Here is an interesting hand that came up last night. We were down to the bubble and I was dealt 9/9 on the button and made a standard 3x raise. Blinds were at 50/100. The SB folds and the BB pushes. The BB has a huge stack and pushes a lot. I am currently 3rd in chips with only 1500 left after the raise. So the Huge stack as the majority of the chips on the table. Do you make a stand and call? Do you fold and hope to make the money? I will post after some responses what I did.

I would definitely consider folding here, you'll have 15 BBs left. It really depends on the other stacks. If they are small too I would be more inclined to fold. If you are the smallest stack then I would think hard about any hand showdown by the BB before. The problem is he may be pushing any two broadway cards, so you're not ahead by much. It's a very read dependent decision imo. I think in most cases a call here is bad.

I agree totally a fold here would be the right play. During the play this player shoved in with 3/8 off and 10/4 off and snapped a couple of big hands. Basically we had a maniac sitting at the table.

I'd saying folding is a very realistic option but the fold definitely situationally dependent. Like previously mentioned, even if he has some junky hand like queen-ten off it's basically a coin flip. I'd tend to lean towards a fold most of the time, but sounds like the chip bully, was also a maniac pushing with 8-3 off and other trash so in this particular instance I don't think calling is that bad either. Based on the observation of him pushing with real trash I'd say I'm about 70/30 in favor of calling.

Jason

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I know I hate calling off all of my chips with a medium pair. Against other players I might fold this. I made the call he showed K/4 off. Needless to say I was bounced out of the tournament on the bubble when a he completed his set of 4's on the river. It depends on what you want to do in a tournament just get in the money or win. I always want to win and never mind going out on the bubble, I want wins.

I think when you are sitting the fence on a decision like this it's important to consider extraneous factors like the buy-in compared to your bankroll, how much edge you have over the other players at the table, etc. Then sometimes you can figure out whether you should fold and try to make third or second or whether you should take a risk to double up and start applying pressure to the small stacks yourself. Then you would have a better chance at first place, especially against Donkzilla with the big stack. There's always so much to think about with these decisions...

I think I would of made the call because you have invested 300 of your 1800 chip stack already in that hand. There are very few cases where he has you beat and are most likely in a coinflip sitution. I know making the money is important but you should always keep the mindset of getting first place. plus if you just make the money you will only make a small profit. Good post:)

Firstly how much as the short-stack got? If he's very low I might just fold into cash, if he's just below me I might make the call vs the big stack. Also have any of the big stacks push hands been shown, either at showdown or voluntarily by him? If he's shown an abiltiy to push any two, especially low cards, I might be more tempted than if he has been pushing Face/X cards.

Regardless of finishing in 3rd you need to ITM before you can get 1st. It may be "right" to give up a small edge here, and in situations similar, to get a better advantage later. But this is very dependant on your opponents, blinds and stack sizes for the whole table and also how soon before the blinds are go up.

*Edit: Sorry missed the stack to blind sizes in the original post. As you said you were 3rd on bubble I assumed you had less than 10BBs (turbo donkey that I am!). With 1500 chips at 50/100 this is a pretty standard fold IMO. You have plenty of time to get a better spot to chip up.

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