Dream hand at the WSOP: How would you play it?

[Sebbour]

You finally achieve your dream and have bought into the WSOP Main Event for $10,000! You arrived yesterday in Vegas, it's Day 1A, and you sit at your table eager to play! This is the trip and the tournament of a lifetime! You're on the button in the very first hand and look down to see pocket aces! However, before the action gets to you, two other players have shoved all-in.

What do you do?
Do you call and potentially triple-up in the 1st hand of the WSOP Main Event? Or do you fold and guarantee you will not be knocked out in the first hand of the tournament? How would you play this hand?

Considering the fact that I have get there from another continent and this is my first really big buy in (perhaps the only one of that size in my entire life) and to see all that noise and lights around me for sure it wouldn't be an easy decision.

With which hands would first player go all in. There is no way that someone would go all in on first hand without a monster, on first hand of 10000$ ME live. For how long was he thinking before shoving. And then there is a second player who called. Did he snap called or took considerable amount of time. But it really doesn't matter. I would be sure that one of them has AA as I do and the other one has KK.

Second question that comes to my mind is who are they? Are they pros? Are they old or young? Which one of them is more nervous (because one of them has the edge unless both of them have KK)?

Since I cannot improve (based on assumption that one of the players have AA) and in case "our" hand is the best in the end it will be split pot I would fold. But I would take all the time available before I fold. And I wouldn't be happy about it.

And by folding I'm 100% sure that I will see second hand. Also I'm sure that sooner or later I will have to engage in another difficult decision.

 

[belizebum]

All these questions have me playing devils advocate. On one hand, the triple up would be awesome, on the other, out on the first hand. Yikes. I honestly dont know what I would do. Probably be my luck, the other two all ins are Hellmuth and Negreanu...lol. Ya, I would probably run out the clock, hum and haw, and fold. Now have I had a few rum and cokes...might just make the call and pray to the poker gods. Impossible situation!!!

 

[mariussica88]

I'm definitely call and try to win it. It's the best chance to win a hand, and if I get knocked out I will enjoy the rest of the trip. There are a lot of things to do in Vegas. But taking in consideration that my luck is not that good in a multiway all in....I still call ....they can always have the same hand and I beat them both....

 

[scobido]

Certainly at a tournament of this magnitude, I would not go all in from the first, I would play the pair analyzing the flop.

 

[gloemcesar]

Firts hand, 100bb or more? 10k entry. It would be sad if i loose. But with AA theres no folding for me. If i had KK or QQ i could make the fold but not with AA.

 

[MackemMan]

After deliberation I think I would probably shove and pray. If there had been 3 or 4 calls before me I would have second thoughts but up against 2 is a decent chance. You would probably not get a better chance of trebling up giving you more leverage.

 

[SL-247]

You finally achieve your dream and have bought into the WSOP Main Event for $10,000! You arrived yesterday in Vegas, it's Day 1A, and you sit at your table eager to play! This is the trip and the tournament of a lifetime! You're on the button in the very first hand and look down to see pocket aces! However, before the action gets to you, two other players have shoved all-in.

What do you do?
Do you call and potentially triple-up in the 1st hand of the WSOP Main Event? Or do you fold and guarantee you will not be knocked out in the first hand of the tournament? How would you play this hand?

If two people went all-in in front of me, I would call, and if there were three or more, I would fold.

 

[Roobz75]

A very difficult question because of the circumstances. To not call and have the winning hand, buys you time at the table, but no extra chips.
To call and walk into 2pair and everything above, is high risk and leaves you crashing out of the tournament straight off.
Me personally, as much as it would frustrate, I would have to reluctantly fold.
The venue and opportunity is too great to go out like that.
Just live to fight another day.

I already had this happen once in a freeroll and I was eliminated.....

So you see, with all due respect, a freeroll is nothing compared to wsop....

 

[Chica_bonita]

Well, that's a good question. If it was a freeroll, I would undoubtedly play bingo with these guys, knowing that, in fact, I will not lose anything: either I will win or not.
But, WSOP? 🙊
No, I would have dropped it. In the end, two are already there and I will see the board. If I see an ace on the board, I'll get a little upset, but it won't be fatal. If one of these guys puts together a set, a straight or a flush, I will exhale and know that I made the right decision. In any case, I'd rather watch from the sidelines.
But if only one player went All-In, my curiosity would take over and I would bet everything.🙈

 

[CollYan]

Okay, but if you ask Negreanu this question, what will the answer be, I think you know...

 

[jaymfc]

well, I know I am starting out with the best hand but with two all-ins I figure some donk hand will outdraw me
with crap so I just wait for a better spot. happens online all the time and most times the worst hand of the three always wins.
you can't play scared but I fold there.

 

[ODRAGD3]

If I have AA in a heavy tournament, it's impossible to pass if I raise a minimum of 5BB preflop.
If my 5BB goes up, it's an ALL IN call. I always think that when you go against a person the chances are always 50/50 of winning the hand no matter what cards they have. What makes you win is the flop when you go all-in, not the cards in hand.

