$2 NLHE: Small stack vs. Big stack: what should I do?

[Juniorsdaddy]

$2 NL HE: Small stack vs. Big stack: what should I do?

This hand occurred during last night's Invasion. I have been in this situation a couple of times recently, and want to know if I have been acting correctly. In this one, I was short stack going against the big stack at the table:

pokerstars Game #26079953977: Tournament #148782776, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (100/200) - 2009/03/17 22:17:42 ET
Table '148782776 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Gordz89 (13741 in chips)
Seat 3: U RADONK81 (12429 in chips)
Seat 4: Superschnu (6340 in chips)
Seat 6: mosi32 (8049 in chips)
Seat 7: AJTrucker3 (3532 in chips)
Seat 8: Whatthe555 (4198 in chips)
Seat 9: JF_Souza (1650 in chips)
Gordz89: posts the ante 25
U RADONK81: posts the ante 25
Superschnu: posts the ante 25
mosi32: posts the ante 25
AJTrucker3: posts the ante 25
Whatthe555: posts the ante 25
JF_Souza: posts the ante 25
U RADONK81: posts small blind 100
Superschnu: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to AJTrucker3 [Qc Ah]
mosi32: folds
AJTrucker3: raises 400 to 600
Whatthe555: folds
JF_Souza: folds
Gordz89: folds
U RADONK81: calls 500
Superschnu: folds
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ac 5h]
U RADONK81: checks
AJTrucker3: ???

What should I do? I will post what I did do later

 

[Jillychemung]

Due to stack sizes & pot/stack ratios, you either go AI here or bet the pot and shove on the turn. You are only behind a small amount of opponents range, get you money in while ahead.

 

[Kenzie 96]

Due to stack sizes & pot/stack ratios, you either go AI here or bet the pot and shove on the turn. You are only behind a small amount of opponents range, get you money in while ahead.

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AQ is one of those "looks better than it plays" hands, I'd lean toward raising 5 or 6x or just go Allin preflop from your position.

 

[Melkor]

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AQ is one of those "looks better than it plays" hands, I'd lean toward raising 5 or 6x or just go Allin preflop from your position.

While I agree AQ is a trouble hand I would not say we can raise 6x or go all-in preflop. Only hands that are beating us call a shove whereas a standard raise can get worse aces and KQ in as well as some other stuff.

On the flop basically what Jilly said, we are looking to get it in, so bet like 700 and shove turn.

 

[luckytvguy]

in my opinion,just go all in.you have no choice.he may have AJ ,A5,JJ,55.But you are short stacked.you have to take risk and play aggressively.I think you posting the handhistory here means you lost the hand.But it is the luck which take role.

 

[shinedown.45]

I'm leaning towards a 3/4 pot bet and pushing turn, odds are you have the better hand here and you want to give villian odds to make a call or make a bluff push.
If villian is playing loose and you think he may have hit any piece of this flop, then the best move IMO is all-in, as a loose player hitting any piece of the flop will call most times.
If player is playing tight then the 3/4 pot bet is the direction I would go as he may be setting you up for a check/raise which is quite possible with that flop.
If he comes over the top of your 3/4 pot bet, then you are likely against 2pr to trips here and you may just have to fold, if folding was not even on your mind when the flop hit then you might as well go allin to his check.

If this is unclear, just ask me to clarify what you don't understand.

 

[tpb221]

Pretty much what everyone's saying. Betting or pushing, whatever you like, because in the end it's all going in the middle. I'd prersonally just push hoping to take it down there because I think your in a coin flip.

 

[Juniorsdaddy]

OK, here is how it played out:

*** FLOP *** [Jd Ac 5h]
U RADONK81: checks
AJTrucker3: bets 2907 and is all-in
U RADONK81: calls 2907
COZAMEL is connected
*** TURN *** [Jd Ac 5h] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ac 5h Jh] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
U RADONK81: shows [5d 5c] (a full house, Fives full of Jacks)
AJTrucker3: shows [Qc Ah] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
U RADONK81 collected 7389 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7389 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Ac 5h Jh 4c]
Seat 1: Gordz89 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: U RADONK81 (small blind) showed [5d 5c] and won (7389) with a full house, Fives full of Jacks
Seat 4: Superschnu (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: mosi32 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: AJTrucker3 showed [Qc Ah] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 8: Whatthe555 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: JF_Souza folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Unlucky, right? My concern is I had a similar situation a few days ago. I was small stack vs. big stack and I had AK. Big raise (I believe 4x the blind) pre flop. I hit the A, go all in, and he insta-calls with 2 pair. Am I not being aggressive enough, should I slow down after seeing the flop, or is it just bad luck?

