A Good Push Fold Strategy?

[PokerPirate]

Right, so a lot of the time in MTTs we get to a point where we are short stacked and have to either push our chips in or fold.

I just want to put out a few points about this.

Firstly, the push fold "boundary" can be very vague. Harrington suggested this theory of the "M" Value. - YourStack/BB+SB+ANTE. If your M is 5 or less then you should be push fold. I.e If the blinds are 100/200 and you have a stack of 1500 then your M = 5 and you should push your money in or fold.

I used to follow this pretty religiously a while back and now i've come to realise it's just not that simple. If you're raising with a stack of anything less than 10 BBs then you're committing yourself whatever. Even if you limp you're just leaking important chips necessary for a double up.

I tend to shove my stack if i am 10 BBs or less. Or if not shove, do a "stop and go" with pockets, i.e raise preflop to try and steal and if you get a caller then shove the flop no matter what the board comes.

Secondly, what hands are we shoving with?? It's easy to say that youre push /fold but what with??

I'll start off by saying that shoving in early position with A7 or less is a bad move if you are 9 or 10 handed. If you get called you are likely to be dominated, unless you are so shortstacked that the BB or big stacks are calling with pretty much any 2. (also depends on loose/tight table).

In that sort of spot it's best to put your money in with suited connectors or pocket pairs. Suited connectors from 78s upwards and any pocket pair.

In mid/late position i would shove with almost any ace (unless i have been making a lot of steals recently and losing respect) any suited connector (probably not with 23 or 34s) and any pocket pair.

[Pates]

Nice post PokerPirate. I've gotta agree with most of what you're saying. For the hands you push with it totally depends on your stack size. If you're in a position of just a couple of big blinds and you're UTG then im pushing with any connectors higher than 56o or even a hand like 97o. And any Ace if i'm really short.

[Sofa King We Toddid]

I tend not to shove the whole lot in when im down to 10 bbs. I like to raise 3 big blinds and then see if i can steal the flop.if i get a caller i might hit big and so i can pick up a double up instead of maybe just stealing the blinds

[James]

yer 10 big blinds its push fold i think, if your raising with 18 or less big blinds you have to be prepared to felt it(push all in) to a reraise. your push fold strategy has to adapt to the table dynamic. alot of big stacks your likely to get called with less.

[PokerPirate]

I was down to the last 40 of the $11 rebuy on stars and was on 50k blinds were 2k/4k (didnt help i was on 65k with blinds at 1.5k/3k until i got disconned for about 20 minutes).

I ended up shoving UTG+2 7 handed with A9 and ran into TT and KK on the SB and BB.

I feel at high blind levels you should be push folding with anything from 0.5bbs to 15bbs. There's loads of value in the pot already especially if there is an ante structure + a lot of fold equity which at that point is really powerful as people start to tighten up.

[foolsgold]

you gotta be happy when they flip thous two hands you have quite a good chance of winning

[PokerPirate]

Originally Posted by foolsgold

you gotta be happy when they flip thous two hands you have quite a good chance of winning

This is true. If i spike my ace i'm pretty certain to take down the pot which would've been well over 150k... very nice.