 

[MK_]

I think the fact it's the wsop is irrelevant in one sense... you have AA against 2 random hands so the odds dictate a call here. If you would call this is in any other game this is a call here.

... The fact it's the wsop makes it even more relevant in another sense though, if you aren't going to play the odds and play poker at the wsop where are you going to play poker?

...scared money is dead money👍

 

[KUN_AGUERO_KROOS]

more than 10 hours to get to Vegas.

flight and hotel costs.

I'm living my poker dream. The WSOP main event. A super deep mtt. 2 hours levels. 300 big blinds.

No, I'm not going to risk getting busted on the very first hand.

 

[ADRI7HO]

I've thought about how I would act in such a situation.
My decision would probably be determined by my particular emotional state.
Alas, this is very difficult, because there is an actual opportunity to triple my chips, since I have the strongest hand (and the chance of another AA is small), and since despite the $10k buy-in, the field of the WSOP main event can be quite thin, it is almost certain that very difficult (and very slowly), but I would call.
It's a very unpleasant situation anyway because if I don't win, I've travelled halfway around the world, checked into the hotel, slept, acclimatised, got used to the time zone and now I'm going home after a hand, and the journey home would be much longer and more painful than anything I've done before.

 

[ageloss]

Well the history at list on online poker has shown to me that it is not dificult to lose with pokey aces usually with a straight from an oppnent. However i think this would be a dificult decision in a so big tournament! I think i would call!

 

[Ron112355]

If it was against just one player maybe I would make the call but with that second player getting involved I would fold them suckers, I would remind myself that it is just a pair and I have lost with Aces way too many times to risk my tournament life on the first hand.

 

[mattiebumpo]

What a tough question! I would hope I would have the courage to call, but I am not sure that I would. I would have to agonize over it first. I would think of a friend of mine who played in the $1000 Ladies WSOP event and went out in the first hand. A pro raised, my friend re-raised with AA, and the pro shoved all-in. My friend called. The pro had KK and caught a K on the turn. Brutal! Against two other players, I think the smart play is to fold, but it would definitely haunt me and if I folded, I would need to take a "tilt walk" because it would probably affect my play afterwards. I hope to have a chance to play the Main Event sometime (from winning a satellite) but I sure hope I don't have to face such a tough spot so early!

 

[bababooey]

Statistically this is a call as you are not anywhere near the money and have a good opportunity to increase your stack size.

Even AA vs AA vs KK you are 75% favourite so must play as your equity is big, if it is against other hands will be even larger.

~I always remember one tournament where there was AA against A10 and the flop was A1010 and the money went all in

 

[ZenonBR]

If upon arriving at the event Main Event da WSOP my first hand was a pair of Aces, being in the best position at the table with two opponents going all in, my decision would be to call, seeing it as a unique opportunity triple the value of my stack.

My chances with two opponents going all out in this situation are as follows:

Situation 1

My game: AA
Chance of winning 71.9%

Opponent 1: AK Suited
Chance of winning 8.97%

Opponent 2: QQ
Chance of winning 17.94%

Situation 2:

My game: AA
Chance of winning 66.37%

Opponent 1: KK
Chance of winning 18.74%

Opponent 2: QQ
Chance of winning 14.49%

So my decision would be to call, even at some risk of being eliminated.

 

[Jdawglet]

Ultimately you want to get your chops in with the best hand. For that reason you call.

With that said…I’m not a fan of risking all my chips if I don’t have to.

Folding this hand and buildup your stack so that you get to a point where a shove by someone will only risk some of you chips but not all is the preferred plan.

I don’t really know what I would do…I’m sure I’d discuss this scenario with my wife on the flight down so that she was on board with a call…just in case…😂🤣😂

 

[Anna Brito]

If one day this situation happened I would go all in without thinking. Because I got there I would have 50% of the game + 30% lucky.

 

[kley126]

with a pair of aces in this situation I wouldn't think twice about sending them all in if you are in the world series you have to go big and throw a pair of aces I wouldn't forgive myself, they could find a good pot of chips and go very far

 

[millya5]

How how For me it is an unfulfilled dream to get to the WSOP tournament.
And if all the poker gods gave me a ticket to this tournament, I would 100% go all-in . If I lost, I wouldn’t regret anything, I’d just think that this is not my ticket, not my day.

I still have my $109 tournament in front of my eyes, I folded good cards, which I really regret, I could have made . This incident is almost a year old and I still can’t forget...I was waiting for the prize money to start so I folded....In the end, I received the most minimal winnings, but I was not happy with it

Now I know from my experience only all-in and nothing more

 

[AndyFio]

I'd call. At the beginning of tournaments there are often simpletons who just for fun put all-in with unplayable hands, so I could very well run into such people in this first hand. It’s not for nothing that there is a saying: it’s better to do and regret than not to do and regret. Moreover, it is unlikely that you will ever have a more favorable situation at the table in this tournament.