THIN! (Part 11)

Well, since the Shortstack Game seems to getting very little interest, I figured I'd put in a THIN! post before going back to it.

And this hand actually does have something to do with the Shortstack Game, just because it's blind vs. blind in a tourney where both players are fairly short. As loyal readers know, late in tourneys I think you really need to maximize your fold equity and steal chips preflop as often as you can.

One of the best times is when it's folded to the small blind, who limps into your big blind. Donks love to limp into the small blind with any two cards, and often min bet any flop or some donkey move like that. In general I do not permit this and will be either shoving preflop or shoving the flop if I catch any piece at all.

Some donks try to combat this by limping their big hands like AA, KK, AK, etc., which I think is probably a pretty good strategy. However these hands don't come around nearly often enough to deter me from shoving over their limps a large portion of the time. Perhaps some of them realize this and start limp/calling with some more marginal hands, like A6o. I'm pretty sure this is a terrible strategy. Say stacks are 10 bbs and you're comparing limp/calling A6o in the small blind to just shoving in your 10 bbs. A6o has only 51% equity vs. the top 50% of all hands, which is probably about my shoving range:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 51.043% 47.73% 03.32% 5805749604 403268034.00 { A6o }
Hand 1: 48.957% 45.64% 03.32% 5551921944 403268034.00 { 33+, A2s+, K2s+, Q2s+, J4s+, T6s+, 96s+, 86s+, 76s, 65s, A2o+, K5o+, Q7o+, J7o+, T8o+, 98o }

Whereas my calling range if the sb shoves is obviously much smaller, probably only 8% of all hands. Since you guys are probably bored of equity calculations, I'll spare you, but I don't think limp/calling a marginal hand like A6o is a good play.

An even worse play, which I can't come up with any logic for but which seems to be an important part of a tourney donk's arsenal, is limp/calling a terrible hand. I mean I really just don't get it. I guess they just get frustrated that I shove every time they limp like a donkey? I dunno. But something led to this "accidental value bet":

Seat 3: Donk (SB) (4,645)
Seat 4: bruechips (BB) (4,580)

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bruechips [Kc 5s]
Donk calls 200 (does he really expect to get away with this BS?)
bruechips raises to 4,580, and is all in (gimme the pot, donk!)
Donk calls 4,180 (whoops...looks like I'm gonna have to spike something this time...)
Donk shows [Jc 5c] (actually...huh?!?!?)

*** FLOP *** [9h Ts Ah]
*** TURN *** [9h Ts Ah] [Qd]
*** RIVER *** [9h Ts Ah Qd] [Jh]
bruechips wins the pot (9,160) with a straight, Ace high

Just to clarify, J5s is a slight dog to a RANDOM hand. ROR!!! Oh man...donks make me laugh...

-BRUECHIPS