Two blasted weeks in a row, I've gone home early from poker league. Last week, with QQ. This week it was KK.
Last week, I knew I was throwing the night away. Blinds were 50/100 and I was on the button. With two limpers in front of me, I made it 600. The little blind called after thinking for a while and the limpers folded. When the flop came AJ6 rainbow I heard the LB say "Let's go 600 again." I've played with this guy now for a few years. He's an older gentleman and either goes really deep doubling up with crap aces and small pairs or goes home early. My little voice said, "A 10"...so I did what any tilt monkey would do, I counted all of my remaining 1450 in chips and said, "All-in." My little voice was right.
This week was different. The blinds were 100/200. Under the gun raises to 600, a fairly standard raise and this guy only raises with big aces (AKo/s, AQo/s, AJo/s) and pocket pairs 8's or better. I'm short stacked (not atypical for me in this game only about 2 hours in) with 1,700. I was next to act and found KK.
Now, here's the decision that I need your help with. There's no way I fold, duh. The question is call or raise. If I call, it doesn't exclude others from the party and I'm not sure more people is necessarily bad. I am hiding behind a tight playing raising from early position. Or, do I shove roughly 8 big blinds over the top and keep the party small?
As it turns out, the flop didn't contain an ace, but the turn did. This got me thinking and hopefully fishing for advice. Had I just called and seen the flop, my post flop shove would have gotten his AQo to fold, but since I shoved pre-he insta-called me with the AQo. leaving no room for wiggling.
My question(s) to all of you: shove or call pre? Is a min raise even worth a shot with only 2 BB's left behind when I'm done? Is there any reason I could ever friggin' hope to have a hand hold up playing poker?
*on a side note: as I was leaving the table, the guy tells me, "Man, you just can't win a coin flip can you." - Sigh. If only we were that close. I've got me as a 2.5:1 favorite. Not sure what kind of coin he's talking about.
9 comments:
Shove every time. This isn't a particularly tough decision given the stack sizes you've described.
-PL
Call. Let his tight image combined with your call scare others into folding. Then deal with him after the flop.
ditto shrike
No way you call. And no way to fold. Raising without a shove is not an option.
So Shove is your only choice.
Besides, if you do the math, I'm sure anything other than a shove is -EV.
I like shove too. People get parsnickity when they have money in the pot. Besides you probably don't have enough left where a call and post flop shove makes him fold. I bet a lot an amateur with AQ calls a lot with AQ on a low flop. It's just one of those hands you were destined to go broke on.
it's a shove all the way. I described a very similar hand here in a tourney, where I ended up chopping up my remaining stack with QQ, fishing for a bigger hand from a minraiser.
Maximum pressure. If he's got AA, so be it, the poker gods have spoken. If he's got Ax, you're going to win 70% of the time anyway + you have some (maybe not much, but some) fold equity.
shove, and when he sucks out on you club him with his own severed arm.
Retrospectively, you call and get him out, but realistically, shoving is the only option :D
As described, your M is roughy 6. A definite shove preflop. Better luck next time.
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