anyone not push here?

[macphec 0]

I've been on a great run in the past 3 weeks winning a $20 MTT and two 4th place finishes in $50 MTT's (all on Party).So with a now healthy roll, approx $3800, I played the $100 +9 MTT on Party yesterday.32 left, top 30 get paid with the real money in the top 5 spots as usual. I am playing to win. As a side note Johnny Bax is at my table with one of the big stacks.Anyway, I have $4300 UTG. Blinds are $300 $600 so my M is just under 5.I pick up AQo. There are at least 10 stacks shorter than mine but I have to push here right? I'm thinking that I really dont care if I get called or not as I need to double up pretty soon to be able to have some room to start playing again.If I fold and the blinds go through me I will have $3400 and an M of under 4.I dont think this is much of a decision at all but just wanted to see if there are any other opinions on how to play that hand in that spot.I really feel that my tournament game has broken through but then again it could be just an upswing. Thanks to Copernicus, GoBears, Zimmer as well as others who post in Tourney strategy section. I feel I have learned a lot from this forum.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Pushing is fine here IMO, especially because it's around the bubble, where people are more likely to fold a hand like pocket 10's here.

[macphec 0]

lol, that's exactly what hand called me

[Swift_Psycho 1]

lol, that's exactly what hand called me

Sweet. Meh, do you really want to sneak into the money? I got the impression that you wanted to final table. If you want to get back in this thing, getting called by tens isn't the worst here. The push is absolutely fine though, I'm not sure how many reasonable arguments can be made for folding this.

[gobears 0]

lol, that's exactly what hand called me

Sweet. Meh, do you really want to sneak into the money? I got the impression that you wanted to final table. If you want to get back in this thing, getting called by tens isn't the worst here. The push is absolutely fine though, I'm not sure how many reasonable arguments can be made for folding this.

If you're playing to win, then the push is the right move especially around the bubble.One interesting question would be what hands are folks on this board willing to push with from UTG with a M right around 5 and on the bubble.For me: any PP 66 and above - A10o +, KQo +would be my line at an average table. If the table was really playing tight, I would loosen it even more.

[macphec 0]

lol, that's exactly what hand called me

Sweet. Meh, do you really want to sneak into the money? I got the impression that you wanted to final table. If you want to get back in this thing, getting called by tens isn't the worst here. The push is absolutely fine though, I'm not sure how many reasonable arguments can be made for folding this.

If you're playing to win, then the push is the right move especially around the bubble.One interesting question would be what hands are folks on this board willing to push with from UTG with a M right around 5 and on the bubble.For me: any PP 66 and above - A10o +, KQo +would be my line at an average table. If the table was really playing tight, I would loosen it even more.

That's interesting that you would push such a wide range of hands from utg. The table was playing solidly with no stacks large enough to call my all in raise without a strong hand. ie I would have been surprised to see a call and someone show less than 10 10 of AK AQ, MAYBE AJs.I wasnt too dissapointed when the 10's called me as I was in a coinflip (almost) to get back in the tourney. This situation really illustrates how you can accumulate chips at this point in the tourney as players will tend to fold all but the strongest hands.Thanks again

[r18 0]

The only thing I'd add here is that if I was the big blind and saw your push, I might think your hand was weaker than say if you bet most (but not all) of your stack. Obviously it depends on the table, but I see way too many players pushing with marginal hands in this spot cause they clearly don't want the call. It's the smaller raises that often have the big pocket pairs behind them.

[copernicus 0]

The only thing I'd add here is that if I was the big blind and saw your push, I might think your hand was weaker than say if you bet most (but not all) of your stack.  Obviously it depends on the table, but I see way too many players pushing with marginal hands in this spot cause they clearly don't want the call.  It's the smaller raises that often have the big pocket pairs behind them.

Interesting r18...I just asked the same thing in my post on KK...sounds like youre in line with my original thought..that a limp smells like power.

[macphec 0]

The only thing I'd add here is that if I was the big blind and saw your push, I might think your hand was weaker than say if you bet most (but not all) of your stack.  Obviously it depends on the table, but I see way too many players pushing with marginal hands in this spot cause they clearly don't want the call.  It's the smaller raises that often have the big pocket pairs behind them.

Interesting r18...I just asked the same thing in my post on KK...sounds like youre in line with my original thought..that a limp smells like power.

Hmmm, interesting. So with the table playing tight and with a hand like AQo utg I could have considered a smaller raise to say $15 or $18k (or even the min raise?) to represent a bigger hand? (Blinds were $300 $600)I'd be curious to see what the 10 10 would have done had I made a smaller raise. I cant see him getting away from it though. I would have to hope he was sophisticated enough to understand what the smaller raise meant.

[kilgoretrout 0]

the real money in the top 5 spots as usual.

I think i found the answer to your question in your own post :-) , anyway I think your analysis in the orriginal post is correct. AQ is too strong not to play, and any play besides all in isn't really reasonable with your stack. I know i always question my play when I go out near the bubble, or just close to the big money, but you really have to be agressive and lucky to win these things, so don't sweat this one.As for whether your tournamnet game has broken through, or whether you have just been running good, the answer is probably both!! No matter how good you are you really need to get lucky to make 3k in short order playing 20's and 50's, but playing well helps with that alot.

[Drwnded 0]

The only thing I'd add here is that if I was the big blind and saw your push, I might think your hand was weaker than say if you bet most (but not all) of your stack. Obviously it depends on the table, but I see way too many players pushing with marginal hands in this spot cause they clearly don't want the call. It's the smaller raises that often have the big pocket pairs behind them.

Interesting r18...I just asked the same thing in my post on KK...sounds like youre in line with my original thought..that a limp smells like power.

You really have to keep in mind the quality of your opponents here - on PP most players aren't that sophisticated, and will be more inclined to read a smaller preflop raise as weakness rather than someone looking for action. When people represent weakness preflop on party poker, it's usually b/c they're weak, not b/c they're tricky.