AT vs UTG shove, NL Turbo MTT

DailyHandQuiz

Game type: Turbo MTT
Stage of tourney: Early
Avg stack: ~3k
Your image: Solid
Opponent’s image: No real read
Your hand: A♦T♥

The setup: You’ve built a little bit of a stack in this no limit turbo tournament when the following hand comes up. You’re dealt ATo on the button and a player you don’t have much of a read on open shoves from UTG.

The table folds around to you on the button. What’s your play?

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5 COMMENTS (Jump to comment form)

Groundhog day

Voted raise. V is short 7 bb so I think I’m in descent shape here. Could I be dominated? Sure. Deciding factor for me is that even is worst case where both sb and bb wake up with hands and call I I lose I still have an average chip stack. Best case I become big stack.

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insane

Easy fold. Tournament theory dictates staying out of coin flips early in a tourney. Stack preservation is huge when you build a nice stack early. Under the gun he could be shoving light but do you really want to short stacks to double through you? Also, no need to give BB odds to call. He is short so he does not get a free flop. That is a win for us.

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samo

Fold. I think this is either raise or fold, so the question is do I want to commit ~30% of chips this early in the tourney w/A10o.

We have no read on the V and although short, they probably could wait a bit longer rather than shoving into everyone. V could have Ax, probably any pp, and suited big cards. I’d weight the Ax and pps more heavily. Thus, on average Hero is likely behind. Even if ahead, I think it is too early to toss chips when it is close. Hero stack is well above the average, so keep it that way and stay solid.

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Pirate21 Reply:
June 10th, 2010 at 1:05 pm

All of this plus two short stacks left to act.
Our extra money gives either one of them odds to call pretty light and I really don’t want to commit so much vs. 3-4 players with ATo. Let the blinds battle it out.

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Dan L

Raise. The fact that this is a turbo is the determining factor for me, anyone agree? Seems the average turbo player knows they’re going to have to play some short stack poker, and plans on making some moves when short, even early on. We’re a 55/45 favorite against 20% of hands, and it gets even better if there’s some chance he’s making a move with ATC, which I think there is.

Also because it’s a turbo we can’t decide to sit on a big stack and not take risky but +EV gambles in the way we might in a longer tournament. Gotta take the chances when we have an edge, and here I believe we have one.

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