are more likely to call a bet for that reason. Blind stealing on the button is done frequently, but is also frequently called by better players. Now an all-in most likely would not get called, but that still does not negate the fact that you are losing all of the value and here's why.
When you have button position your value is after the flop when you get to see how everyone is playing the hand and reacting to that information. When you are not on the button you are merely guessing at what other people have, the benefit of the button lies in knowing information about what other people have by being the last to act. When someone goes all-in on the button pre-flop, they completely lose that advantage.
So, if someone knows the value of the button and goes all-in preflop anyway you can assume they have something good which should have lead you to fold weak pairs like pocket 4s.

This. People forget that the button doesn’t give you some magical advantage. They read books about how the button is the best, but don’t know why.


An open shove from the button MIGHT indicate a wider range of hands compared to an open shove from UTG, but if the player knows the value of the button, that shove is likely in the higher part of their range, not the Lower part. With him having 11BB, his range will already be wider when shoving but I’d want to play most hands postflop from the button, even shortstacked, unless I was dealt JJ+ or AQs+ for example. You have too much informational value to play showdown poker from a wide range. Especially if there are no antes yet. 11BB in a ring game with no antes will let him see like 50 more hands before he’s blinded out, you’d have to assume his hand will be at the top range of those 50 if he is shoving and giving up his advantage