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Final Table Bubble play with QQ
I saw this happen in a televised tourney hand and I’m curious what people think. We’re at a table with 51 bb. There are two five handed tables, and the next person out means we make the final table. It is a $10k buy in and there is big money for each ladder spot we climb. To our direct left is the overwhelming tournament chip leader with 156 bb. This player has been active and aggressive, bullying the rest of the table. We cover the rest of the table, with stacks of 28, 19, and 12 respectively. The other table also has an extreme shorty at 7 bb and no one over 60 bb.
So here’s the spot. UTG/HJ opens to 2 bb from their 19 bb stack. We look down in the CO to see QsQc and three bet to 7.5 bb. Bully monster stack four bets to 24bb. UTG/HJ folds. Our move?
In real life, QsQc folded and maintained their relatively healthy stack. Is this the right play in this spot, even against such an aggro big stack bully?
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2 Replies
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When we are one of the bigger stacks remaining and have the massive chip stack bully on our immediate left, we are just in a cage. We can not make aggressive moves without risking our tournament life. We just need to nit it up and hope for a better seat draw when we get to FT (hopefully to the left of big stack).
Having said that, I think I would prefer a call vs HJ open. When bully 3 bets we can see what HJ does -if he jams, we fold and if he folds and the price is right we can flat QQ and play a smaller pot OOP.
Alternately we can make a much smaller 3-bet say 5bb which still puts pressure on HJ (if big stack folds) and may give us correct odds to call if bully 4-bets.
Thirdly, I know it’s nitty, but we can just fold preflop and wait for the final table bubble to break, similar to the money bubble.
This is a difficult spot and like I said we are in a cage with our position at the table and just don’t get to make moves with the big stack to our left. As played, I agree with the fold.
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I think what’s the driving factor in this hand is that it’s a 10k buy-in tournament. Put anyone in this spot in their specific ‘average buy-in’ and I think everyone will be finding a 5-bet jam.
I think the monster stack can definitely be taking advantage of chip dynamics here. When they 4-bet
— the initial raise doesn’t want to play the hand due to the fact that the 3-better can easily get stacked here and then they make the final table.
— and the 3-better doesn’t want to call because they can easily fold their way to a final table by not playing the hand.
Honestly, its a scary spot. If you put me in that spot in a normal buy-in tourney I’m not thinking too much about getting my chips in the middle. But make it a 10k even with very meaningful ladders, and it does become a little dicey.
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