Desperately Short Stack

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Docvelvet

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I play in a weekly free entry tournamnet of about 80 people at a local restaurant. We were down to the final 2 tables (16 players) I had 250 chips and blinds were 100 & 50. I got 9-5 in the big blind and it got raised to 200, so I folded. I then got 6-4 in the small blind and it also got raised to 200 and I folded that. I am now in a situation where I have 100 chips and 6 hands to look at before I'm forced to play. I get A-3 suited but don't play, I get K-8 un-suited and don't push, next hand I get is a pair of 6-6 and I push my 100 in. I ended up losing to a straight, but I think I made the correct decision to play the 6-6.
My question is did I make the right decision and what type of hands should I go with when in this situation?
One other thing is I also get points to qualify toward a quaterly tournament. I ended up finishing 14th.
Thanks
 
pigpen02

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You were a bit late in making a move. M is a measure of pot size relative to the blinds and antes. You don't mention antes, blinds sum to 150. Before you got to the big blind, therefore, you had an M of 250/150 or less than 2. Here is an exerpt from Harrington on Hold'em on your level:

The Red Zone: M is 1-5
Your only move is basically to move all-in. Even if you make the minimum raise you are pot committed and can't get away from the hand. If your M is 3 or less then you will most likely be called by any two cards when you make your all-in raise. Small pairs and small suited connectors are again playable but only as a means to making an all-in move. You need to steal as many blinds and antes as possible and hope to get lucky if you are called (most likely you will be the underdog) or pick up a monster hand and hopefully get called.
If you are first in and sitting in a late position you can move all-in with plenty of hands; AA-22, any two cards 10 or bigger, A-x, K-x, Q-x, any suited connector, and any connector if your M is 3 or less (such as 9-8 off-suit and the like).

After you paid the blinds without calling, you were here:

The Dead Zone: M is less than 1
As implied by the heading, you are as good as out of the tournament and every move you make will be instantly called. You need a lot of luck to get back into the tournament. The most important thing to consider is your play before you enter the Dead Zone. If you have blinded yourself down to this position then you have made a mistake. You should only end up in the Dead Zone by losing a big pot when your stack was bigger than it is now and your opponent had slightly less chips than you had.
You should make your move when you are first in and before the big blind arrives (this means moving in with any two cards when a first-in opportunity arises). This way you at least have some chance of getting the pot heads-up against a random hand.

Therefore, you should have looked for a chance BEFORE getting to the big blind with only 250 chips.
 
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Docvelvet

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Thanks

Your reply will help my game. There are no antes in this tournament. I found myself so short by just having lost a pot along with rising blinds. I play very tight/weak style, so that I find myself in this situation more then I would like to admit. I will keep the M 3 or less theory in mind. I know I have to pick a spot to push but sometimes just wait too long. I have finished 14th, 11th and 7th out of 80 the last 3 weeks ( I have also won the whole tounament in the past). My home work to myself this week was to study up on this part of the game and get better. Thanks for the help.
 
pigpen02

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I highly recommend the "Harrington on Hold'em" books. There are three, but I only have the first two. The third will be my next book purchase.
 
ChuckTs

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I highly recommend the "Harrington on Hold'em" books. There are three, but I only have the first two. The third will be my next book purchase.

What the oinker said. HoH will really help you out with that.
 
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Bentheman87

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Like everyone else said, read HoH volume 2. And can I ask, how exactly did you get your chips down that low? Did you get all in against a stack with slightly less chips than you and lose? If not, your problem was you were not playing aggressively enough in the middle stages of the tournament. You probably don't kno much about the M zones, but once you get into the yellow zone, you absolutely have to start loosening up your play. Raise with many hands in late position if its folded to you. For example, if you have king 8 offsuit on the button, raise 3x bb. if one of the blinds calls you, remember that 40% of the time neither of you will even hit a pair, so just make a continuation bet if he checks to you.
 
skoldpadda

skoldpadda

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Who is this Harrington character you speak of?

wsop Champ and WPT Champ. 1 of only 4 I believe with Hachem, Brunson and Chan I think.
 
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Hughes4

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I think your problem is getting that low in the first place. You shouldn't put yourself in that situation. Surely there was some point where you could've made a move.

But at that point 6 6 was a good move. Also if there were no calls or raises, I'd push the previous 2 hands, but you didnt specify.
 
OzExorcist

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Everyone else has said it, pretty much - shoving the 66 was the right thing to do, and you're thinking the right things, you just probably need to start thinking that way when you've got something more like 8-10BB in your stack.

Of course, if you ended up with just 250 in your stack because you lost a big hand with a similar sized stack, then that doesn't apply.

There's an argument that, with a stack that short, you can shove with pretty much any two cards. If you wanted to do that, the big blind with the 9-5 hand would have been the place to do it - if you fold in that position, even if double up on a subsequent hand your stack will still be in the dead zone.

Chances are 9-5 are going to be live cards and you won't be much worse than a 2:1 dog. If you double up, you'll have a stack of 500 and you might be able to make a bit of a comeback.

If you doubled up with the 66 hand, however, you'd still only have a stack of 200 and you'd still be crippled when the blinds got back around to you.
 

♠jczapper♠

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i find when im at the point of all in by the next blind cycle, Ax or any pair goes all in. you can play tighter than that the Ax is just my style the Kx all depends on pos. and are there any raisers, and how many limpersalot of limpers means its a go so you can triple, quadruple ext. up.
 
rounder22

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Yeah you got to push way earlier when you get down around 8 to 10 I usually push with good hand.
 
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