Survive or go out swinging?

[thatguy6793]

This is a question I came across last night during the BOL 25 days of poker freeroll and wanted y'alls opinion on it. There were about 80 players left and I was in 15th with about 7K chips. I called a shove from a short stack with about 2300with my AQs and he showed A8s and after an A on the flop, he hit his 8 on the river and I lost a hefty amount of chips and was roughly at 55th out of 80 with the top 40 cashing. I played ABC poker after that for a few hands until I was left with 2300 after paying the BB and SB (BB was 1200 and I think SB was 600) and sitting on the button with 60 players left in 53th place, the ante was only 25 chips so I knew I wasn't going to lose much because of that but I still thought i needed to win one or two hands to make it ITM so when I had 77 in MP I shoved and got busted by the huge stack (around 27K) that called me with A5o and hit his ace on the turn.

I'm pretty ok with the play and calling that original shove with my AQ and just getting unlucky with that so my actual question is in a situation like this where you're close to the bubble but a lot of players are getting all in every hand and getting knocked out (usually 1-3 people were getting knocked out every hand based on just refreshing the lobby and seeing how many people were left) should I have just folded and hoped I either hit a really good hand before the blinds came back (which might have went up to the next level cause there was only four minutes left in the level) or that enough people ahead of me made really fishy out and I would have crawled into the money. Or is it best to shove when you get good hands and hopefully steal the blinds and get a little bit more cushion between yourself and the bubble?

 

[MattRyder]

I would definitely take the route that you did. The blinds were way too big to ignore. You had good hands that were favored to win. I play tournaments to win, not just to place. Placing earns peanuts. The gold goes to those who make it to the top few spots.

 

[Herkstwin]

I would definitely take the route that you did. The blinds were way too big to ignore. You had good hands that were favored to win. I play tournaments to win, not just to place. Placing earns peanuts. The gold goes to those who make it to the top few spots.

A very good point - to a point.
If winning the tournament is the ultimate goal, then I agree 100%. Play to win.

However, there are tournaments that offer players opportunities beyond that particular tourney. Busting out scores nothing. Making the bubble or the points could be of some value. For example, PokerSchool Online has four leagues that run every month. Everyone can play in the Elementary School League, where 10,000 players enter a tournament and most bust out in the first 20 minutes. BUT, the cash available in the tournament is truly peanuts. It is the points for finishes in the top 15% that add to a player's league standings. The month's end score is worth much more than the individual tourneys throughout the month.

Added to the cash is the incentive to move to the High School League, where the daily cash prizes are larger and the monthly prizes even larger. And so on through University League to Masters League. Promotions for doing well ALL month. Demotions for poor results.

In this situation, there are times that hanging on to reach the bubble could have more long-term benefit than going for the victory and busting out.

 

[MattRyder]

True. That's similar to the CC League games where it's often preferable not to risk it all on one hand, even with a great hand.

 

[Sorin Iliescu]

money wise, i still believe it's better to force in the mid stage of the tournament, where the majority tries to survive, sometimes even bigstacks. if you win once or at least get to the final table, it's probably equal to 10 times cashing, depending on the structure of the tournament.
imho, the survival strat works for tournament where first x players get the same reward, like a ticket or so or in tournaments where the first place is less then 10% of the total money(if there is one). afaik, the league elementary pays 40%+ to the first place, so getting first place once it's like cashing 450 times
regarding the way the leagues work, i cannot say much about those but i guess it's nice to advance to the second or third tier as the tournament are held multiple times a day.

 

[thatguy6793]

Thanks for the feedback y'all, really helpful! Like I said I wasn't really upset about busting out or anything I think my call against the shove was pretty good and my shove with pocket pair was a good choice too, but I just wanted to make sure as always I was taking the best line in the situation and it looks like I was. Thanks again everyone!