$0,5 NL HE MTT: How to play pocket 9s from UTG on FT as mid stack?

[Andyreas]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

0,5

Game Options

1. Turbo

Currency

$

Dear poker experts,

I'd like some feedback on this hand I played.

I was on the FT at an on demand MTSnG on pokerstars with 45 players, 9 left, 7 get paid. Due to the turbo blind levels, we were all short in stack basically. Only one player was out of the shove range. 😅

I get dealt 99 in UTG. I was unsure what to do. Min raising did not really make sense based on the blind size and my stack. Folding felt too hard for this solid pocket pair. So I decided to shove. Was that a good decision; independent of the outcome? Or should I have folded them?

I definitely need to improve my FT play, I guess.

Happy for your feedback.


PokerStars, $0.45 + $0.05 - Hold'em No Limit - 500/1,000 (60 ante) - 9 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

AndyreasDE (UTG): 9,233 (9 bb)
Macarningol (UTG+1): 8,172 (8 bb)
M1936 (MP): 4,803 (5 bb)
KSP30 (MP+1): 3,375 (3 bb)
AlekSasha89 (LP): 7,578 (8 bb)
beeckeer (CO): 5,634 (6 bb)
dborisen (BU): 4,220 (4 bb)
skywokerz (SB): 15,784 (16 bb)
hanilv (BB): 8,701 (9 bb)

Pre-Flop: (2,040) Hero (AndyreasDE) is UTG with 9♣ 9♥
AndyreasDE (UTG) raises to 9,173 (all-in), 1 fold, M1936 (MP) calls 4,743 (all-in), 6 players fold

Flop: (11,526) 7♦ 7♣ K♦ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (11,526) 5♠ (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (11,526) Q♣ (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: 11,526

Showdown:
AndyreasDE (UTG) shows 9♣ 9♥ (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 9%, Turn: 5%, River: 0%)

M1936 (MP) shows J♥ J♦ (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 91%, Turn: 95%, River: 100%)

M1936 (MP) wins 11,526

 

[whiskers77]

I would have folded this hand because you were in second place at this moment and UTG is not a good position
for such a middle pair. It is very likely that a player with better pocket pairs or AK - AT would call you. So either you are the underdog or you will face a coin-flip. Furthermore, there was still a player with 3 BB and one with 6BB who would likely drop out earlier than you.
Maybe run this hand through ICMizer as well and have a look at what it recommends.

 

[PuletJelek]

I had a lot of bad beats or was dominated by bigger pairs while playing from UTG...
play monster hands only on this position...

 

[Arnakk2424]

Its a 9BB push
Min raise ? you have to call an All-in. You really want to induce action with 99 ?
Min raise and fold is throwing 20% of your stake and next 2 hands you probably will loose chips too

 

[theStarfish]

I understand that 99 are hard to fold but in this case I personally would have folded, I think. Like Whiskers77 said you are 2nd biggest stack and the only way to play this hand is to shove but you don´t want to get called here. With 2 players left before the money there are better spots. Especially the small stacks should be attacked and you want to avoid to play against bigger stacks.

 

[Arnakk2424]

Second ICMIZER
With FGS ON (consider the fact the blind will hit you) its a 0.2 push.

 

[Arnakk2424]

Its really hard to believe some peoples think its a fold. The question you should ask is how wide you should push, should not be if 99 is a push or not

 

[Andyreas]

Thank you @Arnakk2424 . I'm not too familiar with the ICMizer.

Does your calculations mean my decision was technically correct, meaning on average it would have been a correct decision?

 

[Arnakk2424]

Thank you @Arnakk2424 . I'm not too familiar with the ICMizer.

Does your calculations mean my decision was technically correct, meaning on average it would have been a correct decision?

Everything in Green on the right is a correct push
In this spot pushing on average will give you + 0.2%. Pushing with AA is 2.14%. 0.2% is huge consider everyone is shortstack. I personally don't mind making an incorrect decision if its 0.05%
What 0.2% worth? Its 0.2% of the price pool. In this case $0.04 (close to 10% of the buyin).
Don't fall into the trap of thinking " I'm 2 stakes" I preserve my chip. All its going to happen is falling because of the blinds.
Its just an unfortunate spot.

 

[Arnakk2424]

I just saw you "liked it" when I was editing. I made few typo before, reread it with correct #

 

[fundiver199]

If you are going to play these turbo SnGs, you definitely need to get more familiar with short-stacked push-fold ranges, which is included in the CC 30 day course. As Arnakk2424 say, the question in this hand is not, what we do with 99, but what we do with some of the more marginal hands, that show up in green on the ICMizer output. There is a risk, people might be calling wider, than they are supposed to, so its reasonable to only jam hands, that are at least +0,05% of the price pool in EV.

