Archive Pick: KJ facing a three-bet shove, nl tourney

This quiz is taken from our archives and originally ran on 11/30/07. To view the original quiz with comments, poll result and answer, click here

ummmm. Fold?

Many better spots will present themselves.

If you believe you’re stronger than opposition it doesn’t make sense to risk the tournament on a marginal hand. What if he has a monster (AA-KK) and just shoves because he’s afraid of the postflop action? Without a strong feeling on this opponent I’d just fold. By the way after a raise from the button the previous hand it was quite obvious that somebody could come over the top this time…perhaps limping was more sensible…perhaps…

Fold.

It is that simple. If you had AJ in the CO you should consider calling, but KJ in Hijack isn’t in front of a whole lot of hands in his range.

If he is not bluffing he has AK, AQ or perhaps 88+. So either you have no potodds or only marginal. If he is on a bluff-resteal of course he MIGTH have QJs/JTs that you beat, but any A-Rag or any low pair still leaves you behind with marginal potodds.
So what about reads? During a sample of like 10-20 hands he saw you raise twice in late position. You have seen him come over the top twice. In this small a sample he migth very well just be running hot, and you are only in late midle position, not really late.
There is really not enough reasons to put him on air to justify a call, that would even be marginal EV against a lot of bluffing hands. You have K high ffs, just fold and keep on playing.

If you win you’re Captain, so its worth a fair bit more than the simple odds. If you lose you still have a chip and a chair.
But isn’t calling giving up - you’re there to play poker not slots, right. At least not quite yet. (Unless you want to put it to the test now and maybe get on to a new game.)
Even if you knew (and why shouldn’t he have a hand instead) the punk was putting you all in with A6o…is that how you want to go out ? There must be a better spot…

there are three possible outcomes if you call:

1) he is overplaying hands like A10, Axs, AJ KQs. you are behind in either case

2) he doesnt know how to play medium PP’s postflop and preferes to push and hope for the best. you have a coinflip or slightly behind

3) he wants you to think he is a maniac and holds a monster like KK, AA and your hand is dead

all 3 scenarios are bad for you. i would auto-fold KJ in this situation without hesitation. many more opportunities to come.

You didn’t raise because you had a hand: you raised as a bluff, to pick up some blinds. That raise, for the reasons you did it originally, would have been fine with even 65o.

But your bluff got reraised. You still don’t have a hand. There isn’t much you can beat. Throw your bluff away.

Theres no way he’s pushing with a worse hand than KJ…

In fact, KJ is actually such a bad hand in this situation, I’m not even going to PRETEND I’m pondering a call.

Any ace is a favorte (weak aces are about even money but favorites nonetheless) and small pocket pairs are also likely holdings.

Keep raising this guy’s blind every chance you get! If you fold two or three times to his reraise, eventually you’ll have that hand you need to call.

Recommend always folding this hand preflop unless you are:

A. Blind-stealing late (as in this example)

B. Short-stacked and desperate in a tourney, blinds threatening and looming

C. Large stack and pounding on poor, timid smaller stacks who are prone to fold (such as a bubble approaching)

D. Family-looking pot and limping late looks like great odds

E. In small blind and no-raise

When you do raise and get played back at like this it’s an automatic fold unless you are in situation B

I agree with opi, but would like to add that even choice B shouldn’t really ever occur. If you’re short enough to call a reraise all in, then your initial raise should be all in, in order to use the leverage of your entire stack as fold equity. Thats an obvious comment to some, but I was just pointing that out to further indicate calling here with KJ is never an option after making a standard preflop raise.

Fold

As JB said there are several bad possibilities and all in all it’s not worth to call. Even with AQ I wouldn’t risk a call in middle stage of tournament. Why coin flip here? You are not desperate here aren’t you?

And personally I start to take into consideration that there is a higher possibility that this could be a setup (”You’ve seen him make this move one other time”) for KK or AA. He knows too that a second allin after short time might provoke a call, doesn’t he? (in middle to higher buyins, I’m not talking about $10 tournaments)

(sry for my english)