AQo on the BB in the money

I was playing a tournament and the first 20 people got paid out
we were left with 15, so I was in the money

I was on the BB with 11BB
The SB had 17.5BB

I was dealt AhQs
Everybody folds and the SB goes all-in, trying to steal the BB

In the moment I thought "double or nothing, he probably has a worse hand"

So I go All-in, SB had Kh7h

On the board comes "6s 5h 9d 2c Ks"
So he made a pair and I was out

Now I'm wondering if I should have folded my hand because of ICC, to stay in the tournament or not

What do you guys think?

I don't know the ICC and all that jazz, but it's a tough spot, you've almost always got the best hand but you'd rather be jamming AQ than calling off with it. I think i'd struggle to lay down AQ here, just unlucky.

Snap calling there every time. You have a top 10% hand there and there are so many hands he can be doing that with you really are left with no choice. Hell, I am calling with almost any ace there.

If you fold AQo here BvB then which is your calling range?

SB's open jam is more than standard and your call is too.Just a lost flip.GG.

In this case, you did the right thing. Just out of luck.

The goal of playing a sit a go or tournament is to win it, and the correct play in blind war with aq is to pay because sb has an open push range.

If you do the calculations that make sb of the expected value you will realize that it is profitable to always put in sb vs bb, paying with an open range is also profitable.

After he goes all-in you call so fast what you risk hurting your finger.

11bb deep AQ is a monster hand (HU even better).

In this situation, AQ is a good hand to put all-in, you played it right, but no luck, this often happens, you need to get used to it, it's poker.

Always call, with your 11bb you need to be praying for situation like this

You made the right play. Being im a challenged enthusiast to online poker i still play. Some advice take it or leave it. If your put all in pre flop by someone with double your vpip than your own, take a pass. Specially the cheaper the tourney is.

More and more super loose players(fish if you may) are getting to the money. We all know play to many hands you will leak to death. Yet so many seem to make it these days. Avoid anybody with higher than 75% vpip unless its post flop and you have nuts. It has done wonders for me. :ciao:

Hello! In this hand, your stack was 11 bb, this is a very short stack, you did everything right. In addition, the structure of the tournament is created in such a way that only the top 3 players have the biggest prize, therefore, I think it's better to try to take a higher place calling with AQ, than waiting for the blinds to eat the stack, getting a small prize.

depends on many factors. most often all in)) I go into the tournament to win ..

I'm calling here in the big blind 100% of the time with 11bb to a sb shove.

You definitely made the correct call.

Your hand wins way more often than not - you just got unlucky that time - if you were to fold in spots like this you would be losing more in the long run.

So, in my opinion:

1. Get it in with AQ on 11bbs - it's by far premium enough
2. SB vs BB - obviously 90% of the time SB is shoving any two - I would call with ANY ace-x, any broadway hands, any pockets, and potentially suited Kx or hands like Q9 - they have great equity in this spot
3. If the hand won - it sets you up for a better chance to have a stack to win the tourney

Good luck

I have to agree with about everybody on this thread. 11 big blinds and Ace Queen and only the small blind who can have a wide range of Steal hands. You definitely made the right play.

thatgreekdude said:

I don't know the ICC and all that jazz, but it's a tough spot, you've almost always got the best hand but you'd rather be jamming AQ than calling off with it. I think i'd struggle to lay down AQ here, just unlucky.

Click to expand...

I would have called in a heartbeat. 9 out of 10 times, maybe 99 out of a 100 times, they have AQ or worse.

If the next payjump was not like 20.000$ and 4 or 5 shortstacks in the game, I would call the steal attempt from the SB without watching my cards. AQ is a monster in that situation, call it over and over again... damn river, nothing else!

Not too tough imo. Most likely you have him beat if not crushed.

As someone else wrote, if you fold AQo here you aren't leaving much to call with and you are getting pretty low.

Only exception for me is if there are one or two sitting super short stacked looking to ladder up. Also depends if that ladder matters that much.

zorcka said:

I was playing a tournament and the first 20 people got paid out
we were left with 15, so I was in the money

I was on the BB with 11BB
The SB had 17.5BB

I was dealt AhQs
Everybody folds and the SB goes all-in, trying to steal the BB

In the moment I thought "double or nothing, he probably has a worse hand"

So I go All-in, SB had Kh7h

On the board comes "6s 5h 9d 2c Ks"
So he made a pair and I was out

Now I'm wondering if I should have folded my hand because of ICC, to stay in the tournament or not

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

I think that you did everything correctly It was just a unlucky run.

2 points of view on such situation

1st point of view.. it's quite standard today:

You're in the money... Time to play more loose and to increase your stack for the final table, Any Ace or any pair from any position is a all-in. Any K from late position is also all-in, some players shove even trashy suited connectors. At this stage players who represent such point of view are dangerous for tight players. Also if tight player changed his gears to such strategy - rest of the table will be scared, players would like to save their stacks for the final table and will prefer to fold, that's why exploiting their fears is profitable.


2nd point of view is also quite standard.

1) What's the next payjump(prisejump) ?
2) What other shorter stacks left in the torney?

Let's say that
Places 12 to 15 are paid equally

then

a) if there are 4+ stacks left lower than yours, then depending on info you have on the person who went all-in i must say that it's like 70% fold.

b) if there are no lower stacks or just 2 lower or equal stacks to yours then it's 100% call.

My past experience says that patience is always better rewarded then maths or feeling of good luck. This year in the online MTT I managed to reach the final table with 9BB stack and average stack was approx 20BB, Next shortest stack was 16BB, It's obvious that more likely I had to finish at 9th place, but big stacks had premium pocket pairs and during first round 3 players went out the player before me increased his stack to 100BB+ so all remaining players played carefully against him and since I was sitting behind him - he was a single person who tried to steal my blinds, and that's how I've doubled up to 14BBs, then again to 30BBs and finished in 4th place.

Had many of such situations in the past years...

Been observing the final table of Sunday Million at the pokerstars several weeks ago, 9 players, some Russian guy started the final with 11BB stack and was sitting tight till 4BB stack... more and more players went out, he doubled up once, again and again and he won the second place.

Always have to act according to what's going on at the table. IF 3 or more players are going all-in, and you're holding KK - would you call or fold if the next payjump will give you additional buy-in or more? What is better? To see a flop-river together with these guys with a chance to tripple up with pocket Kings or to add extra thousand to your wallet by just folding it right here right now like if it's 7-2os?

AQ is a death sentence

zorcka said:

I was playing a tournament and the first 20 people got paid out
we were left with 15, so I was in the money

I was on the BB with 11BB
The SB had 17.5BB

I was dealt AhQs
Everybody folds and the SB goes all-in, trying to steal the BB

In the moment I thought "double or nothing, he probably has a worse hand"

So I go All-in, SB had Kh7h

On the board comes "6s 5h 9d 2c Ks"
So he made a pair and I was out

Now I'm wondering if I should have folded my hand because of ICC, to stay in the tournament or not

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

I absolutely hate AQ in almost all spots, huge favorite or not, it always finds a way to lose and bust you out of a tournament, one of the hardest hands to play. That being said you didn't make a mistake, if your looking to win a tournament, fold there is sub optimal and if you make a habit of folding AQ in that spot you might as well give up poker, you just got unlucky. AQ for you, always finds a way to lose, trash hand imo, but you just gotta go with it sometimes and pray to the poker gods.