Sit and Go Bubble
In typical 9-person sit and go’s the top 3 poker player’s make money. I played really well the whole game at the casino. I got an early double up when I raised preflop with KK and got 4 callers. The flop was 4,8,9 and an early position player led out for a large bet and I went all-in. He ended up calling with k,8 for top pair and I held up on the turn and river and knocked him out. The rest of the game I was really just looking for spots to take people out. I wasn’t trying to limp into a lot of flops and smash, I was really looking to isolate against one player at a time and have my hand hold up.
When we were down to 5 online poker players, 3 of us had 3,000 or so chips and 2 players had less than 1,000. A larger stack raised the pot and one of the short stacks went all in for not much more. I decided that from the blinds, I might be able to call the all-in (only about 600 total, maybe 400 more) and maybe the initial raiser would just check it down to the river hoping to knock out the 5th place player.
I had A,3 off suit. So, the reason I called was because I wanted to knock out a player more than I cared about losing a few hundred chips. Of course, if this short stack has a superior hand to both of us, he might be tripling up and could potentially become a force later in the game. By me calling the 2 players, however, I am increasing the chances of the short stack getting knocked out because now he has to defend against 4 cards, not just 2. Of course, some of us could be sharing cards and then things get a little more complicated. Also, this is a good opportunity for me to try and see all 5 cards without much risk of having to put more money in the pot. The raiser, unless he has a huge hand like AA, KK, QQ or hit 2 pair or a set on the flop, will probably play reasonably passive due to his desire to knock out the 5th place player. There is no side pot to win, so he is likely to check down until the river. I get more value out of my marginal hand because I know I will probably get to see all 5 cards, not just the flop.
I ended up losing the hand, but the short stack lost as well.
