Weak ace in the cutoff, no limit tournament

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: $109 freezeout, PokerStars
Stage of tourney: 16 players remain
Your image: Tight
Opponent’s image:
Your hand: A♦8♥

The setup: You’re deep in this 109 freezeout on Stars. Two tables remain.

You’ve been pretty tight when the following hand comes up. You get A8o in the CO and the table folds.

What’s your play?

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6 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

John Kugelman

Standard raise, fold to a 3-bet. Calling a re-raise would be a pretty bad idea.

[Reply]

Nelson

Well, my image is tight so I suppose I could make a standard raise and hope to take it down. But would hate to have to fold to a reraise or see a flop and take any heat. Honestly I’m a little more inclined to fold this preflop. I think I’d like to wait for a better spot to splash around. Just because it folds around doesn’t mean I always HAVE TO raise just because I’m in late position.

[Reply]

Pirate21

I generally like the line Kugelman suggests – only problem is the 2 big stacks in the blinds (and lack of a read on them).
If I’m BB for instance, and I suspect the CO is making a play – I either make a hefty reraise immediately or call and shove just about any flop. In either case, our positional advantage is worthless so we’re down to hoping to hit 2 pair on the flop.
A-8 is tempting to play in this spot, but we’re probably giving away chips a good portion of the time.

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cada.yang.gold-LEGENDS

I can see how an all-in bet would be useful as if the dealer, SB, and BB have nothing they CANNOT call all, half, and a third of their stack (respectively) without somewhat of a good hand.

But as it is we have no clear read on their hands. However, we do have a good chance to take a stab at this pot seeing as it is folded to us. Our tight image should help us take it down with a 3-5X raise. WORST case scenario we get reraised and we fold. NOT SO BAD case scenario is we get called and see a flop with a mediocre hand.

Voted: Raise-Fold

[Reply]

John Kugelman Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 12:11 pm

It is standard to raise around 2.5X once antes are introduced. 3-5X is too large and risks too many chips when you should be frequently trying to steal the blinds and antes. We want to lose the minimum if we get re-raised. I raise to around 15,000 here.

(It is actually becoming common to raise even less than this nowadays at higher stakes. Some top players go so far as to merely minraise.)

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meh Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:51 am

Another strategy is to raise 4x on the button and 2.5x UTG, gradually increasing the raise in the other seats as your position gets better, thus a 3.5x from the cutoff is fine.

The risk of getting raised/called is mitigated by your position (if facing the blinds) and the fact that a higher bet is (a little) less likely to be called.

I’m raising with a good A when it folds to me in the cutoff, unless I have very good information not to.

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