Bad play or good move?

Question

This is a hand i played last week, and i want to see what you think about how i played this hand. Some of my friends said it was a good move to make, and some say i was pushing the action to much. The hand set up like this, we were 5 handed at the final table and blinds were 2000-4000, and i had 20k in chips. I was the short stack and i was playing on the tight side for most of the day. I was on the button and i everyone folded to me. I looked down to find Q-9 of spades. I pushed all in and got called by the big blind who had A-9 and busted me. Was i wrong to push with a hand like Q-9 short handed on the button? My thinking is i was short on chips and i only had the blinds to get through, and i can't sit for aces all day, there are lots of hands i have a fair shot to beat, plus i can get the blinds to fold and pick up much needed chips. You tell me was i right or wrong with my play?

Answer 1

there is absolutely nothing wrong with this play at all...you only had 5x the big blind and it was folded to you on the button, i wouldn't mind pushing with any two cards there just hoping that the blinds will fold, and when you get an above-average hand in this spot as you did, it's nothing short of a no brainer...you can't wait much longer for a hand and this is about as good an opportunity as you will get to add money to your stack without facing elimination, it's just unfortunate that you ran into a dominating hand

and personally, i think limping is an absolutely horrible play...with 5x the big blind your options are limited to shove or fold, and while you talk about making a stop and go play, what if one of your opponents leads into the pot and you've flopped nothing? you will have wasted valuable chips for no good reason...the stop and go can only be used when first to act on the flop, and since you are on the button this is just not an instance when you can use it

Answer 2

Well your M was 3.33. That's pretty d**n low. You are going to have to push at some point, especially as the short stack.

You can only survive losing 20 hands at best before you are blinded out. You don't have enough chips for fancy play, it's pretty much all in or nothing.

Once you go though the blinds again you are down to an M of 2.33 and you are totally screwed. If the best you can do is bet three times the big blind, you are likely to get called by very marginal hands just looking to knock you out.

So clearly you needed to take a stand. You chose to do it with Q9s. It's not a great hand, only a little above average in fact. Against one random hand you win 56% of the time. Against two random hands you win 38% of the time.

But you were on the button and you did only need to take out two players in the blinds to move to $26K and an M of 4.33. Still not great, but you just bought another orbit and time for someone else to bust out.

Unfortunately you were all in for $20K, the big blind was already in for $6K. He only needs to invest $14K more with a chance to win $26K and bust you out. With a reasonable stack it is probably worth it to him to make the call. But with A9 it is a no brainer.

You probably could have been luckier if they both had rags they might fold to you. But as so often happens in poker someone wakes up with a hand and busts you. In this case you were screwed because you were badly dominated. You win this battle only 31.06% of the time. Your nine was dead, because of his kicker, and your only real hope is the unlikely flush or spiking a queen.

If the blinds had folded to you, I doubt you would even be asking this question. If you'd been called with junk and doubled up, you'd be equally happy.

I guess my only criticism is that I personally would have preferred to wait for something a shade better than Q9. Like two face cards or an ace. And I would have liked to have been making the play you made with a bigger chip stack that might actually push the blinds off their hands.

But I think this situation is what it is. You might have been dealt QQ on the next hand, and push to find that someone has KK. You just never know. Once you get short stacked in a tournament you just have to get lucky a few times to survive.

Answer 3

Because poker has an element of luck to it results can often be misleading. Your play was fine (I would have done it myself). It's just unfortunate that the big blind woke up with a hand that had you dominated.

To me, this was a perfect spot to try and steal the blinds. You have 5 big blinds, which is just enough to get a lot of hands to fold. You were also first to act, which is key when stealing blinds. In this spot you could almost move all-in with any two cards. The only hands that you're really afrad of are hands that have you dominated (TT, JJ, QQ, KK, AA, bigger Q's and bigger 9's). If the big blind had a small pair you'd be in a race. If he or she had a small ace (A2-A8) you're only a 3-2 dog. Even if they had AK you're only a 2-1 dog.

You gotta gamble to win tourneys sometimes. It's called 'creating your own luck'. Good players do it so they can acquire enough chips to try and win the tournament. That's where the big money is.

Answer 4

In that position where you dont have that great a hand but will go all-in, its good to call to the Big Blind and if he raises, fine you can go all-in, But if he checks, you get a look at the flop. then you can decided to keep your chips or risk them.