If we use that criteria, the jamming range is: 66+, AT+, A2s+, KJ+, K9s+, JTs+. This is pretty close to, what is called "the magic range" in the CC 30 day course, except that the smallest pocket pairs are not included. Folding 99 would be a significant mistake and the most likely outcome would be, that you end up blinding away and having to go with a hand much worse than 99. Even just in the next two hands you are going to pay 1.620 chips in blind and antes, and then you are suddenly only an average stack at the table.

 

[Arnakk2424]

If you are going to play these turbo SnGs, you definitely need to get more familiar with short-stacked push-fold ranges, which is included in the CC 30 day course. As Arnakk2424 say, the question in this hand is not, what we do with 99, but what we do with some of the more marginal hands, that show up in green on the ICMizer output. There is a risk, people might be calling wider, than they are supposed to, so its reasonable to only jam hands, that are at least +0,05% of the price pool in EV.

If we use that criteria, the jamming range is: 66+, AT+, A2s+, KJ+, K9s+, JTs+. This is pretty close to, what is called "the magic range" in the CC 30 day course, except that the smallest pocket pairs are not included. Folding 99 would be a significant mistake and the most likely outcome would be, that you end up blinding away and having to go with a hand much worse than 99. Even just in the next two hands you are going to pay 1.620 chips in blind and antes, and then you are suddenly only an average stack at the table.

I played with opponents range but at some point it’s more profitable if they are crazy. Tried to make it short not showing too much analyse
If it was a $200 tournament we can elaborate more in dept it and talk about it more. But I don’t see any case to fold unless It’s a satellite but at this point we can change everything

 

[fundiver199]

I played with opponents range but at some point it’s more profitable if they are crazy.

If people call wider than the NASH equilibrium, then the EV of jamming the very best hands like AA goes up, but the EV of jamming the majority of hands goes down. For instance MP, who called with JJ, is supposed to do that, but he is supposed to fold TT. And then we need to ask, is an average player in a 0,5$ SnG able to fold TT, when he have 5 blinds left? Probably not and this is why, we should not jam the most marginal hands in the NASH range based on population tendencies. But 99 is still an easy jam

 

[Andyreas]

you definitely need to get more familiar with short-stacked push-fold ranges, which is included in the CC 30 day course.

This is pretty close to, what is called "the magic range" in the CC 30 day course, except that the smallest pocket pairs are not included.

This magic range is always on my mind when playing short stack. My only 'problem' is it does not include any Infos on position, just mentiones an example that pushing 22 from UTG might be wrong, which is also shown in the screenshot above. That's why I decided to make this post since I'm sometimes unsure how to include position info.

Usually I combine with the classical ranges for preflop play which would be 66+ for UTG and therefore I decided to shove.
But obviously that approach is too simple as the correct range is a little wider.

When looking at the graph, I'm a little puzzled why A4o and A5o are marginal shoving hands but A6o-A8o not? (I understand it might be a mistake to shove those but just wondering why this is happening.)

 

[Reail]

I think that the odds on the straight are taken into account here

 

[fundiver199]

Exactly. A4-A5 has a small chance to make a wheel, and if we get called by hands like JJ or AK, A4 and A8 are equally dominated. This is also why, A2s is a higher EV jam than ATo in this configuration, where people are supposed to call very tight. If we are jamming blind vs. blind, things change a lot, because BB is supposed to call much wider, and then our kicker will matter.

 

[fundiver199]

Exactly. A4-A5 has a small chance to make a wheel, and if we get called by hands like JJ or AK, A4 and A8 are equally dominated. This is also why, A2s is a higher EV jam than ATo in this configuration, where people are supposed to call very tight. If we are jamming blind vs. blind, things change a lot, because BB is supposed to call much wider, and then our kicker will matter.

 

[whiskers77]

Nice, that I found this thread again, I was really interested, what will be the suggestions. Thank you Arnak for running this through the ICMizer, as I suggested at the beginning.
And also fundiver explained things very well, thank you for this. I would have played this hand too nitty, I guess. Very good, thank you 🙌👏

 

[DaMooca]

The problem with this hand is that you're second in chips, but it's still only 9bb. And when we're so short any chip lost makes a lot of difference. And because it's from UTG with 8 players in front of it, I think I'll pass this spot and hope for a better spot.