
Weak king in the BB vs short stack, WCOOP satellite

Game type: Turbo satellite, PokerStars
Stage of tourney: Final table
Opponent’s image: Very tight
Your hand: K♣8♠
The setup: You’re closing in on the prize in this NL turbo satellite tournament - a seat to the 1k WCOOP event. The top 5 players get seats.
This hand you get K8o on the BB. Two players fold a a very tight players moves all in for about 9500. The table folds to you.
What’s your play?
9.15.08 / 12am
A very tight player is a difficult customer…I don’t want to double him up…K8 is a very marginal hand…wit at least KT I would call but in this spot, also being a turbo, I fold
9.15.08 / 5am
I would fold and take the chips to the next hand.
9.15.08 / 6am
Call. Youre getting the right odds against every hand except AA, A8, or K9+, and even against those youre getting only slightly less then proper odds. Against his overall range you should call here. You have a chance to knock a player out and get closer to the prize, beefing up your stack nicely while doing so. And even if you lose, you still have a decent stack to play with. Plus you get the added bonus of letting players at the table know your big blind wont be easily stolen.
9.15.08 / 8am
I fold. You’re in second place right now and four eliminations away from your seat. I know it’s a turbo, and against a loose player I might try it. But villain is almost certainly pushing with a pair, an ace, or a king that dominates you. You don’t have a lot of time to be patient in a turbo, but you still have to pick your spots. This isn’t one of them.
9.15.08 / 8am
It may be a positive move chipwise for a call, but fold and save it for a more positive EV push later.
9.15.08 / 8am
Look at the big picture. You have to survive 4 eliminations and there are 6 players with smaller stacks, 5 of whom have significantly smaller stacks. Why mess around with a trash hand here and take a 70% chance of seriously denting your nice stack?
Especially since it is a turbo and there is going to be huge pressure on those smaller stacks real quick. We can afford to wait for premium hands here.
9.15.08 / 9am
Fold.
I don’t carer what the EV is here. In this spot in tournety play, EV goes out the window, and youre all about surviving till the money.
Last thing you wanna do is double up a short stack cuz you called with a less than premium hand.
9.15.08 / 9am
Fold - you are in good position to qualify so why jepoardize that with K8. The player to your left will likely push in the next hand.
9.15.08 / 9am
I fold I got to get at least 3to1 to call offsuit if i’m suited I might consider it but i’m not so I fold get my money in better with somebody that can double me up not the other way around.
9.15.08 / 11am
Despite the “Very Tight” image, your villain’s m here is not quite 2, so i think you have to broaden his range a quite a bit. However, in this case “quite a bit” can really only include any ace down to 2, pairs and broadway cards. This is a call the odds dictate you have to make, but you have to put your chips in knowing full well you’re a dog, if only a slight dog. I would reluctantly fold here.
9.15.08 / 1pm
maybe I’m wrong but if you call you’re getting under 2to1 on your money (16,702 to 9,502). Also, the player was tight, so there’s is a great chance
that you’re about a 3to1 dog to win the hand. I believe this play is negative ev, and folding is correct. His range maybe wider since he is short, but a tight player would usually have an ace or pockets in that situation.
9.15.08 / 1pm
I would fold, not an easy fold though. You are in 3rd chip position out of 9 players, top 5 advance. I think it’s fairly clear that this is a +EV spot, but with the prize structure, top 5 advance, fold. You are probably a 3 to 2 underdog to the A high. If you lose, you are in jeopardy. I wait for a better spot, many of them can’t wait, while you can.
9.15.08 / 4pm
Play to win? Not in a satellite.. chuck it and wait for 4 of the 6 smaller stacks left to crack
9.22.08 / 3am
We have 4 shorties… let’s try to imagine the table 2-3 rounds later.
I think we can count on that two of them will be eliminated, one will be doubled up, and the fourth remaining around the same chip count, and we have to survive 2 more.
If we refuse to play at all, with ~15K, we and the remained but still short stack will be the candidates to be the bubble boy among with one or at most two others. This is the bad scenario, and now we know we have to play some.
If we manage to get out one sstack and protect the blind one time, or float and then shove away or defeat a bigger stack, we’ll have around 35K, maybe even more. It seems a realistic estimate with little better than average (relatively to the others) play and/or cards.
I don’t feel the necessity to gamble here with a 70:30, so I fold even if it seems an invitation for the shorties to steal my blinds in the following rounds.


9.11.08 / 2pm
At a bit under 3-1, you’re getting a great price here. Even against a tight player who is only making this move with 88+ and AJ+, you’re only about a 70-30 dog. Chance are our opponent, tight as he may be, is raising wider than that.
So, there’s no question that this is a +EV move chip-wise (it’s about +500 or so). The question is, are we right to gamble with the edge we have?
Winning would put us at about 45k, a nice cushion that won’t allow us to coast to a seat, but will take us pretty close. Losing drops us to 23k, not a terrible stack, but pretty thin given the current blinds and the fact that this is a turbo. Folding leaves us with 29k, about a round better than losing.
I think this is actually a pretty marginal spot and calling is about the same as folding. If this wasn’t a turbo, I’d like calling a lot better, as you’d have more time to recover from a loss. Given that you can still exert pressure on the stacks to your left with a 23k stack, I lean toward calling.
What actually happened: You called and were shown A8s. You missed your king and lost the hand