This is a situation that I witnessed in a live tourney at a local casino. Let me know what you think of the situation and what you would do. Please explain your answer.
Situation:
Buy In: $95 ($15,000 garuntee)
Total Players: 220
Places Paid: 20
There are 21 players remaining in the tournament. The blinds are $3000 and $1500 and there is a $300 ante. You have $10,300 and you are in the big blind which means that on this hand you will commit $3300 before you even see the flop. You guess that you are probably18th or 19th in chips at best. So after the blind and ante you now have $7000 in chips to play with.
your cards: 
There are two additional callers pre-flop and no raises. The small blind folds leaving the player under the gun as one caller and a player to his left as the other caller. You check your option. The total amount of chips in the pot before the flop is $12,300.
the flop: 
So you flopped an open ended straight plus you have two over cards giving you 8 outs for the straight plus an additional 6 outs with the over cards at best. Once again you check. The player under the gun thinks for a minute then moves all in for his remaining $16,200 chips and then the girl to his left thinks for a moment and then calls (she is one of the chip leaders and calls off 1/3 of her stack with this call). Now it is your turn to act! You have $7,000 chips left but if you call you stand to move to a total chip count of $33,000 which easily would place you toward the middle or upper part of the pack as far as chip count giving you a great chance to win the tourney! Plus you may make the money right here if the girl that call ends up with a better hand than the other guy under the gun that is all in. If you miss you will bubble and win nothing.
So now its your turn to tell me what you would do. Here is a small hint for you, I was the player in the big blind with the short stack. I will read some responses then post what I did and why I did it.
Thanks for taking a few moments to read this and I look forward to your responses!
Peace
© Copyright 2009
9 comments
but with this said, you could also get dealt garbage and you're blinded out if you fold. you might also get dealt great cards and not even hit a thing. thus minimizing the amount of chips you will double up.
in a nutshell, i'd go all in.
Even considering that someone may have an overpair, I think the odds are right to call and go for a triple up. I would rather have my tournament life in my hands, than praying for someone else to go out.
I'll say it again, the point is to win, not just cash. if I want to put myself in the best possible situation to win, I call.
I'd fold & hope the girl kicks arse.
i had a similar decision to make .$5 000 tourney about 100 starters. 4 left ,Top 3 get payed,4th to 8th get $55 buy in back
Blinds $5000 & $10 000,I was the dealer & 2nd in chips with $18 000,no small blind, big blind had $11 000 the next player had $9000 & the other player had the rest .
I got delt AJ ,next to play folds ,chip leader raises to $20 000
I folded ,BB calls his last $1000, they turn the cards
BB has A2off, chip leader has K9off
Cards A J J 2 5
BB wins the pot . I'm shattered
As it turns out i get 88 hit trips on the flop,just to get rivered by a straight flush by the chip leader,finished 4th
I know its not my blog but would be interested to know if people think I was right in folding the AJ.
thanks
i agree it would be a good Quiz Question
I am folding here, dont like chasing for my tourney life, you have an all in and a call behind you with a draw,
dont like it at all, $7000 left, $5200 after small blind if you fold that,
at $300 ante, you have 1 more trip through the blinds to get some better cards to make a stand on,
Great responses to this blag and thanks to everyone who read it as well. Here is how it played out for me.....
Like several of the responders to the blog mentioned, my chip situation was obviously in a dire situation considering the blinds and antes. So, having said that....I actualy have to agree with what Sit out said above. My first thought was that I want a shot to win this tournament. I was in a similar situation 2 other times in the same tourney in which I maximised my value by going all in against multiple players and I won both times. At one point I was down to $250 in chips and then i came back.
So i thought for a minute or two and then realized that this was a must move situation for me and that I had a shot to take down the pot. So I called and this is what I saw:
The guy under the gun had
there for he had a set and the girl to his left had 
which meant she was on an even worse draw than me but she had two of my outs! What a horible call on her part by the way. In the end I missed my straight and was out on the bubble but I do not regret the call and given the same situation I would do it again.
Thanks again for your posts, they were all very good and some of you were right on the money with what was going on.
Nice!