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You are in a WSOP (World Series of Poker) satellite tournament. The top 25 players receive an all-expense paid trip and seat to the 2008 WSOP. This is in the neighborhood of $15,000.

Currently, you are sitting 24th out of 31 remaining players. The blinds are at $500/$1000. You have $7,000 in chips and are the small blind in this next hand.

You are dealt Ace-Ace. Everyone folds before you, except John Doe, who is in the top 6 chip-wise. He raises it 3 times the big blind, a bet of $4,000, which is more than half your stack! How do you play this?

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I say all-in. First, there isn’t a better hand pre-flop to get all-in with. Second, a fold means you’re planning on checking/folding every hand just hoping to place, there is no guarantee, better make a stand now. Although being the small blind means you’ll see some free hands for a while, but you still have to hope 7 players behind you all exit before you, I’d rather take my chances with Aces rather then rely on others to play bad. Third, the big stack you’re up against should call and hopefully you double up. Calling seems silly, you’re pot committed, are you going to fold to a bet on the flop leaving you the short stack or close to it? Just the way I see it, I’m usually wrong though.

Jim

I believe all-in is only move.
You don’t have enough chips to fold your way 25th place. A double up may not even get you there. I may have to consider it different if there were more players in the pot, but heads up with aces I’m all-in!

You can’t steal with 3000 chips into an 8k pot. It’s all in over the top. An absolute no brainer.
You know you are heads up in this scenario. If you can’t commit 7 x the BB with AA even at this late stage then whenever can you?
With some unethical play around you to try to make the final 25 your 4 blinds will be gone the next round without a yelp (antes will be in too). If you double you can survive the next two rounds of blinds and with 14k or more in chips you become dangerous to some of the medium stacks and can press for a better finish without much risk.

CS

Well said, Jim!

I wanted to throw a different answer out there and see a response. I am glad we are getting this type of conversation out there.

And you are absolutely correct, if I fold with AA in this position, I am screwing myself in later hands, especially limping in later.

Jim said:

Ahh…you tricked me.

To add more- I’ve learned in tournament play, as soon as I start playing just to place, I usually fail miserably. My biggest crutch in the past, and sometimes presently still, is being results oriented. Results oriented poker is not my best poker and probably not anyones best poker, and I want to be playing my best poker. Folding AA in this situation would not be a good poker play, regardless of results.

Same here, once I try to place, I rarely do and fall apart, folding hands I’m not supposed to.

A variant to the hand above. What if its same scenario, but instead of AA you have QQ?

Here is John “The Greek” Leontakianakos response to this hand

In a recent WSOP $1,000 satellite at Foxwoods we had a field of about 280 players with 27 seats on the line. We were on the bubble for a period of about 35 minutes with 28 players left. The Blinds had escalated to a ridiculous point. The difference between a big stack and the short stack was virtually one hand. We were playing very slow at our table, even though the dealers are supposed to go hand by hand at this type of situation they, too often mess up and deal before the other table has finished the hand, so we managed to extend our life span a bit. On the Button I picked up AK suited. Having only about 4.5X the BB, I decide to push all in. The SB folded and the BB gave me the dirtiest look I could have gotten. He turned over AA and asked me “Now, what the hell do I do with this? If I call, and get cracked I wont have enough for two laps.” and he mucked the hand.

The very next hand a close friend of mine at the table had just enough chips to cover the ante and was all in blind. While our hand is being dealt an idiot on the adjacent table pushes all in and gets called by two big stacks. He has 22, the two big stacks have AK and QQ. QQ takes the hand and the tournament is over. Had this player been paying attention he would have known that a player at the adjacent table was all in on the ante.

In this satellite you have two excellent examples. First the player on the BB with an amazing lay down of Aces that understands that in that satellite 27th place pays the same as 1st. And second, the guy that busted out on the bubble that was not paying attention to what is going on around him at a critical juncture in a tournament.

Jim said:

Well that is a bit different. 28 players left with 27 placing, one place to worry about instead of 7. Online some of that info wouldn’t be so readily available, and it would be played hand by hand for sure.

I don’t see how the guy who went all in with AK is the correct play in this new example and the guy who goes all in with AA in your example is the wrong play?? Or is that not what you’re trying to convey?

Here you go, John “The Greek” Leontakianakos:

The guy that went all in with AK is the correct play. With only two players to beat and running out of chips being the short stack at the table he needed to do something or would be blinded out in the next two rounds. Those rounds go pretty quick when everybody folds around on the bubble.

The player that folded the AA to the All in raise from the player with AK was the right play, as, with his chip stack, he was basically guaranteed a seat at that point and did not need to risk chips to improve his position.

In the example provided, with 7 players left to go, the right play would be to push with AA. It could take a long time to get to the bubble and he would, most likely, need additional chips.

The point I was trying to make with the example provided from a live tournament was the idiot that bubbled the tournament was not paying attention to what was happening. He picked up a pair and pushed. If he simply mucked the hand, he would have won the seat, yet he let his ego get the best of him. If I had a dollar every time I witnessed a stupid play like that in a satellite when we are close to the bubble, I would have enough to freeroll in every tournament.

I have a question or two admin. What is the stack size of the BB? What is the next blind structure and when do the levels change?

If the BB is short like me, I’ll push all in. If the BB has an above average stack, then I fold. Yes I said I fold AA. If I’m going all in with AA for my tourney life I want it against 1 man only. If you look at the odds for AA vs any two hand and you can see why you want fewer players.

As Ad vs 8h 9h : 77.2 vs 22.4
As Ad vs Ac Ks vs 8h 9h: 69.8 vs 6.1 vs 22.9
As Ad vs 8h 9h and 5c 6c: 59.1 vs 20.3 vs 20.3.
As Ad vs 8h 9h and 7c 2h: 69.3 vs 20.3 vs 10.0

I don’t know about the rest of you but I’d reather be 77% instead of 59% and having to worry about 2 draws. The pay is the same if I slide in as the first out in the cash vs 1st place finisher.

The other thing to look at is the stack size of everyone in the tourney in relation to yours. You are sitting 24th out of 31 with the cash starting at 25th. That means everyone you need to go out has smaller than 7x the bb. You are going to have people going out EVERY hand. If the blind levels don’t change for say 10 mins, you can probably fold your way around the table, and possible into the cash.

I’m still going to respectfully disagree. Yes, you might be the favorite, but you are playing for 6 spots to go out. You are the 8th smallest stack. The thing to remember is it doesn’t matter if you finish 25th or 1st, they ALL PAY THE SAME. Knowing what the stacks are in this situation makes all the difference. If the BB is one of the massive stacks, he’s going to call your push no matter what he has. If he calls the raiser is really going to call.

The best situation to be in when you are short is to be the first one raising coming into the pot. I’m going to speak from experience, I’ve walked many a short stack into the money by not pushing all in and hoping.