$5 NLHE MTT: Next move?

[Tangerine 53]

I'm not experienced at tourneys but recently entered one on 888. The situation is that we're down to 11 players and we're just about to enter the next money bubble - 10th gets double what was paid to 11th to 20th. However 10th only gets $12 and the real prizes are the top 3 with the winner taking over $1,000. I've got the largest stack to my left and I've recently been getting quite aggressive and raising the last few hands and scooping the blinds. The villain is paying quite nitty and folding to most of my raises.

I look down at TT UTG and raise to 3.5 x the BB. Villain raises and I have a decision to make. What would you do given the dynamics re pay structure above?


Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, November 17, 11:33:55 ET 2010
Table 28397472 table 2 (real money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 1: kpax1 ( $31549.00 USD )
Seat 3: gr1msby1 ( $58492.00 USD )
Seat 4: tangerine53 ( $29969.00 USD )
Seat 5: toplady ( $59204.00 USD )
Seat 7: flyfish3r ( $35644.00 USD )
kpax1 posts small blind [$1000.00 USD].
gr1msby1 posts big blind [$2000.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to tangerine53 [ Tc Th ]
tangerine53 raises [$7000.00 USD]
toplady raises [$24000.00 USD]
flyfish3r folds
kpax1 folds
gr1msby1 folds

 

[i aint assd]

not a torney expert but this is pretty much a no brainer to get the rest in

Yes its likely your going to be racing, but remember that first raise you made had a lot of fold equity so dont worry about it, you said it yourself your aiming for 1st-3rd, nittin away as the shortstack by folding 1010 there would be madness

 

[TheUndesirable]

with 15BB, just shove pre as you could put yourself in this exact spot, where your facing a reraise not knowing exactly where you at, but with 15BB really can't fold tens. It just puts you in a situation where you could be tempted to fold to a hand like 88 or 99. If he has a bigger pair then so be it its standard to get it in anyway - lets not make hero folds with 15BB. and you don't mind flipping here with your stack i guess.

 

[ManicLombax]

Yeah you're right on the brink of push/fold mode with M=10 here. As the others said, you don't want to raise 1/4 of your stack and then fold here very often, unless you've just been totally card dead and decide to try to steal with 73, which clearly you wouldn't do from UTG.

Anyhow yeah I agree, with TT you don't want to fold, and if you weren't going to fold to a shove, you should have just shoved in the first place. This will keep hands like QJ from reshoving thinking they have fold equity, so hopefully you'll only get into flips with big aces. Unless you really need then money from the next money jump or something, I wouldn't be worrying about the payout structure too much. TT is a good enough hand here that you need to play it aggressively. As you said the real payouts are coming from the higher places, so go for it.

Edit: I guess with M=10 you're not exactly on the brink of push/fold mode, it was the 3.5bb raise that made me think that. If you were raising 2 or 2.5x the bb you could definitely fold to a re-steal. Again I'd just shove TT here though.

 

[Tangerine 53]

Thanks for the responses! They pretty much followed my own line of thinking in that if I won the hand I would be in the top 3 in chips and very well placed to make some serious money. Having committed 25% of my stack on a PFR I just didn't feel I could fold TT. I've read a lot on the forums about being bold on the bubble and I'd only be a real dog to an overpair.

Ultimately the villain showed A9 which made me a 72:28 favourite to win the hand - until he spiked an Ace on the flop that was so I busted in 11th!

On looking back I wonder if, as some have suggested here, I should have just shoved. However my 2-3BB raises were getting through and so I was just continuing in that vein. Whether the villain would have called a shove is up to conjecture - I sensed that she was tired of folding most hands and just wanted some action tbh.

 

[ManicLombax]

Ultimately the villain showed A9 which made me a 72:28 favourite to win the hand - until he spiked an Ace on the flop that was so I busted in 11th!

This happened to me yesterday: I had TT and opp turns over A2 (sooted of course, the nutz). Flop came ATx and I cheered. Then turn and river came A, 2.

Pretty much unless you have a hand where you really want action, I think you don't want to be sticking 1/4 of your stack in, as you're very close to pot committed. Here it worked out well as you induced a weak hand to spaz-shove on you, but in general I think I'd just shove with a hand I wanted to play that was not QQ+.

 

[Debi]

With your chip stack and at this stage of the tournament shoving pre-flop is the way to go with TT. It is not a hand you really want to see a flop with against someone.

Your raise was going to leave you too short - you can't raise that and fold.

Were their antes in this tournament and if so what were they?

 

[Tangerine 53]

With your chip stack and at this stage of the tournament shoving pre-flop is the way to go with TT. It is not a hand you really want to see a flop with against someone.

Your raise was going to leave you too short - you can't raise that and fold.

Were their antes in this tournament and if so what were they?

No antes. But on reflection I think you and others are right - the raise left me pot committed. I think as I'd had fortune raising and stealing I was continuing in the same mode. I am thinking that not shoving enough is a leak in my game and I'm going to work on that.