PokerSoup Forums > Strategy > Final 3 with Mega Blinds

Final 3 with Mega Blinds

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1. • Posted by Jason M 2008-05-02 19:22:50
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   • Here's a strategy question somebody asked me the other day. We discussed it for a while, and it seems it is a tough call in our minds. What do our resident experts (all of you!) have to say?

     It's the final 3 of a small two-table tournament. The blinds are at 3000/6000, and you have 47k before this hand started. You opponents both have about 37k.

     The button acts first and raises to 15k. This player plays aggressively, is capable of making odds-based moves, but is also capable of laying down good hands when they think their money is not going in good. The consistently finish in the money. Overall, a very solid player.

     The small blind has been playing unusually tight and folds immediately.

     Your image is rock-ish. You play tight yet aggressive poker and make moves against players you know they will work against ;) You peel back the corners and see .

     What do you do (and why)?

2. • Posted by Ethan 2008-05-03 01:59:28
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   • I'm definitely not an expert, but here goes:

     So the blinds are going to eat everyone alive, which means that people are going to start getting more aggressive and making moves with less-than-stellar hands. The guy just put half his stack in, which is what you would do if you want a caller. However, he's nearly pot-committed so there's not a lot you can do to get him off his hand.

     If you raise, he's going to call and then you're nearly guaranteed a showdown. But if you call, you can make a big bet on the flop and possibly push him off.

     I don't see many ways that you'll be able to steal the pot. So I guess the question is, what are the chances you'll beat him in a showdown? isn't that great a hand.

3. • Posted by FREMONTkyle 2008-05-03 18:25:56
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   • well the question is do you want to take down the tourney or squeak into second he could either be weak with a smaller A or K9-KQ. or he could have bigger A possibly small PP given that there are only 8 hands you are truly afraid of pre flop. i would push here and hope he makes another rockish preflop fold and since AT has good showdown value three handed id gamble if it were the sm bind then id consider folding since hes playing extremly tight. worse case you have 10k to try and get lucky with if you get out flopped or dont come from behind.
     now if your trying to move up and protect your small chip lead then you could just flat call and hope to hit a big flop seeing how its only 6k to you with 24k in the pot giving you 4 to 1 odds but unfortunatly with the blindgs at the level there at you cant afford to wait for hands that are much better unless your either phill hellmueth or you want to try and pick off pots with the sm blind since you have position and hes gunna fold given his current image till he has a huge hand or you guys are heads up
     thats my lil 2 cents

4. • Posted by uzjedi 2008-05-03 18:51:38
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   • I would shove also. It's only 3 handed and there's no time to wait. Take your stand. It's actually a strong hand considering the situation.

5. • Posted by Jason M 2008-05-03 20:31:09
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   • My gut reaction was to go all in, especially considering that the raiser is a generally known good and aggressive player. It seems like beats a fair amount of hands that might move in, but then again, as Ethan pointed out, it doesn't have that great of a showdown value. It's hard to argue that it is a monster against 2 random hands, though. I guess it really comes down to what kind of cards you put your opponent on.

     Another poker player I know simply said is dominated by a lot of good hands that will make that raise there, and is at best a coin flip against smaller pocket pairs - just fold. I still can't decide what I would do, but I'm leaning towards this one. I'm not one that likes to try and fold into the money - I'd rather win it all - but I think more times than not you are going to be staring down a bad matchup.

     Maybe my opinion is skewed a bit by the fact that I know what happened that hand. pushed all in and was called by and busted out in third place :p

     Thanks for the thoughts, everybody. Feel free to keep discussing it, even though you know what happened! I need to do some math on this one to be certain...

6. • Posted by Krishna 2008-05-04 06:54:56
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   • With stack being <10BB raise to only 15k (very fishy!!) is basically inviting blinds to resteal or at least call.
     I see this play very often but I also see the variation. Raising min/2.5BB with junk.

7. • Posted by Jason M 2008-05-04 08:17:31
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   • So, Krishna, are you saying you see it both ways and don't know what to do? LOL. If so, I understand. It's a lot about feeling about that particular player at that particular point.

8. • Posted by uzjedi 2008-05-04 12:56:24
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   • If the player on the button is truly a good player then he will be raising a hand range that AT beats. It's not the most delightful situation, but you really don't have any time to wait around for a better hand. It's not like the table is nine handed and you get several hands per revolution. It's 3 handed and the tourney is almost over. Those blinds will eat you very quickly. IMO you can never fold there unless the raiser is a super tight "nit."

     It's important to try not to be short term results oriented. Running into AA is just bad luck. If someone folds KK pre-flop when the re-raiser had AA, it might look like the best fold ever when you can see the hole cards, but it's probably a big mistake. That's an extreme example, but you get the idea.

     Sometimes the wrong play can randomly be right. That doesn't mean it's not a losing play in the long run. If you can read the player like a book, or he is SUPER tight like I said, then the right play could change. But even though it's dominated by a lot of hands, and I usually don't get crazy with it in cash games, in this spot it seems a very clear shove all in.

9. • Posted by FREMONTkyle 2008-05-05 13:07:48
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   • I AFREE and tried to say as much in my initial post tourneys are all situational and unfortunatly in this particular situation the blinds take away alot of the skill and it becomes about pre flop poker

10. • Posted by Nick L 2008-05-10 12:10:00
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    • I like the re raise over the top all in here, I feel 3 handed with a quality hand like that in a situation this is where A 10 is a strong hand. hardly ever u will run into being dominated so I see nothing bad here with a re raise all in.

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