A8s good for short stack play?

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So last night I was playing a tourney with my local poker league, and I was short stacked with 4.5k with blinds at 1000/2000 (blinds had just gone up). I wake up with A8s from the cutoff and its folded down to me. I go all in and the button and small blind fold, big blind calls after complaining about me trying to steal her big blind and shows 22.
I end up hitting the flush but BB gets lucky and hits a deuce on the turn with a paired board on the flop.
So was that a bad beat or should I have waited to get a better hand to shove.
 
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Sonny87

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No, shove with the stack size. Just got unlucky
 
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uready4dis

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i personally would of waited for another hand but blinds were huge compared to chip stack. tuff call.
 
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Uzbek

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!

So last night I was playing a tourney with my local poker league, and I was short stacked with 4.5k with blinds at 1000/2000 (blinds had just gone up). I wake up with A8s from the cutoff and its folded down to me. I go all in and the button and small blind fold, big blind calls after complaining about me trying to steal her big blind and shows 22.
I end up hitting the flush but BB gets lucky and hits a deuce on the turn with a paired board on the flop.
So was that a bad beat or should I have waited to get a better hand to shove.

I play with small stack cards started A10, less folded
 
Tech101205

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Its a Standard Shove as you were short of less than 5 bbs and A8s is more of an EV+ hand for you to take chance especially when u have position

In fact u must be ready to shove even any decent 2 cards
 
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chronical

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more than enought to shove.
wait for what? you have 2 bb =) you are mostlikely bust even if you double up. When you have 2bb any Ax or any suidet 67+ is great. You have no time for waiting AA. It's not a tought call. you are basically wishing for hands that are less than 12% and what like 10 hands left in the tourney any way?
Even the hand that you have has a coin flip agains 22 so shove all the way =)
 
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Thanks all good to know that I really didn't have many options there
 
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roncato

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You did the right choice. I don't get it, why would the Big Blind complain when you have only that much though?

Where are you playing?
 
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You did the right choice. I don't get it, why would the Big Blind complain when you have only that much though?

Where are you playing?

It was at a diner in a freeroll for gift cards in Queens, NY... as part of a league... This person also like to talk a lot of trash, shes likes to call everyone a fish lol
 
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mcgregor_415

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The hand is perfect for all in with such a stack compared to the blinds. You may play it from every position, but when it's folded up to you from the cut off - this is a great chance to double up. I would always play all in at that situation.
 
DougPkrMonsta

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Yes, very easy shove when this short and it folds to you.

Thinking you probably missed some profitable shoves before this. You need to take some risks before you get down to 2 BB's (and plan accordingly for blind increases), so you don't get to this point.

I think you can profitably shove any pair, any ace, most decent kings, and any two Broadway combos here.

The big blind had an easy call with a pair against such a small shove. When this short you don't have much fold equity, this is part of the reason you should make a move sooner.

If you want to get better at playing a short stack you should study push-fold charts and I like going over spots I am unsure of with a Nash ICM Calculator after the tournament. Take note of other stack sizes if playing live.

Good luck to you!
 
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With only 4.5 BBs, I'm practically jamming ATC in the CO if it's folded to me.

A8s is at the top of the shoving range.

In the future, try not to let yourself get so low. I know blinds just went up, but you know you're already a short stack and you'll get even shorter as time goes on. So, try to find a spot to get your money in when you still have at least 10BBs. This way, you still have fold equity for some of your hands and your big hands get some value if they're called. Doubling up with a 10BB stack gives you 20BBs. Still pretty short, but in a lot better position. Doubling up with a 4.5 BB stack gives you 9BBs, which is better than what you had, but you're still a very short stacked.
 
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ph_il

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It was at a diner in a freeroll for gift cards in Queens, NY... as part of a league... This person also like to talk a lot of trash, shes likes to call everyone a fish lol
Ask her to show you her wsop bracelets and EPT trophies if she's such a pro player. Ask her for her full name so you can look her up online.

Ask her, if she's so good, why is she playing freerolls instead of playing the high stakes games? You'd think that a player of her caliber and skill would be playing for some small prizes when she could be winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Why are you here playing with us fish? Shouldn't you be in Macau?

Ask her if she coaches. Say you'll pay her in walmart gift cards, since thats the currency she likes to play for.

