Hello guys, this is my first post here on this forum.

I just got busted from a tournament in a situation like this: blinds are 30k/60k with 8000 antes. My stack is 989k at the moment, which makes it roughly 16 BBs. The UTG player in the hand that I got busted had a stack of 2m chips. He opens up the action with a raise to 180k. I look down at AQs from MP and I thought the best course of action was to rip it in, given the dead money in the pot and the amount of blinds I had. Anyways, action folds all the way back to the UTG players which calls with AKo and I'm eliminated.


This spot has happened to me several times in the latest 15 tournaments I played. I'm at the final stages of the tournament with 10-20 BBs and someone min raises or raises to 3x and I have strong holdings like AJs, AQs, AKs and decide to rip it in. I think that in these situations it doesn't make sense to just call with AQs since I have very few blinds and it'll make me have little playability with this hand postflop if I don't hit a Queen or a flush draw. But is my thinking wrong? Is it better to call in these situations with hands such as AJs, AQs, AKs, KQs or is it more profitable in the long run to move all in ?

Thanks in advance guys.

I probably would have done the same.

The problem I have is lets say you do call the raise and like you said don't hit the flop. You lose a chunk of your stack.

In conclusion I would have made the same decision.

Shoving over the UTG raise is the best move in my opinion. Flatting in MP puts you in an awkward spot if someone 3-bets or if the flop goes multi-way.

I think active actions will be correct. but it all depends on luck. just yesterday I got run over, I had AK open with a raise or all in. I was rearranged by AQ and lost both times, no luck, but I think the action is correct. Everything was in front of the final table with a stack of about 14bb

The AQs is a tough one to fold in this situation. I might fold if the UG opener was playing tight. When he makes it 3x UG your fold equity is not as good as a min open. I think it's going to be a coin flip if you shove in the long run, because I dont think he's folding to your shove.

3 bet shove is fine here I think, the exception being if you have a read that villain is mega nit and probably only playing AA, KK or AK from UTG. In that case fold

Jamming is the correct play.

If you have 20bb or less, and someone raises, you should usually shove or fold unless you're in the big blind. Here, even if he's tight, you would usually want to shove a minimum range of:

88/AQo/AJs

If he's loose and opening a lot of pots, you can shove significantly wider including hands like QJs.

Originally Posted by iugiug

The AQs is a tough one to fold in this situation. I might fold if the UG opener was playing tight. When he makes it 3x UG your fold equity is not as good as a min open. I think it's going to be a coin flip if you shove in the long run, because I dont think he's folding to your shove.

Agree that a lot is down to the UTG player,and ICM.

Clearly it will be +cev with the money in the middle, but may be -$ev , especially if UTG is playing tight. Maybe a good one to put through ICMIZER.

Yes. Jam. I shove this spot every single time. Just unfortunate.