20bb stack size

[moulan7]

Hi there,

given two situations I had today, I take the opportunity to ask about here for your opinion.

The first one is much easier (for me at least).
You are on hijack with 1010, 21bb deep. Big stack utg (horrible player lol) limps. Action to you.
What do you do?

And the second one that I somewhat struggle more.
You are on small blind 19bb deep with AJo. Hijack 38bb deep opens for 2bb (unknown player). Action to you.
Now?

No bubble or icm to worry about. Sorry that I can't provide more information, is what I remember, but I guess that's enough to hear an opinion from you.

As for me, on both I shoved xD. And I lost both lol, but doesn't matter.
The 1010 is pretty standard for me, but the second a bit awkward.
The AJo 19bb shove against unknown HJ open is really on the limits of my mind. Really can't decide.

Thanks

 

[armoko]

In the first case I would raise with 3BB if there were no other players.

Same question for the second case how many players shoved/raised ? If 2-3 players shoved and I would also shove in this case, otherwise you were just two than I would raise 2-3BB

 

[moulan7]

No other players, action folded to me on both cases.

Yeah I guess that a raise in the first case can be ok too although I have 21bb.
If someone calls I hate to find myself on a board with overpairs holding 1010. This is what I was thinking here.
And if I raise 3bb and someone shoves/3bets? (I call)

On the second case HJ raised 2x and folded to me on SB. No other players in except for the BB who still has to act after me.
Can't 3bet with 19bb I think, cause if he shoves I have to fold and if he calls and I miss, I'll left with 11-12.

edit: There are many awkward components on second case.
AJo is at the bottom of my range here. Of course I shove it against CO and BTN regs. But against unknown HJ? What do you shove here? Me certainly 99+, AQ+. But 77,88,AJ?
Can you call anything here?

 

[300HPGOD]

I think the 10s with that stack size is a jam. If the player is bad as you say they will call with a lot of Ax hands that you are up 68% ish against. The second scenario, I personally would not jam (not to say that it is wrong) but just something I would not do. if the raise is a min raise as you say I think you can call and see the flop. Now many cases you will be going against AQ and AK and and ace will flop and you are hung out to dry but if you jam and he has those hands he isnt folding either. I like the call the min raise and see the flop. Evaluate from there, and look to check jam the flop on dry boards.

 

[Alex70793]

20bb is a short stack, a short stack game is a fold or all-in. Put all-in with pocket 1010 is a good move, many players will put with any pocket pair, but I think it's better to put all-in starting with 88+ , As for all-in with AJ this is a borderline situation, someone will put all-in, someone will fold, everyone will be right in their own way, here you are beaten by AK AQ can also beat QK, often this happens)). It is important to know the player against whom you put all-in, but it is better to put all-in with AQ+.

 

[fundiver199]

Its kind of close in my opinion. In the TT hand you could isolate to like 4BB and look to play some postflop against the fish, who limped UTG, but jamming can certainly not be bad either. In the AJ hand you could maybe just call, since its a mini-raise, but if you are going to have some rejam bluffs, AJ seem like a good enough candidate. Of course whenever we bluff, we will sometimes run into the top of range, and it is, what it is.

 

[Jon Poker]

As for me, on both I shoved xD. And I lost both lol, but doesn't matter.
The 1010 is pretty standard for me, but the second a bit awkward.
The AJo 19bb shove against unknown HJ open is really on the limits of my mind. Really can't decide.

Thanks

I would have done exactly this. If we have a strong enough hand to open off of 21bb, with a limp in front I just jam and have a chance to win the pot outright and when I get called I'm generally doing ok equity wise. Once in a while you may run into a monster but it happens, nothing we can do. Point is when we open off of such a small stack size, we give opponents a chance to see the flop and SPR gets out of hand quickly, it leaves us little room for proper bet sizing and we generally either screw that up or have to overbet jam on the flop or turn.

For 19bb in the SB I would shove AJo vs a HJ raise - we get other Ax hands to fold - including some AJ combos, pairs like 66 or 77s and under might fold, and when we get called by underpairs we are doing ok by flipping, KQ, KJ, ATs, A9s calls us and we are way ahead - again, sometimes we are going to run into it or lose a flip but on 20ish bb's we are rejamming alot of hands and in these two spots I think it's entirely profitable to do so.

 

[moulan7]

Thank you guys for taking the time to reply.

Yeah I was thinking exactly what Jon Poker says.

With the AJ was relying on my fold equity and was hoping for my opponent to fold. I guess his range is pretty wide here including hands from suited connectors to small/medium pairs and Axs or any two broadway cards.
Unfortunately he had AQo. (can he ever fold that here? I think I could if I knew well my opponent but not against unknown)

With 1010 I thought about isolation but really didn't want to fall on a bad board.
It's always a very close decision for me to what to do with hands like 99-JJ with 20bb.
If I'm the first to act sometimes I raise sometimes I shove.
Here with the limper I took the shove street.
SB (who covers me) woke up with QQ.
I guess if I raise to 3-4bb he's always jamming/3betting.
Could you ever fold 1010 to his shove? (I can't lol) SB was a decent player.

 

[Luvepoker]

The TT hand I raise to isolate and play my best post flop. If he is limping UTG, even a bad player should have some high cards so a AQJ or even a AK9 flop is simple fold if he bets into me.

As for the AJ against a HJ raise, unless I know he is super tight I 3bet shove here but this is the bottom of my range for doing this. Since we have no read here I just call and see what develops.