Everytime she plays a hand, do a commentary:

"As we can see here, pro player at this league play freeroll is in a hand. One thing you gotta love about her is that every move she makes is always correct. Such high skill. The way she looks at her cards to the way picks up her chips and puts them down slowly. Oh! Oh! there she she goes. She's counting out a bet. Yes! 4 stacks of 2x 5 chips each for a 40 chip bet! Amazing. I'm calling it right now, player of the year! Who is still in this hand after such an aggressive play? Who can call her? Her play is just screaming 'the nuts'!"
 
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Ask her to show you her WSOP bracelets and EPT trophies if she's such a pro player. Ask her for her full name so you can look her up online.

Ask her, if she's so good, why is she playing freerolls instead of playing the high stakes games? You'd think that a player of her caliber and skill would be playing for some small prizes when she could be winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Why are you here playing with us fish? Shouldn't you be in Macau?

Ask her if she coaches. Say you'll pay her in walmart gift cards, since thats the currency she likes to play for.

Everytime she plays a hand, do a commentary:

"As we can see here, pro player at this league play freeroll is in a hand. One thing you gotta love about her is that every move she makes is always correct. Such high skill. The way she looks at her cards to the way picks up her chips and puts them down slowly. Oh! Oh! there she she goes. She's counting out a bet. Yes! 4 stacks of 2x 5 chips each for a 40 chip bet! Amazing. I'm calling it right now, player of the year! Who is still in this hand after such an aggressive play? Who can call her? Her play is just screaming 'the nuts'!"

Haha yesss, I think we will probably play together again on Sunday and I will show her what for
 
rock0001

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you only have 2.5 bb left! of course a8 suited is a hand to shove, i would even shove all in with a hand like q10 or k9 in that spot.
also bb complaining about you stealing the blinds its nonsense because you only have 2.5 bb left so you desperately need to increase your stack. also its only 1.5 bb more for bb to call so i dont understand what bb is complaining about.
 
SuzdalDEcor

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well done! with 2,5 bb you must play all-ins with a Kxs+, or may be Qxs+ from cutoff imho!
 
DontAskWh

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Hello.
As I read you had just 2.5BB , and I think you played very well with your A8 going all in. You just was unlucky as I understand he hit full house , and you hit flush.
I wish good luck to you , and try to play more hands to get more experience as a lot of players told with 2.5BB you should going all in , even with K.
Thanks.
 
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This is not a "bad beat" but the others are right. You need to pick an earlier spot to shove. waiting to get so low isn't ideal. Nothing wrong with any ace, any pair or with so few blinds you really can go with any two cards. You also have to be mindful of stack sizes as well. I've started shoving at 15-20 BB range with decent cards. Sometimes its good. Sometimes I'm home early...
 
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TCashMoney19

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So last night I was playing a tourney with my local poker league, and I was short stacked with 4.5k with blinds at 1000/2000 (blinds had just gone up). I wake up with A8s from the cutoff and its folded down to me. I go all in and the button and small blind fold, big blind calls after complaining about me trying to steal her big blind and shows 22.
I end up hitting the flush but BB gets lucky and hits a deuce on the turn with a paired board on the flop.
So was that a bad beat or should I have waited to get a better hand to shove.

With 2BB in the Cutoff, you should be open shoving about 45% of hands here. Pretty much every hand down to 78s is a profitable shove from the cutoff here, minus a few offsuit hands. With A8s you should be shoving it in, high fiving your friends and throwing a party, this is a monster with 2BBs from the cutoff.

I would suggest OP look up push/shoving ranges from certain ranges with certain stack sizes...unless there's something about the home game that makes shoving super unprofitable for OP (which there aren't many instances of imo, since people don't call wide enough in home games in my experience), with 10-15BB or less you should be open shoving or folding your hands. Almost always. Look up Jennifear's Push/Shove chart online, you'll see what I'm talking about.
 
TulasMoreno

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Was a good shove looking you had 2bb.
 
PKPurple

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Just today in a tournament in a similar situation with 4 bb I went all in with A8o, all previous to me had retired and the player right in front of me with a similar stack called all the others retired I win with A10s I call a Flush and I delete, in my opinion go all in was a good decision with just 4BB you have to bend quickly
 
lilu80

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Snap push. Your A8s here is monster. With your trash stack M1.5 from CO you can play push with 40% range! Your A8s is 12% range. Correct here push is this blue cards:
range40r.jpg
 
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