A♦T♥ vs a Check-Shove, what do you do here?

AT vs a Short Stack Shove-optimized.gif


DECISION POINT:
In a Tournament, it folds to you in Middle Position and you raise with A♦T♥. It folds to the Big Blind who is short-stacked, and calls. The Flop comes Q♠J♥3♥. The Big Blind checks, you bet, and the Big Blind moves all-in. Action is on you, what do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: We open from MP2 and get called by the Big Blind, who only has 13.5 big blinds to start the hand. Given the presence of the ante and the small open raise size, we can expect the Big Blind to defend with a wide range.

On the highly coordinated flop, we make a c-bet of 47% of pot and the BB check-raises all-in. There is 4925 in the pot and it costs us 2185 to call, so we are getting 2.25-1 pot odds. We need around 31% equity to make this call.

The player in the Big Blind has a short enough stack that we should include any pair and any draw in their range on the flop. Hands such as T9o and K3s are very much in their possible hand range. That means that we not only sometimes have 10 outs (any A, K, or T), but also that our Ace high is sometimes still the best hand. We also have the Ten of Hearts, which adds some value to our hand.

Continued below...


Overall, we should have around 33% equity against our opponent's range, making this a close but profitable call. If we had something like 55 on this flop, we could simply fold to the check-raise. Also, if our opponent had more chips, we could fold our AdTh.

Given their wide preflop range and short-stack, we can't fold our Ace high and gutshot broadway draw.

Calling is the best play.

How would you play it?
Share your answer in the comments below!



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