Poker Quiz Question #4

Q#4: You're in a tournament with T4K in chips. Nine players at your table, and they all have you covered. Blinds are 200/400 with a 50 chip ante. The UTG player limps in. You've seen him limp in EP often, and many times has folded to a raise. Seat three limps behind. The button also limps. You're in the SB with As8h. What do you do?

1. Fold
2. Push All-in
3. Call
4. Raise somewhere between 1500 and 2500

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A#4:
The correct answer is to shove all-in. The reason to do this is because your M is in the danger zone and you need to accumulate some chips. The fact that the UTG player limped, and you've seen him fold to raises before, means that you stand a decent chance of getting him to fold. Once he drops out, it's much more likely that the other limpers will fold, too. This is a classic squeeze play situation, and you need those dead money chips in the middle. Your stack is small, but it's still large enough to merit some respect if you shove.

You might think that calling and then doing a stop and go on any flop would be OK, but it's not a great idea given that there will be four other players in the hand, and the odds of someone actually hitting the flop are pretty good. Even if an Ace hits, you're not really very happy because your kicker sucks. Folding is weak, too, as you really need to get some chip momentum going. The final option of raising between 1500 and 2500 is also weak, as it commits you to the hand, but doesn't use the full weight of your stack to drive out the limpers. You don't want to get called; you simply want to force everyone out of the hand right now, and take the T2250 chips sitting out there in the middle, which represents more than a 50% increase in your stack. Shove away!

All-in for now...
-Bug