 

[shinedown.45]

OK, here is how it played out:

*** FLOP *** [Jd Ac 5h]
U RADONK81: checks
AJTrucker3: bets 2907 and is all-in
U RADONK81: calls 2907
COZAMEL is connected
*** TURN *** [Jd Ac 5h] J♥
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ac 5h Jh] 4♣
*** SHOW DOWN ***
U RADONK81: shows [5d 5c] (a full house, Fives full of Jacks)
AJTrucker3: shows [Qc Ah] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
U RADONK81 collected 7389 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7389 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Ac 5h Jh 4c]
Seat 1: Gordz89 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: U RADONK81 (small blind) showed [5d 5c] and won (7389) with a full house, Fives full of Jacks
Seat 4: Superschnu (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: mosi32 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: AJTrucker3 showed [Qc Ah] and lost with two pair, Aces and Jacks
Seat 8: Whatthe555 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: JF_Souza folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Unlucky, right? My concern is I had a similar situation a few days ago. I was small stack vs. big stack and I had AK. Big raise (I believe 4x the blind) pre flop. I hit the A, go all in, and he insta-calls with 2 pair. Am I not being aggressive enough, should I slow down after seeing the flop, or is it just bad luck?

All of the above and you also should have reads on opponents.

 

[jcbdx33]

Here , on the flop, I would check and let him play. If he make a bet from 2/3 pot to pot size, then you should check-raise all-in. You could represent more strength than you have and make him fold maybe AK ( I say maybe...). If he checks you could make a probe bet on the turn: if he re-raises you may read the slowplay here. But in fact in this case (trips), you are intend to loose lots of money...

 

[Fireblade]

As it turns out a push preflop would have been the best decision. You have a reasonable stack so can see why you played like you did. If you choose to raise you need to raise more to discourage action from people with large stacks and who are a calling station, saying this to raise more than 3x BB would pretty much put you all in anyway given a decent chunk of the flop.

Against loose opponents with large stacks and semi decent cards I think an all in preflop with a fairly small M is the best decision. But to be honest if you just check on the flop after him then he will be forced to bet on the turn. Then you could get a feeling to whether you were beaten or not.

Remember at this point you are either WA/WB. So If you don't go in I think you should have checked.

Saying this its very hard to check top pair with a good kicker. I would have pushed as well, hoping he had a weaker ace which is likely during online play.

I don't think you can be too hard on yourself really, usually if they flop the nuts and then improve you are destined to get stack when you are short stacked and have what you think is the nuts.

 

[DaFrench1]

The only way to have got away from the hand would have been to bet around half the pot on the flop to get some idea where you are. There isn't a flush draw and only a gutshot straight draw so you can get away with a smaller c-bet here, if he's missed he folds whether you bet half or 3/4 pot imo. He probably slowplays you on this hand anyway and flat-calls, but the call on the flop would be enough to set off alarm bells as you would know that AK and AJ both have you beat and 55s and JJs have you crushed, its hard to put him on any other hands that would call that flop other than Ax though it depend on how loose you have figured this guy to be. He would then give you a tough decision on the turn but one you could still possibly get away from and still have chips for shoving another hand. If he slowplays you again on the turn you could then check behind as you have position but would still have the decision on the river when he value bets, though he probably wouldn't put you all-in at that point if he doesn't want to scare you out. That would have been the only way I see that the hand plays out and gives you a chance to get away. I don't think PF shove is warranted at this point in tournament though with 1000 less chips to start the hand then it would be.

Having said that, probably about 90% of players will get stacked the same way you did on this hand. And although I'm trying to add some of the discipline I'm describing above to my game I'm still in that 90% for now as well (especially at $2 buy-in).

Good hand to think about though, thanks for posting it.