Was it a mistake?

During a weekend was playing 150 euros re-entry tournament, 174 entries, 18 players in the money.

21 players left, I am BB, with just 8 BB left, BB also put ante 1BB. Short stack from UTG+2 with 11 BB is all-in, SB with 5.5BB calls and I decided to call with AK of. Was that a mistake?

Pros and cons for my decision. Knowing the range of both players, i am sure that they will push with any pocket pair, any ace and any two face cards, and I have a super premium hand. Next level is in 8 minutes, so will have, if fold, something like 14 hands on 3 tables to avoid being a bubble. If I had folded, I am sure that I would be in the money, but with almost no chance for going deeper, just for 18. place. If I win will have almost average stack and a chance for final table, but losing the tournament life if not. Whatever they have, I am against 4 cards, but with a chance to eliminate direct opponent and to left another one with only 4BB. If I fold, and SB win the hand, I am the shortest stack.

First aggressor had JQ of diamonds, SB AK of, me also, board was J34 T T and i finished on 20. position.

I am still sure that I made good call, almost all the cons came from my friend and his main argument was that i needed to cash in first and than if I made something it`s ok if not I would still have 350 euros.

Statistically, you should have been ok, just bad luck the board got a J.

I would have played the same as you...it was just really bad luck. You can't fold premium hands like that...next thing you know, you will be folding AA on the bubble...tough calls, but calls that you have to make when the odds are in your favour.

No other choice there with 8bbs and already in the pot. Ya, you're close to the money but with that short of a stack, you could be blinded down before you get there. AK in a 3 way pot sucks but...you really have no choice.

Do you need that 350 to survive for the rest of the month?
Will you be happy to cash in the 350 and out on the 18th?
Will you still blame yourself for not calling this hand which might give you enough chips to win the tourney?
Which is more painful, losing the chance to make that 350 or losing the chance to win 5200?

放不下 You can't let it go
想不开 You can't thought it through
看不透 You can't accept it
忘不了 You can't forget it

These are the reason why you are bringing this issue up after so many weekends.
Don't blame yourself mate, there's always another weekend to invest another 150 and have a go again.

By the way, i would have done the same to call that hand.

YKCaiTLH1314 said:

Do you need that 350 to survive for the rest of the month?
Will you be happy to cash in the 350 and out on the 18th?
Will you still blame yourself for not calling this hand which might give you enough chips to win the tourney?
Which is more painful, losing the chance to make that 350 or losing the chance to win 5200?

放不下 You can't let it go
想不开 You can't thought it through
看不透 You can't accept it
忘不了 You can't forget it

These are the reason why you are bringing this issue up after so many weekends.
Don't blame yourself mate, there's always another weekend to invest another 150 and have a go again.

By the way, i would have done the same to call that hand.

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If you need the 350 to survive the reset of the month:
- stop playing poker!

It wasn't a mistake, because that shortstack had only 5,5 BB. So you had to win only that one player with 11BB to double your 2,5 BB - the difference between your stack and that shortstack with 5,5 BB. So you would lose only 3BB if you won the player with 11BB and with 5BB of yours, could still get into money, there would be real chance. Since you were BB, it would cost you 1BB to just fold, so we are down to 2BB. But you had a REAL chance to TRIPLE your stack with those AK. So it is 2BB versus (almost) tripling your stack. There was no way on knowing 5,5BB guy had AK too.
So in these circumstances it was a CORRECT decision to go all-in pre-flop.

I wont comment on the chances on getting into money. That argument depends on your bankroll management (BRM). If it was proper, the chances of getting into money shall not matter that much.

You made a right call here. Nevertheless i always try to spread my opinion when it comes to situations like this and that is try to avoid being at the bubble situation. I can understand if someone chop your stack on your way in late stage but being to passive and sitting under 10BBs is just wrong...Like you said mate, there's a little chance to go for higher and if for example my goal is to double my buyin there's a plenty of sngs offering that opportunity. Once again what you did was a good call just try to make your moves way before bubble, because at the and you will be in situation where winning a hand in all in is a must. Better luck next time

I do not think it was a mistake you were already below 10 blind and with those letters I think it was ideal

what happened to you was something of low probability, but it happened so be happy it won't happen again anytime soon! : D

I agree with the others. Was not a bad call. If you had not made it, you might have bled out.

