small offsuited Aces on CO

Hi, guys. I find myself on a weird situation when I dealt small offsuited Aces on CO with 10-12bb. For example, I got dealt A3o on CO with 10bb. Charts saying that it's a shove, but I'm not sure should I shove or fold. On button and on SB I would shove, also with A8 and higher, but on CO seems meh to me. What would you do in a regular structure with 10m blinds in these spots? Sorry if it's hard to read. Hope you got the point)

Another question. This time about reshove. Should I reshove vs CO or BU with hands like QJs,KQs,KQo,A4s,A8o,JTs etc with 10-15bb if the open raiser is a standart TAG player? What to do with these hands if the villain is limping? I'm just mostly folding these hands and wondering if it's a mistake or right move. Thanks.

flattershay said:

Hi, guys. I find myself on a weird situation when I dealt small offsuited Aces on CO with 10-12bb. For example, I got dealt A3o on CO with 10bb. Charts saying that it's a shove, but I'm not sure should I shove or fold. On button and on SB I would shove, also with A8 and higher, but on CO seems meh to me. What would you do in a regular structure with 10m blinds in these spots? Sorry if it's hard to read. Hope you got the point)

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That's a tricky spot to be in. If you get called, you at least want to have 2 live cards. If I'm shoving from an early position, I don't like to do it with a weak ace because I find that somebody who calls is likely to have something like AK/AQ/AJ and I'll be dominated. I'd prefer a hand like 87s to Ax. In late position, I'd prefer the weak ace simply because there is less chance of running into a strong A and any Ax is going to be a favorite against any non-paired hand. In the CO, you still have 3 hands behind you that could have a strong A. With 10BB, I'd lean towards a shove but it would depend on the action around me. If I see the shoves getting called a lot, I'd probably fold and push before the BB gets to me.

If the pot is unopened I would shove from the cut off with a small stack, if there are limpers or a raise already, I would fold.

if at the table 4 more people have the same amount of chips as you. you have to drop ICM / plus against their best range .... a3 have at best 30%. I’m talking about 9 max, if the table is 3max, then 100% should be put everything.

If there is no action before me I’m absolutely shoving any ace with 10-12 big blinds. If the action is already raised I’m only getting it in with the table maniacs or someone I have a read on that is likely stealing or betting trash. I’m not looking to gamble with ace rag against most players. Table dynamics and reads dictate my play.

It depends on the other stacks at the table and the styles of players left to act behind you. If someone limps or opens the pot before me I'm folding, unless it's an all-in from a very short stack (<3BB) and other conditions allow it. If the players left to act are tight I will happily shove here just hoping to steal the blinds. Similarly if there is one very short-stack likely to call you an all-in is more likely to isolate you against him. If there is a large stack likely to call with a wide-range or any other suggestion that a steal-raise will be unsuccessful I would fold A3 with 10BB+ and wait for a better spot.

I will write my opinion. If before you there were no raises, feel free to push.

Unopened pot with 10BB from CO for me is around ±34%
22+
A2o+
K4s+, K9o+
Q8s+, QTo+
J8s+, JTo+
T7s+, 97s+,
86s+, 76s, 65s

This is without any info on villains of course, ranges will change when there's more info. No brainer to shove with any ace in this situation.

Amanda A said:

If the pot is unopened I would shove from the cut off with a small stack, if there are limpers or a raise already, I would fold.

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Definitely a good school of thought. However every time I did this, the SB or BB seemed to wake up with a monster hand like AA or KK. If you're gut tells you not to play it, just lay it down and wait for a better spot.

Usually I fold aces with low kicker. But not all the times! Every hand can be played succesfully if you find the right time to try it. This depends from the study of your game generally. This means maths, sequences, odds, equition and your judgement!

Question 1:
Push / Folds charts dictates that we open shove. If someone else has already open raised we talk about different dynamics. It's a great question , I have caught my self hesitate many times about this stuff, should I jam my short stack now or it is better to wait until a better hand comes?On the previous question is based your tournament life , been there many time.

I will write you something in order to read it myself once again , since nobody has open raised till your turn that means that they don't have something good enough to open raise.Push / fold charts don't make mistakes , the play is always +EV!
Don't tighten up your open shove range too much , only strong Ax , Kx or only pocket pairs, try not to blind out.As a previous poster mentioned is it preferable to hold 2 live cards instead of a dominated A.You can tell that the best hand pre flop does not always win!

Question 2:

I assume you mean when you are on the blinds!This is something you should listen to your ''reads'' , if the late position opener keep stealing your blinds in every orbit then yes ,with your stack depth[10-15bbs] the hands you mentioned are standard rejams against LP stealer. To be honest I would shoved something like Ax , KTo+ ,QJs+, 22+ . If the late open raiser wasn't so active then I may tighten up my rejam range. This question is not so simple, many good players still misplay those spots, so I feel that we should keep searching and studying.

