AQ in SB Facing Limpers 60 BB Deep
Hero plays mostly cash but started to play some underground tournaments like this one. Hero is at the final table, 9 players left. Two players not in the hand have stacks around 25 BB. Payouts are not yet determined but something like 100-200-300-500-1,000.
V1 (150 BB) UTG and V2 (65 BB) UTG are playing any two cards and regularly calling raises, never three-betting. V3 (60 BB) in the BB is tight-passive.
Hero (60 BB) has a tight-aggressive image. V1 knows but doesn't care because he's just gambling.
OTTH
V1 and V2 limp. Folds to Hero in the SB with AsQc. Hero?
In a typical cash game with 150 BB, I'm probably raising 6 BB + 2 BB for the limpers. How much would you raise here in a tournament with 60 BB? Would you ever call the limp? Is there ICM pressure to consider?
3 Replies
With 60 bb's effective stack I would raise to 5 bb's in the SB (with like 100 bb's or more I would make it 6.5 bb's).
In this spot 4 places from the money I would never limp. I don't want the BB in the hand and its a chance to win a lot of chips given your description of V1 and V2.
Assuming we have 2 callers I would cbet if the flop hits our range. With 2 or more broadway cards (but no pair) I would cbet about double my pre-flop bet vs 2 players. With one Broadway card on the flop I would mirror my pre-flop bet.
If we have 3 callers then I don't cbet unless an A or Q hits the flop (or KJT and possibly JT8).
I think around the 5 bb Mr. Rick suggested is about right.
I would say there are a couple major adjustments I would make as a cash player moving to tournaments.
The first adjustment is just raising smaller as stacks get shorter. Once I get below 40 BB or so I typically min-raise as a default RFI but anything up to 2.5 BB is standard. You'll still want to size up some based on limpers though.
The second and less obvious adjustment is to always consider effective stack sizes. I'll sometimes raise smaller or bigger to set up a more desirable SPR (stack to pot ratio).
If you're 3-betting putting in about 1/6 of your stack is ideal. It doesn't leave your opponent many good re-raise options without going all in. I will sometimes put in as much as 1/4 of my stack while leaving myself the option to still fold the bottom of my range. If you put in as much as 1/3 of your stack you're typically pot-committed and better off either raising smaller or just going all-in yourself.
In your example you would have to raise an unreasonably large amount to put in 1/6 of your stack though.
As far as ICM, you'll typically play a little looser against stacks that are smaller than yours and a little (sometimes a lot) tighter against stacks bigger than yours.
You're still deep enough that you have room to maneuver though. Mainly you will just want to tighten up your stack off thresholds.
OOP with players who will almost certainly be calling our raise I’d go smaller pre.
3x gives us a pot we can build on when we hit and minimises the loss when we don’t.
We can c=bet our entire range into a pot of 10BB and still only have put 6BB in. Raising to 8x pre means we have a 24BB pot to negotiate with two sticky opponents and our options for a c-bet dictated by the size of the pot.
