Okay, you have a big stack, or a small stack, you're in the BB, and a short stack has put all his chips in. Lets say the blinds are 1500/3000 with 400 ante 8 handed, the raise is to 9000, and play folds to you, putting a total of 16700 in the pot, including your obligatory investment of 3000. It is 6000 to call, knowing its a heads up showdown.
Assuming the raiser did not have a PP, any two random cards you are holding will be at least 30% to win and to call is adding 35% to the pot. The combination of pot odds and implied odds (to knock out a player and go up to the next prize level) typically makes this call obligatory, but it should still be thought out.
Obviously, less thought is involved when you have 100,000 chips, but if you have 25,000 plus the BB invested lets work this out. If I am 70% likely to lose, I will be in the SB next hand with 17,100 chips left and 1900 invested (SB + ante) Maybe the blinds will be up in three hands to 2000/4000/500 ante. By folding, I guarantee that the original raiser moves from 9000 to 16700, and by calling, I am more than likely moving him to 22,700. Let's say he made his move from position 5, meaning the level will go up in his BB in three hands. Assuming he can't push again, the next 4 hands will pull 4 antes, two at 500, a BB and and a SB from his tiny stack, 7800 chips to put our small stack BACK TO THAT ORIGINAL 9000.
In other words, if you fold, the raiser has only bought 5 hands worth of time, but if you call and lose, you are one round away from being in the same spot as he. Those 6000 chips you are putting in the pot represent the next level's SB and BB investment, and lets not forget the high price of the antes.
Add to this is the fact that the small stack found something to push with. He is so small he can have anything from AA on down, but he has something. Maybe its A4, which affords you the best odds with your random two cards, which effectively is Q7 on average. If neither hand is sooted, you are in fact 40% to win, but that is the best of it.
On the other hand, if you are holding one of many marginal but playable hands, odds improve. 89 sooted, for example, is almost dead on a coin flip against merely A high, but loses 8% against your opponent if he has 2 overcards like A10. Even higher sooted connectors like JQ may help avoid the overcards but are the same odds to win otherwise.
A sooted connector is therefore quite a solid call in this situation.
For reasons discussed recently when I first spoke of shorthanded play, obviously a PP will likely provide good reason to call, keeping in mind that the bigger the table is, the more likely 2 overcards, if truly live, will beat you in a showdown, so 33 remains a tough call if you are 10 or 8 handed, but is an easy call at a shorter table.
Again, it helps to try to put shortstack on a hand. If you know how he became a shortstack, it helps:
- Has he been a patient survivalist who seems to be always on the short stack but impossible to kill? While this may be his last gasp, he probably has found something to push with. Expect a middle PP or reasonable Ace. Given that he has a few more hands to wait, A4 may be something he would fold knowing he didn't have the chips to steal with against the rest of the table. Last Monday, the exact same scenario occurred,4000 more against 1000/2000 blinds, but our BB only had 15,000 left if he made the call. He couldn't give up the pot and had 79 spades, hand almost as strong as sooted connectors, but the pusher had 10 10.
- Has he just lost a big pot? he may be on tilt, or simply giving up and going home. Your random cards could well be tje favorite with even Q high.
If I have a big stack, pot and implied odds affect my "obligatory" call situations more. Now the question is how likely do I want to double someone up. Some players are more dangerous than others. A former chip leader who is now a short stack is better kept small, limiting his skills to preflop decisions. A player who has not demonstrated particular creativity or skill might just be a player you want to keep alive now. Just don't let this player in on why you made such a loose call. You are hoping he will get lucky and cripple or knock out better players so you can outplay him later when he has a big stack but doesn't know how to play shorthanded well.
This is because short handed play is a dramatic change from early final table play where the action slows down, and you will be able to steal blinds and small pots from a player who doesn't know when his middle pair is good.
The same player who made the short stacked call with 97 against 10 10 made another mistake within a few hands of this. With the button, he tried to make a steal with K4 sooted, but the BB only had 2 times the big blind left. The BB really had few options to call with Q6. K4 may be the favorite here, but the purpose of a steal is to successfully steal, not showdown trash against trash. The BB won the trash fight, and our "obligatory caller" lost more chips.
In the very first live tourney I played, I had folded UTG when the very short stack in the BB hemmed and hawed over a raise and re-raise into his BB. He had very little folding equity left in his meager stack, and eventually folded while 10 10 and AQ showed down.
The BB, in spite of the board, then commented that he should have called with 27 because he was being offered the pot odds to triple up. Indeed, the pot was huge, he had 4000 only to throw in, and he could have used a triple plus from 7000 to 23,000, but this guy argued with me when I criticised his thinking. This was a $500+50 game with 500 people, and a significant percentage of them were experienced players. These two players pushed against the BB because they had hands that did not fear the BB's cards. Paricularly a raise and re-raise, when you as BB are almost pot committed, should make it pretty clear that it may be a cheap call for you but you are nearly dead going in. The odds computer puts that at 10% that somehow 27 will suckout 2 pair a set, or the best 4 flush or 4 straight.
As a result, if I am in the SB and the BB is very shortstacked, play often folds to me. Unless I have one of my many raising hands (mixed paint, PP, A high) I won't go near the BB unless he is so short that only a tiny amount of chips are risked chasing trash v. trash.
On the other hand, two weeks ago, after I had laid down against the very short BB from the SB, and explaining why I did to the BB, I, still with the huge stack, was folded to on the button with 55 with 2 short stacks in the blinds. I did not hesitate to put them both all in, and got one caller with KJ. JK happened to catch, but my risk was small, and the raise against them would have either robbed two shorties of their blinds or potentially knocked them out.
The other "obligatory call" situation occurs when a short )(but not critically small) stack comes raising to you with a very big stack and you have a medium strength hand like AJ. Because it is an apparent showdown hand, it is difficult to lay this hand down here knowing you will be heads up to knock out a short stack. The unfortunate flip side is that the player, who was not desperate, usually has a hand that AJ will be in trouble with.
Again, a choice between a cheap call which may very well double up a player vs. the consideration of keeping that player short is the best consideration for the call. You may be folding the best hand, or a dominant hand, but the prospect of giving a short stack the renewed life of a medium stack where the player will be able to play post flop may be giving up a tactical advantage. Putting your opponent on a hand is the key here. AJ is not an automatic call. Do a little talking or counting or whatever and try to get a read. Same thing with any PP 77 or less. 88 for reasons given earlier may very well be a reasonable call in many of these situations, but only JJ or higher are truly automatic calls.
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