Right play?

[lsutiger]

Been having a pitiful time at the tables latey, so i dcided to play some STT to chance the view - great strategy. I am not getting cards period. Here is my latest fiasco.

Overview - I have played exactly 2 hands the entire game (that includes the blinds - I have folded all but 1 of those had KJ - my best hand).

Anyway, we are in level 4 and I desperately need to get going. Get A9 in EP and decide to raise 3x BB. Reasoning is that I have been playing tight and should be able to steal. A9 is marginal at best from this position, I know. Shoudl i have waited for a better hand on the next orbit? I would be down to >400 chips after the blinds pass.

Should I have folded to the raise?

***** Hand History for Game 3279544834 *****
NL Texas Hold'em $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:18700470 Level:4 Blinds(50/100) - Thursday, December 29, 09:33:02 EDT 2005
Table Table 67224 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 7
Seat 1: bcell327 ( $395 )
Seat 2: cioffi49 ( $735 )
Seat 4: focker12 ( $776 )
Seat 5: protry175 ( $1239 )
Seat 6: nix67 ( $1470 )
Seat 7: Ringer23 ( $2850 )
Seat 8: lsu0tiger ( $535 )
Trny:18700470 Level:4
Blinds(50/100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to lsu0tiger [ 9s Ad ]
Ringer23 folds.
lsu0tiger raises [300].
bcell327 folds.
cioffi49 folds.
focker12 folds.
protry175 raises [650].
nix67 folds.
lsu0tiger is all-In.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2d, Qs, Ks ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5h ]
protry175 shows [ 3h, 3s ] three of a kind, threes.
lsu0tiger shows [ 9s, Ad ] high card ace.
protry175 wins 165 chips from side pot #1 with three of a kind, threes.
protry175 wins 1170 chips from the main pot with three of a kind, threes.

[kbar13]

I'm all-in pre-flop. You only have 5x the BB, Ax is a monster in this spot imo.

[jacedk]

I'm all-in pre-flop. You only have 5x the BB, Ax is a monster in this spot imo.

Yup...all-in! This eliminates the disadvantage of being out of position and gives you a better chance of everyone else folding.

You also want to begin stealing with marginal hands before this, to avoid being so short stacked, especially if you have a tight image.

Try and look back over your hand history of the tourney. Count how many times you were on the button or cutoff and it was folded to you after the blinds reached 50/100. These are your stealing opportunities. Use them, preferably by pushing all-in, with any two cards.

[lsutiger]

Allright, be more aggressive - I kid you not when I say I had squat for hands the whole game. I had 2 face cards once. I don't think there was a hand where the pot wan't raised before it got to me in LP....I just had a real bad game...it appears that my luck just sucks lately (lost my last STT with KK to A8o..he called my raise with junk and went all-in. I am just getting frustrated. As I posted in the B-F zone, I think I just need a break.

for the record, A9 vs 33 is a 46% favorite to win - coin flip...what you gonna do?

[bobcorn]

Always be aware of your stack size relative to the blinds. When you have less than 10bb's any raise should be all in because if you make a standard raise and someone moves all in you will have the odds to call. Btw, I would probably push any ace in this spot.

[jp]

Always be aware of your stack size relative to the blinds. When you have less than 10bb's any raise should be all in because if you make a standard raise and someone moves all in you will have the odds to call. Btw, I would probably push any ace in this spot.

Yep, I agree with everything here except I tend to use the 8BB's more often than 10.

[scottie_g]

It's not a matter of being more aggressive. The blinds are massive compared to your stack. Bobcorn already said it but I'll go into detail a little bit more.

Lets do the math here:

You raise 3x the BB. This guy raises you all in. There is no WAY you are folding at that point. Your pot odds are 950/350 = 2.7:1. You need about 2:1 odds to call with any 2 cards. So what is the point of your 3x raise here? If you are going to call an all-in bet, you need to be pushing all in. Why? Because there are 2 ways you can win the hand there: He can fold, or you can win the showdown. Also, by pushing all-in, you gain a ton of Fold Equity (value gained by opponent folding).

In your situation, he was probably calling the all-in regardless, but the point stands.

Good luck at the tables.