Shove TT vs 3-bet for Tournament Life?

[michael lightfoot]

I entered the small black chip bounty tournament ($100 buy-in, $100 bounty) at the Borgata Spring Poker Open so there are some more experienced tournament players in town than usual. Players at my table mirrored the field of the small daily tournaments…straight forward players. Blinds are $400/$800 with $800 BB ante.

My stack is just under $30k which was the tournament avg stack at the time and I had just opened KQo from MP and folded to a 3-bet from the BB. This player had just gotten moved to my table and had me covered by about $10k. Based on his demeanor and how he played with his chips, I pegged him as an experienced player–possibly busted out of one of the main events and came down to a smaller event to pass the time and take advantage of us small stakes players.

Second hand since this guy sat down at my table, I get TT in MP and make the same $2k open raise as before. Folds around to same guy who 3-bets to $8000 from SB. Calling would leave me with slightly more than a pot-sized bet so I felt my options were either to shove or fold.

Thoughts?

[Edoardo Galbiati]

I would definitely 4-bet shove, as he is 3-Betting most of the times with air to put pressure and eventually to make every raise look like a bluff to take your bounty down later in the tournament.

[Chuck M]

Just for fun, I gave villain a 3bet range. Yet I don’t know him, his style of play, but… Let’s say he’d 3bet :
A2s+, K9s+ QTs+ JTs, ATo+, KQo, 99+
That’s 14%
Our TT vs this range is ahead 55/45

Let’s say he’s a bit tighter (10%)
A2s+ ATo+ TT+ KQs KQo

It’s still a flip (52/48 for TT)

But I guess he might fold a good percentage of the time, so I think it’s a good spot to shove 👍

[DeeKay]

I’ll just keep it simple… how would Brad break this down? He would probably determine that this guy is playing aggressive, you’ve already showed that a 3-bet would push you off the hand, and he’s likely just sizing you up to see how much he can get away with. Only 4 hands are better than yours… I have to assume you are a huge advantage. And if you’re wrong… that’s just poker.

[michael lightfoot]

Thanks for the feedback. I ended up shoving and he called with AK and hit an A on the flop. Figured it was a flip but wanted to hear others’ perspectives. Another thing I considered was bounty equity… that a larger stack would allow me to better attack bounties which were a large part of the buy in. But Like DeeKay said, that’s poker and it just didn’t work out this time. Thanks again.

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