Co A/3o

I would fold n rather push with small connectors. Eg ; 5/6 or 9/10

akmost said:

Question 1:
Push / Folds charts dictates that we open shove. If someone else has already open raised we talk about different dynamics. It's a great question , I have caught my self hesitate many times about this stuff, should I jam my short stack now or it is better to wait until a better hand comes?On the previous question is based your tournament life , been there many time.

I will write you something in order to read it myself once again , since nobody has open raised till your turn that means that they don't have something good enough to open raise.Push / fold charts don't make mistakes , the play is always +EV!
Don't tighten up your open shove range too much , only strong Ax , Kx or only pocket pairs, try not to blind out.As a previous poster mentioned is it preferable to hold 2 live cards instead of a dominated A.You can tell that the best hand pre flop does not always win!

Question 2:

I assume you mean when you are on the blinds!This is something you should listen to your ''reads'' , if the late position opener keep stealing your blinds in every orbit then yes ,with your stack depth[10-15bbs] the hands you mentioned are standard rejams against LP stealer. To be honest I would shoved something like Ax , KTo+ ,QJs+, 22+ . If the late open raiser wasn't so active then I may tighten up my rejam range. This question is not so simple, many good players still misplay those spots, so I feel that we should keep searching and studying.

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1. Yes, I meant open-shoving without limpers or raiers. I know it's on a shoving range from that position, but feels like I'll be mostly dominated if they call and lost a lot with that hands. Also, hesitate shoving hands like 9Ts,89s,78s even if they have a good equity against high-cards. Maybe it's a mistake and I always should jam those suited connectors? Question is: how strong Ax should be to shove?
2.I'm never reshoving Ax unless I know that villain is over-agressive and opens wide. Feels like that people inclined to call, because they already invested chips by open-raising. Another question comes up to my mind: How to reshove if we don't have a fold equity? For example, with QJs on SB with 7-8bb vs BU open raise. How tight or lose we should reshove? Can't explain myself properly because of a bad english. Hope you get me.

Mepper95 said:

Unopened pot with 10BB from CO for me is around ±34%
22+
A2o+
K4s+, K9o+
Q8s+, QTo+
J8s+, JTo+
T7s+, 97s+,
86s+, 76s, 65s

This is without any info on villains of course, ranges will change when there's more info. No brainer to shove with any ace in this situation.

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This range seems too wide for me.

flattershay said:

1. Yes, I meant open-shoving without limpers or raiers. I know it's on a shoving range from that position, but feels like I'll be mostly dominated if they call and lost a lot with that hands. Also, hesitate shoving hands like 9Ts,89s,78s even if they have a good equity against high-cards. Maybe it's a mistake and I always should jam those suited connectors? Question is: how strong Ax should be to shove?
2.I'm never reshoving Ax unless I know that villain is over-agressive and opens wide. Feels like that people inclined to call, because they already invested chips by open-raising. Another question comes up to my mind: How to reshove if we don't have a fold equity? For example, with QJs on SB with 7-8bb vs BU open raise. How tight or lose we should reshove? Can't explain myself properly because of a bad english. Hope you get me.

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1.Play with the program Equilab you will find it for free and it is a must have poker tool.Play with your hands and with what they can call you , hands like 98s,78s perform excellent and better than A rags indeed against strong Ax hands.

2.If I am that short and villain is super aggressive in late position we can't go to a flop because we will not have position against him post flop.If I understand correctly what you wrote.So it is preferable to go all in if we are on the SB.If we are on the BB sometimes I just call but this is what I do.The range I wrote in my previous comment I think is pretty standard.If anyone else knows something better please let us know.I am also curious!


ps. Not a native English speaker too but I understood everything

akmost said:

1.Play with the program Equilab you will find it for free and it is a must have poker tool.Play with your hands and with what they can call you , hands like 98s,78s perform excellent and better than A rags indeed against strong Ax hands.

2.If I am that short and villain is super aggressive in late position we can't go to a flop because we will not have position against him post flop.If I understand correctly what you wrote.So it is preferable to go all in if we are on the SB.If we are on the BB sometimes I just call but this is what I do.The range I wrote in my previous comment I think is pretty standard.If anyone else knows something better please let us know.I am also curious!


ps. Not a native English speaker too but I understood everything

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I meant reshoving with stack that doesn't have fold equity. For example, BU opens for 2.5 bb and I have 7bb on SB and I need to reshove. He always will call, even with 85o. I wanted to know about our shoving range in this situation, knowing that villain won't fold. It should be tight or loose?

flattershay said:

I meant reshoving with stack that doesn't have fold equity. For example, BU opens for 2.5 bb and I have 7bb on SB and I need to reshove. He always will call, even with 85o. I wanted to know about our shoving range in this situation, knowing that villain won't fold. It should be tight or loose?

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To be honest in the above case scenario where I am way too short I rejam way wider because I want a flip against one single opponent and not against more.

flattershay said:

I meant reshoving with stack that doesn't have fold equity. For example, BU opens for 2.5 bb and I have 7bb on SB and I need to reshove. He always will call, even with 85o. I wanted to know about our shoving range in this situation, knowing that villain won't fold. It should be tight or loose?

