$200 NL HE MTT: defending BB bubble

9 players left (bubble 8 players ITM

1. 3100
2. 2400
3. 1850
4. 1423
5. 1096
6 .845
7. 650
8. 500

lj 11bb, hj (agressive player 60bb) ,bu 11,5bb ,sb 32bb, hero 11bb second table 34bb, 20bb, 17bb, 9bb

lj folds, co raises 2bb, bu calls 2bb, hero calls jto (how often should I defend my big blind here, against chip leader and against chip leader and bu ( he is probably tight)

What do you defends here, you play tight, waiting itm, or you you play more aggresive to get chance to payjump

as played flop 7.2bb

co bets 3bb, bu folds, hero all in 9.8bb

Since its right on the bubble I think, I would just fold this and hope to outlast at least one of the other 3 short stacks. Its important for future hands to preserve as much fold equity as possible, when we are this short, and even though its only 1BB more to see a flop, its still 10% of your remaining stack. And finally when you flop top pair as here, you are kind of committed, but you could still easily be behind or get sucked out on.

So I think, I would play a pure push or fold strategy preflop and not have a calling range at all. Which mean, that if its not good enough to push, then its not good enough to call either. And JTo is not good enough to push against the chip leader and another short stack. Much better to hope, that the chip leader bust BTN or at least win the pot, so that BTN is now even shorter and closer to busting.

thanks for reply, I think you are right this time he called me and we splitted, he got the same hand

Rajten said:

thanks for reply, I think you are right this time he called me and we splitted, he got the same hand

Click to expand...

As played I would also get it in on the flop. I mean... if you are not going with it on a flop like this, that is almost perfect for you, then for sure its not profitable to pay even 1BB to see the flop. Maybe its not GTO strategy, but personally I just hate defending my big blind with a short stack against the chip leader, when there is big ICM-pressure. So many situations are just going to suck.

Like what if the flop comes QT6 rainbow, and he fire a small C-bet of 2BB into the 7BB pot? Are you then folding, even though you flopped second pair and are getting 4,5:1? Probably not so you pay 2BB more to see the next card. The next card is a brick, and now he jam for 7BB more into the 11BB pot. Are you then risking your entire stack hoping, he is bluffing? Or are you folding, and now you only have 7BB left instead of 10BB? Both those options suck. And this is why, for me I would rather make a small folding mistake preflop than get involved in messy postflop spots like this.

@fundiver199 has stated the issue with the call very well- we will be in trouble post flop frequently by calling. We always want to think about future actions. Our Villain can bet us out of the pot easily so we cannot realize all our equity and calling a flop bet to fold on the turn crushes our stack in this ICM spot.
ICM #1 principal is chips lost are worth more than chips won.

If you want to continue in the BB fold off suit hands and call suited hands the ROI is often 2x greater with suited hands post flop.