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When push comes to shove

our users say that this strategy is worth: four aces
2 Games and Luck users rated this strategy.
The average rating has the value of:
FOUR ACES
Friday December, 4th 2009 by fullhouse

Tournaments require players to steadily build a stack and play a game of survival, but sometimes you just won’t get the cards and will slowly bleed chips until you are practically broke. When your stack gets small enough you will be forced to shove all in with mediocre hands in an attempt to build up your depleted stack. Now, this does not mean that you should be shoving with any two cards, but it does mean that you will be going all in with hands that you otherwise wouldn’t. Just as you need to widen your range when facing a loose player, you will need to widen your range when you are short on chips. What use is a small stack when everyone else has a decent sized or large stack? You need to have some ammunition in order to go far in a tournament. The odds are that you won’t be happy shoving with the weak hands that you will have to, but it is the correct strategy and that is all that should matter.

In contrast to shoving when short stacked is the option of folding. Folding is always a viable option and should be heavily considered before you shove all in. This means that you will be left with precisely two options when you are running low on chips in a tournament, shoving or folding. There is absolutely no space for a raise when you are short stacked. What if your raise is called and you miss the flop? You will lose all of the fold equity that you would have had if you went all in pre flop instead of making a small raise. Raising with a small stack will put you in very difficult decisions that will pay off a very small percentage of the time.

Texas Hold'em, $220 Tournament, $300.00 BB (9 handed)

Hero (MP1) ($2470)
MP2 ($13161)
MP3 ($16235)
CO ($11952)
Button ($8936)
SB ($7531)
BB ($7547)
UTG ($5335)
UTG+1 ($20808)

Preflop

Hero is MP1 with 7h, Ad

2 folds, Hero raises to $2445 (All-In), MP2 calls $2445, 4 folds, BB raises to $7522 (All-In), MP2 calls $5077

In this situation we have around 8 big blinds left and are one of the shorter stacks remaining in the tournament. Our range in this spot was any pocket pair, any ace, any two face cards, and maybe even random kings. There is not much time left to play around as one orbit will wipe out a decent portion of our stack. It would be optimal for us to be in a later position so that we could fold if other players made big raises ahead of us, but we will have to shove in this spot regardless. Our stack is too small for us to care about position and other similar dynamics of the game. We end up getting called by two hands that beat us, but there is nothing we can do about. This is a spot where we had to shove but happened to run into two strong hands.

Flop

($17639) 2c, 3s, 2h (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn

($17639) Kd (3 players, 2 all-in)

River

($17639) 10h (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $17639

Results

BB had Qc, Qs (two pair, Queens and twos).

Hero had 7h, Ad (one pair, twos).

MP2 had Ah, Jd (one pair, twos).

Outcome: BB won $35728