You make the call . . .
I was playing in the Oaks limit hold 'em tournament today. There
are six of us left at the final table. Sixth place pays $750; fifth
place pays $940 . . . on up to $5000 for first.
Blinds are $1000/$2000; limits are
$2000/$4000.
I'm in the SB with $1000 already in the
pot for my blind and one more $1000 chip in front of
me.
UTG goes all in with $2000, i.e., he has the
same amount of chips as I do and would have had to go all in either this hand
or the next. There's one other caller in late position.
I have pocket jacks.
If you were in this position, would you call or
fold and hope to lock up 5th place by doing so?
Thanks for the input; scroll down to see what happened.
Nick
I was hoping not to have to make a decision like this, but, with no
raises in front of me, I just couldn't fold pocket jacks, so I called the
bet. The flop and turn were undercards and of no help to anyone.
The river was a K which paired up both the BB and the other active
player. UTG's hand was worse than mine but since we both started the
hand with two chips and both lost, they combined 5th and 6th place prizes and
split them evenly, so I won $845.
Thinking about it afterwards, I realize that pocket jacks lose a lot of
their strength if you're out of ammunition and can't bet them after the
flop. Also, the late position bettor had K, Q offsuit and may have
deliberately not raised in order to keep the BB in and increase the chance of
knocking out me and UTG.