Midpair PF decision late in Stars PKO
Hello! A long time lurker here. I used to play MTTs regularly over a decade ago and I'm now trying to catch up with all the new stuff. This particular hand from today's session left me puzzled. I'm not very comfortable yet with these 20-30bb spots, so I'd like to hear your thoughts 😀
~60 players remaining of a field of ~5000, avg stack ~34bb. No significant payout jumps before final table. Not much history with the villains yet, but we've seen the UTG pushing the table around a bit.
$5.50 PKO, PokerStars - 50000/100000 Ante 12500 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 7 players
CO: 9.48 BB ($27.94 bounty)
Hero (BTN): 23.63 BB ($12.07 bounty)
SB: 22.04 BB ($51.53 bounty)
BB: 46.73 BB ($38.69 bounty)
UTG: 59.49 BB ($62.33 bounty)
UTG+1: 35.29 BB ($80.64 bounty)
MP: 33.55 BB ($35.33 bounty)
7 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.37 BB) Hero has 8♦ 8♣
UTG raises to 2.1 BB, UTG+1 calls 2.1 BB, fold, fold, Hero ??
Can we shove here? Or is fold better since we do not cover UTG or UTG+1, and we still have pretty playable stack?
6 Replies
I would look for spots to squeeze, but I wouldn't shove into UTG and UTG+1 without reads. I might flat call with this hand and position.
pretty sure this is a shove - UTG has already shown they are opening pretty wide and UTG +1 is incentivised to have a wide range esp with CO's small stack and decent bounty potentially in play.
strategically we want to be trying to get a double up to bring the bounties more into play / have more of a run at the final table
My guess is this is a shove - there's about 7 bb dead money in there now and UTG with 60 bbs should be opening wide enough. There's also major advantages to doubling up later in the tournament like this - you can create much more +ev situations with 50 bbs than your current stack.
Let's shove this, you've got enough fold equity to push out all of his wide opens, and if he calls you may not be in that bad shape.
Calling would put you in too many awkward spots after the flop and you'd be forced to fold to a lot of his c bets.
Folding seems to weak here.
Thank you for your insights. Seems that I did the right thing by shoving it. Didn't really like to call either for the reasons just mentioned.
UTG folded, UTG+1 was playing sneak with AKo though.
I would call since you cover sb with a big bounty and can call him if he shoves (probably overcall if utg or utg+1 shoves and fold if they both shove)
