The Poker Quiz

You are playing in late stages of a multi-table tournament. and you are dealt 9 8 in a late position with 10 people around the table.

The blinds are $1000-$2000 and you have $5600 in chips left. The action is folded to you. The remaining 3 players to act behind you have bigger stacks than yours.

The Solution

Raise all-in.

With the blinds this big, with $3000 chips already in the pot and only three players left to act behind you, there is no choice but to push all-in.

You are in bad shape with your short stack and even tough your cards are not very strong you have to make a move and hope of winning the pot uncontested. Unless one of the players behind you have a pocket pair higher than a 5-5 or two face cards you should live another hand.

One may argue that 9-8 off-suit is very week, so if called you might in real trouble. Whereas that’s true, 9-8 can connect lots of ways besides the fact that you are already dead in this tournament if you refuse to take action.