I'm more of a cash game player but I think your friend may have been right, especially if there are other 5.5 BB stacks laying around. You are on the bubble. Now is not the time to push small edges for your tournament life. If it was a cash game then your call is always correct. But if you can find any free or other ICM software I think it would suggest folding. Once the second player calls our equity against any two reasonable ranges is probably in the neighborhood of 25-30%. So the vast majority of the time we lose and get nothing for all of our time, effort, and money. Even when we win, it just allows us to coast to the money, not to get to final table. So why not fold and let the 5.5 BB stack bust out and get one spot closer to the money. If the 5.5 BB hand wins then they essentially just switch places with the 11 BB stack and you are still ahead of one of them in the race to the bubble. If everyone folded and it was heads up then you probably have to call and ride the variance train but it's still not a huge mistake to fold then as well if there are players with 5 BB and less that will be eliminated in another 2 orbits. If you had KK+ that's different.

konemota said:

During a weekend was playing 150 euros re-entry tournament, 174 entries, 18 players in the money.

21 players left, I am BB, with just 8 BB left, BB also put ante 1BB. Short stack from UTG+2 with 11 BB is all-in, SB with 5.5BB calls and I decided to call with AK of. Was that a mistake?

Pros and cons for my decision. Knowing the range of both players, i am sure that they will push with any pocket pair, any ace and any two face cards, and I have a super premium hand. Next level is in 8 minutes, so will have, if fold, something like 14 hands on 3 tables to avoid being a bubble. If I had folded, I am sure that I would be in the money, but with almost no chance for going deeper, just for 18. place. If I win will have almost average stack and a chance for final table, but losing the tournament life if not. Whatever they have, I am against 4 cards, but with a chance to eliminate direct opponent and to left another one with only 4BB. If I fold, and SB win the hand, I am the shortest stack.

First aggressor had JQ of diamonds, SB AK of, me also, board was J34 T T and i finished on 20. position.

I am still sure that I made good call, almost all the cons came from my friend and his main argument was that i needed to cash in first and than if I made something it`s ok if not I would still have 350 euros.

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you made a huge mistake. A common one with new players.

You had 2 all ins ahead of you but are a level 1 thinker of I have X they likely have XX range of hands I'm going to call .

That AK was an instafold once I seen the all Ins ahead. 1 would of busted, I would have then likely made the money .
Even short stack on the BB it's a fold here.

Even if you think you ranged them correctly you fail to understand that at that point , short stack and facing elimination a MP player or any player for thayatter could push with the flowing range:

Any pair
22+
any suited connector or suited gapper such as 10 9 of spades 10 seven of spades Jack seven of spades etc.
you said the small blind was at 85.5 big blind stack at that point any suited Ace suited Broadway's or any face card considering they're in the small blond what do you love to act would be a push they can push with any two cards there. when you talk about putting players on a range range very hard to do at a 5.5 big blind stack size. at this point the small blind could have been pushing with napkins it doesn't matter. I feel like you should have mulcher Ace King which is an unmade hand and let the two all inns fight it out wow you jump up into the money. at this point you should have been thinking about ICM and not the two cards in your hand unless you were looking at Aces Kings queens or jacks.

Each player makes a choice or get to the final table or just get into the money. In this situation, I think you made the right decision, you knew the range of opponents and your hand was stronger than the opponent’s hand, which means that you did everything right. This time you are out of luck, but the next time luck will be with you, and you will be taken to the final table. Good luck.

konemota said:

...18 players in the money. 21 players left...

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That is the clue!.. 150 euro is not the smallest buy in, and for sure ITM starts with about 170 euro... I would fold AKo and even suited AK! 2 short guys go allin - just give them to cut their throtes and watch the show... I think that was exactly that moment, when you overplayed AK