I feel I should justify my comments to Neil of "Terrible Play" and "Your a muppet"
We"ve played quite a few of these between us, and discuss strategies for them on a regular basis. A lot of the time we play, the numbers registered means that there are two seats available on the final table and a bit of minor cash.
In this particular game, there were 3 seats available and $18 for 4th place. Neil had already got through an initial table of 7 players to get to this point.
The table started off quite cagey, but then everyone seemed to be in a hurry to make moves, and three players were eliminated fairly quickly. At this point, Neil has hardly played any hands. Lost minimum with Q8 v Q6 on a xxQ6Q board. wp sir.
So, we get to this particular hand. UTG A J.
Blinds are 50/100
Stack sizes are
4300 - BB
4285
1915
1595
1060 - Neil
965
880 - SB
So, the raise to 300 (30% of his stack) with AJ is clearly asking a question. IMO, it"s a shove or fold move really, but in shoving, what do you actually want to happen ?
Someone to call with an under pair and you"re racing ?
And ace rag caller, and you dominate ?
Not likely to happen, my thoughts would be that by shoving, you are only ever going to get called by a hand thats beating you, or you pick up the blinds, which at this level is hardly worth the risk.
I quite like Neil"s play with the raise. He"s got a hand and is testing the water.
The reraise from the other player though should answer the question he has asked.
We very quickly discussed it on Live Messenger.
My comment was, at best you are racing, but more likely you are dominated or have one overcard to a pocket pair.
A fold at this point, still leaves you with 760 chips with blinds at 50/100. Enough opportunities to make another move and double up.
I"m not suggesting that the fold after the reraise is always the correct move, but when you look at the full circumstances, previous play, stack sizes, payout structure, then it is the right move here.
The funny thing is, it was only last week that Neil was quite rightly having a go at me for wanting to get my chips in and racing to much.
The "muppet" comment was a little tongue in cheek, as I was more annoyed for him because I think he could outplay the guys on the table and coudl have got away from that hand in that situation. As he said, after we spoke briefly during the hand, I sat there assuming he was folding it.
My first comment back to him was "What did you do that for ?"