Playing Shove/Fold Optimally

I never purchased any kind of SNG / MTT software so I admit that I've made most of these decisions by feel. That said, I know many LPers here should be very competent in answering these basic questions so here goes:

For all questions, tournaments are in mid-stage with antes (are SNG antes smaller than MTT ones?)

1) 6bb UTG/UTG+1 w/A7o (if this is a fold, what size is it a shove?) [what are we doing with A2s-A9s)
2) 11bb on btn with 98o
3) 15bb on btn with A3o
4) 10bb UTG with 66 (I'm assuming 55-22 is a fold, 99+ is a jam)

Also I've heard of the rule if you have 16bb or less, you should never raise/fold. Thoughts?

I understand Q2 and 3 are dependent on skill of the blinds / our image / their stacks and we probably also have the option of raise/fold. I'm just not that fluent on shove/fold and my ignorance is likely costing me EV.

I would shove 1 to 4 without a thought. Raise folding is still fine with 16bb specially when ur opponent will think ur never raise folding. Full Tilt still hasn't paid though

I basically think you kinda identified the correct push ranges here. worse hands than listed you fold, but push all these.

and the 16bb or less rule shouldn't be followed blindly. If you're playing bvb against a super tight guy who just folds to all your 2.2 bb raises, then you can just keep doing that with j3 and folding even if you have 13 bb. vs unknown, I guess it's valid enough, but I think I practice it more like 14bb or so.

4jams and all hands mentioned in brackets are also jams. Sngs dont have smaller antes than regular mtts

my ranges with antes: 1/2 fold, 3/4 shove

1. 22+ A7s+ A5s-A3s ATo+ K8s+ KJo+ Q8s+ QJo J8s+ T9s 98s
2. 22+ Ax+ K2s+ K8o+ Q5s+ Q9o+ J7s+ J9o+ T6s+ T9o 96s+ 86s+ 75s+ 65s 54s
3. 22+ Ax+ K4s+ KTo+ Q6s+ QTo+ J7s+ JTo T7s+ T9o 96s+ 86s+ 76s 65s
4. 33+ A9s+ A5s AJo+ K9s+ KJo+ Q9s+ J9s+ T9s


and that rule is retarded. i think its proper to raise/fold much lower than that in many positions when you can steal and your risk reward is 1:1.5

yeah, wtf, I raise/fold <16 all day

On February 05 2012 11:11 player999 wrote: yeah, wtf, I raise/fold <16 all day

well youre also a hu player who is balancing by raise/calling J9s w/ 11x. its a bit harder at full tables because there are so many hands you would prefer shoving over minraising, but there are many times when its right to minraise/fold stuff like QTs with 13x from 3rd to act or so

I mean at full table obv

its a bit harder sure but just as in HU, where the best players are the ones giving the opponent that extra room to make mistakes instead of just openshoving 20bb w/ A9o, in MTT I believe the less you say "its ok to shove, I shove" and the more you give them room to make mistakes while making your range so much harder to play against, the better you will be

all are pushes 2/3 im min raise folding if both blinds have me covered. If one is short I shove. Im also min raising like 5-100% of my range depending on my mood and players.