blonde poker forum

60 runner tournament, down to 11. 9 get paid. I'll settle for 1st or 2nd.

Average stack is 55,000. I'd just had a flopped straight beaten by two pair that turned into a full house and was down to 35k. Blinds were 2/4k with a 200 ante. I'd only been at this table for about half an hour, and had a TAG image. The only hand I'd lost on this table was the abovementioned.

We're 5 handed and it's my BB, leaving me with just over 30k back. Folded round to the button who min raises. He has me comfortably covered, with about 75k. From what I've seen of the button he looks like a good, solid, aggressive player for whom a min raise from the button would be an unusual move.

I look down and see  Aspades Qs.

Do I shove? I'm probably only getting called by a hand that beats me, though quite possibly it would be a coinflip. He will lay down AJ, two pictures, but I don't think he'd min raise with that kind of holding.

Do I call, take a stab on the flop and lay down to a raise?

Do I call and give it up if I don't hit the flop, safe in the knowledge that my TAG image might just see me through a few preflop shoves into unopened pots?

All opinions gratefully received. I think I did the wrong thing in retrospect, but won't tell you what that was just yet.

I would push personally but this min raise from the button is a worry, but generally this move would +ev. I don't like taking a flop here this short.

Jamming. 0 hesitiation.

insta shove it.

online shove.
live is a little different as live players have such shody end games most the time i might be tempted to go for option 3 and jam on any flop i connect well with. but to be fair. if you have a TAG image the min raise from a big stack is just amatuer style bullying. i'm shoving about 75% of the time. i'm not 25% of the time that i know the table is weak enough to can make my chips back quick enough to still have a shot at winning the tournament from this position.

You want 1st or 2nd and to get there you need to play good aggressive poker...especially considering you are short-handed. Any sort of passive style will handicap you at this point..so calling oop is not really an option. And folding is way to passive for someone who wants to win. So you only have one option left...and that is to shove. Putting the big decisions back on your oppo at this critical stage is better than having to make them yourself.

Insta shove for me I agree with previous post that min raise stinks of big stack bullying.

Raise him to 28K, leaving 7K back, looks stronger than a shove...

Weight of opinion suggests that I did the right thing, then. Ta. For those who are interested, he counted his chips and called with JJ.

I hate the way that poker turns into a sodding crapshoot. Why can't it be deep stacked all the way? :)

reraise , dont shove, commit ur stack in the hand saying "im not folding this hand" - looks alot stronger.

Funny enough when good players do this i believe them less.........

I can see your point Alex, but I think you need to know the player really really well to class him as a 'good player', I dont like to class anyone as a good/bad player after spending time with them on 1 MTT table, I think you need several encounters with them...

So I still think a big re-raise will look stronger to 70% - 80% of opponents, regardless of how this opponent has played with you so far...