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With the blinds at 4,000/8,000 and a chipstack of around 50,000 I was involved in a four way battle at the end of a tournament. The average stack at the table was around 40,000 and I picked up (6d,7d) in the small blind. In this situation, you could possibly say that playing it safe is reasonable, and there is nothing wrong with folding in this position. I can agree with that to an extent, but I feel that with the pressure being exerted each round with the blinds, something more aggressive is in order.

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Whilst on a full table, you wouldnt have much reason to get carried away with this hand at all, but I feel you have to do something other than fold it in the position described. When I was in this position a few nights ago, the action was folded around and I shoved all in to try and pick up the big blind. This seems reckless in some ways as I have no idea what the big blind is holding, but the fact is, that the size of the blinds doesn’t really leave me much room to put out a smaller raise. If my opponent with a 30,000 stack has strong enough cards to call a raise, he is likely to push the rest of his stack in and gamble with it. So I may as well make an all in bet that looks strong to increase the chance of him folding.

As it happens, my opponent had (Ah,Kh) and called, beating me. I have to say though that I do not regret the play I made, simply because a high percentage of the time my opponent will have no real cards and has to fold. If he does have a hand such as a strong ace or two paint cards he wants to gamble with, I have two live cards and am not a huge underdog.

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