Stt Strategy

Hectorjelly

This situation occured last night, Its an interesting hand & Im pretty sure I made the wrong decision.

5 Players left a $100 stt on VC. Im chip leader with 7000 chips. Im on the button.

Button (Hero) 7000
Small Blind 1700
Big Blind 400

blinds are 100 200

Its folded to me and I have KQo. Ive been raising everytime it gets around to me, but this time I dont want to scare off the Small Blind, my main concern here is knocking the big blind out.

karlh

min raise to 400

tell me you won.....

hows the standard in the 100STT? Ive played mostly 10+1 and some 25STTs and the standard seemed quite high jumping even that much.

Culchie

min raise to 400

I'd call, the chances are the small blind will call or raise, and have two playing against the lowstack BB

If small blind raises...happy days.

If big blind raises .... happy days... either way, lowstack looks to be in trouble.

You are in button after flop to make a decision then.

Frankygolucky

raise all-in.Force the S.B to pass (if He calls thats ok ,1700 wont hurt You) and isolate B.B

zonemelt

min raise to 400

I voted call.

I think raising by any amount is a mistake if you want to keep the SB in. He will be very aware that if he calls the raise that the BB can fold to calling all in and hope he gets knocked out first. Best to have the extra two cards up against the BB.

Jono.


Edit: P.S. I would probably raise to 400 actually. I don't care too much if the SB is in or not. I prefer if he folds and the BB takes his odds and calls.

However, If the SB has an ace then he'll likely go all in. I'm not a huge fan of KQ all in but I guess I'd be getting the 3:2 required against Ax to make the call. I think this is better than pushing first as there is a chance he could make this move with a worse hand than mine, thinking he might elicit a fold from me after my weak raise and then just be up against the random BB hand...

Hectorjelly

karlh wrote:

tell me you won.....

hows the standard in the 100STT? Ive played mostly 10+1 and some 25STTs and the standard seemed quite high jumping even that much.

I ended 2nd after taking a few beats heads up.

The difference between the 25 & 100 stts are the good players can be quite tricky at the 100 level, rather than just tight. And there arent that many terrible players, there was always some dead money at the 25 games. Its been a while since I played a 25stt though, so possibly the standard has changed. The play is a good bit tighter as well. The $50 games are strange, as they seem to attract a very large range of players, so some games can be crazy (4 players gone after 2nd hand) and some can turn into rockfests.

Imposter

fold

I voted raise to 400 although possibly 800 might be better. The reason i'd have gone with 800 is that is that if you are raising pretty much every hand not to do so here may make the SB wary and he mightn't stay in.
To bet 800 you are forcing the BB all-in and if the SB has anything he will likely raise all-in too which is what you want, I assume. But then what do I know!

Hectorjelly

My problem with raising of any sort was that I want the small blind in the hand, Im not really interested in the chips as getting the big blind out. If I make a raise here, the small blind might think that I will bet again on the flop, when in fact I would just check it down pretty much regardless. So I called, the small blind them moved in himself!

I thought for a while and folded, I was being asked to put in 1500 chips into a 3800 pot, basically there wasnt enough dead money to make it worthwhile given the chance of me being dominated. I think now that this was a bad fold, the small blinds range was probably large enough to make this call profitable, especially as I had shown absolutely no strength at all.

Thinking about it now, i shouldnt of been so concerned about taking the small blind along for the ride, as with his small stack he is unlikely to get involved without a decent hand. If it happened again Id make it 1000.

Waylander

fold

I'd have raised enough to put the big blind all in, pretty much as Imposter said in his last post. The BB pretty much has to go with any two cards at this stage with 200 in the pot and 400 in front of him. The small blind would hopefully call on virtually any two cards to help eliminate the BB, but I am not sure you can really push him too hard one way or the other, I think he as unlikely to call a post flop bet as he is a pre flop raise unless he hits on the flop, and if he hits on the flop this could lead you into trouble.

dropsy

I think your flat call and a lay down to the move by the SB wasn't a bad outcome at all HJ - you haven't risked much of your stack with a hand that is quite likely to be dominated by a reraise, the pressure is firmly on the BB and your intention at this point should be simply to get heads up. If you had raised to 1000 and then got reraised by the SB you're in far worse shape as if you call (which you pretty much have to as you would in that case be asked for 700 to play a 3000 pot) and dont win you will be in a far weaker position when it comes to heads up.

The flat call also works if SB doesn't raise but BB is strong as you would have got an indication of the strength of SB based on how he reacts to your flat call - you then have options again if the BB raises all in. Overall, I think with a hand like KQ, flat calling is a good play in this situation.

Dropsy

Lafortezza

fold

Personally I'd make a minimum raise to 400. It *should* signal to the SB that you don't want him out of the hand but that you want him to call so that the pair of you have the best chance of knocking out the small stacked BB.

Obviously when the SB moves in he wants the BB all to himself! Folding KQo is the better play imho because you're mostlikely dominated or well behind and the SB obviously thinks he has the BB well beaten. No need for HJ to try to knock both SB and BB out with a less than strong hand.

What did the SB have in the end?

Hectorjelly

Im chip leader nearing the end of an STT, so Im literally playing like a maniac; raising everytime I have a decent hand. If the big blind wasnt so shortstacked I would of made a pot committing raise. KQ is a monster here.

I dont think the small blind neccessarily needs a big hand here, all he needs is a better than average hand. Its 5 handed so it isnt that crucial for him to knock a player out, it not that much use to him because his stack is so low. Because I just flat called he has to think theres a good chance I have muck and will fold, so he figured he was better heads up against the bb. He had A8

dropsy

I misread your original post Hector - thought it was three handed. With 5 left it does play differently.

Hectorjelly

Interesting Poll results, id be interested in why you fold Shortstack?