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This is based more on how I play, so it might not be correct mathematically or strategy wise.

With 7 BBs, I'm happy to re jam ATC and hope they're live. This is a situation where I don't mind getting it in as an underdog because my stack is so short that I have to take some risks if I want any chance of running deep. In most scenarios, I'm that not big of a dog unless it's a cooler and, if that happens, who cares? Nothing we can do about that. In most situations, were probably going to have 20-50% equity, sometimes even as high as 60% equity, and that is good enough.

I was folding hands like QJs,A7o,JTs and etc thinking that I'll get dominated mostly, but from now on will reshove those type of hands. Thanks a lot for advices.

flattershay said:

I was folding hands like QJs,A7o,JTs and etc thinking that I'll get dominated mostly, but from now on will reshove those type of hands. Thanks a lot for advices.

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It is villain dependent, but try plugging some some hands into equity calculator to see what kind of preflop equity you have if called.

I gave villain a pretty tight call range of A2s+, A10o+, all suited broadways, and 55+

vs QJs, ~40.5% equity
vs A7o, 36% equity
vs J10s, 38.5% equity

Keep in mind that the wider the call range, the more equity you pick up. I'd be jamming a much wider range like anything suited or anything connecting, suited or not. Using the same range, lets look at some hands I'd shove for 7 BBs:

vs K3s, ~34.5% equity
vs 45o, 30% equity
vs 22, ~40% equity

So, I'm not that much of an underdog even though I'm shoving a fairly wide range. Even if villain has a much tighter call range of JJ+, A10s+, AKo, we're not that far off.

vs QJs, 30.5%
vs A7o, ~26%
vs 10Js, ~29.5%

vs K3s, 28%
vs 45o, 28%
vs 22, ~35.5%

As you can see, you're only a ~30-40% underdog, which is never a bad spot to be in as a severe short stack. Even if their call range is QQ+, AKs, in most situations, you have at least 20%+ equity preflop, which isn't terrible.

As a personal rule, when I'm a severe short stack, I'm looking for more spots/reasons to jam than I am to fold. Sometimes, in my opinion, it's better to push your luck than it sit and wait for a big hand. Of course it's mighty silly when I'm open jamming73s and beating KK that snap calls, but that's just how it is. I'm not getting anywhere by just folding and I can't win with a little bit of luck.

Obviously, the more BBs you have, you can have a tighter shoving/reshoving range but you don't necessarily have to wait to get down to a specific amount before making certain plays. For example, having 15 BBs is virtually the same as having 10 BBs, so if a lot of situations, if you're shoving 10 BBs, you can shove 15. As you move up in BBs, you can still be considered relatively short but with more flexibility. 20-25 BBs is a very flexible stack but it's, not a large stack by any means. You obviously don't have to open jam a hand you would if you had 10BBs, but you can't be opening as wide of a range. As a general rule, with 25BBs or less, you should only be playing hands you would be willing to get in preflop.

If you're in the CO and it folds to you and you have 10 BBs or less, that would be a prime shoving spot. If you are short stacked like that, you only have two options -- fold or shove. I've seen way too many people limp into a pot when they are super short-stacked, only to fold when the BB re-raises them all-in. Don't waste chips in that stage.

What are the stack sizes of the players yet to act? If the BB or SB has a huge stack, they're likely going to call you with any two cards, so you will have a good chance to get a double up. A-3 against KQo is still about 57-42 to win.

If they have smaller stacks (less than 40BBs) they will be more judicious in what they call you with, so you could scoop up the antes and blinds without having to sweat the runout. Assuming this is late in a tourney, getting antes and blinds could increase your stack size 25 percent or more.

flattershay said:

Hi, guys. I find myself on a weird situation when I dealt small offsuited Aces on CO with 10-12bb. For example, I got dealt A3o on CO with 10bb. Charts saying that it's a shove, but I'm not sure should I shove or fold. On button and on SB I would shove, also with A8 and higher, but on CO seems meh to me. What would you do in a regular structure with 10m blinds in these spots? Sorry if it's hard to read. Hope you got the point)

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You already answered. If on the button and on SB you would shove, so you can raise and call against the button, SB and fold against the Big Blind or shove against rock or nit players, but against loose aggressive you will get called on the Button and SB with a lot more hands.

ohshootmybad said:

This is based more on how I play, so it might not be correct mathematically or strategy wise.

With 7 BBs, I'm happy to re jam ATC and hope they're live. This is a situation where I don't mind getting it in as an underdog because my stack is so short that I have to take some risks if I want any chance of running deep. In most scenarios, I'm that not big of a dog unless it's a cooler and, if that happens, who cares? Nothing we can do about that. In most situations, were probably going to have 20-50% equity, sometimes even as high as 60% equity, and that is good enough.

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I agree, Any Two will be profitable play in some spots, but it isn't a thing that you should always do and focus only it. It will depend the ranges that villains was playing and stacks during the hand.