33 on the Bubble

I am pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but I just wanted to get your thoughts on being short stacked and playing small pocket pairs like 22, 33, 44.

I haven't played many live tournys with a lot of people so this was the largest field I have played in (119 people) and I really wanted to cash. I played at Binion's twice with fields of around 80 and I took 6th in one of them. Anyway, we are on the bubble with 11 people remaining. Blinds have just moved to 16k/8k/2k. Average stack is just over 100k. I have 49k and I am UTG. We are hand for hand at this point and the super short stack (under 1BB left) has doubled up 3 times now. I look down at :3h: :3s:. I decide I can't try to wait for one of the other 2 short stacks to go out and I push. The BB calls with :Ac: :10h:. He catches an A on the turn and I am the bubble boy.

My question is would any of you have played this any differently and if so why? I realize that the math says of course I make this play, but there were a couple of outside factors. I rarely get to play so this was my one opportunity for a while and I really wanted to make something of it. Do you let this change how you play or do you still just go for it and hope for the best?

First congrats on a solid finish with or without the money...

I think you made the right decision to push w/your 3's but the better question might be "why did I let myself get this short to bubble in the first place." Believe me anymore this is my expertise (bubbling that is), but we need to ask our selfs why am I forced to move in w/33 this late in the event. Maybe the answer in your case is that you were devastated by a bad beat or an unsuccessful bluff attempt but either way the question has to be asked.. I have decided to stop playing live poker this way and to move more in the direction of "kill or be killed." I have read all the books and made all the plays now I just have to quit playing so damn tight/aggressive... Again nice job and good luck in the future.

Thanks for the input, Ben. I guess that is a better question to ask. The structure wasn't too bad (25/50 blinds with 10k in chips, levels increased every 20 minutes), but I did find it difficult to stay ahead of the blinds and antes a lot. Looking back on the tourny, I actually only won 6 hands and lost only 2. Both of those were steal attempts that I folded preflop after getting a lot of action after my raise. I suppose this is a little too tight for lasting around 4.5 hours. However, most of the pots had 3-4 people seeing the flop. It was difficult to maneuver with everybody playing so loose so I felt it was better to sit back and wait for the homerun. Of the 6 hands I won, 3 took down the blinds/antes, 2 were double ups, and one was a triple up. Is this entirely too tight?

Also, I was kind of surprised that by the time we got down to 2 tables a good 15-17 of the players had M's in the 4-5 range. Even on the bubble the M's were so low that had i won that hand I would have been in the top 4 in chips. Is this normal for this kind of tourny?

I'm not sure about the stack question but the structure seems decent.. A little fast for my taste but it sounds like you played great to get as far as you did..

My plan anymore is to have a plan reference where I want to be at each part of the event.. If I'm behind at one of my points I will turn it up or go home.. This I hope will prevent me from showing up late w/ a short stack and going out on the bubble..

Even though you were 5 or 6 handed, I hate pushing with such a weak pair UTG. However, just because I hate it doesn't mean that you can get away from it. Having a made hand, right before hitting the blinds for 1/3 of your stack....you have to do it. Just sucks.

You could easily be called by J-10 or something like that and win that race. And with as short as your stack is, if you get one caller, you could get the blinds too, giving you a chance to triple or quadruple up.

So I agree with the consensus here, and also believe you have to push with your dinky little pair in this spot.

make a move earlier

I would rather shove 6BB on the button with 72o than shove 33 here where you are (almost) guaranteed to be called.

as played (waiting way too long to make a move) you have to shove here with almost any 2 cards, so yeah good bet, unlucky.