DECISION POINT: You are in a Tournament where the average table stack is approximately 34K and blinds are 200/400 with a 50 ante. The action folds to you in the Hijack seat with just over 35,000 in chips and you raise to 1,000 with 6♥6♣. The Cutoff folds and the Button moves all-in for 5,950. Both Blinds fold and action is back on you.

What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: The hand starts with an average stack of around 80BBs-90BBs with the exception of the Button who has 15BBs. Pocket sixes are well within the range of hands to raise first-in to the pot from the Hijack facing both stack size ranges.

Although we should be aware that the Button has a perfect reshoving stack vs our 2.5x open size we should still raise first-in here with our sixes.We do decide to raise and make it 1,000. The player in the Cutoff folds, the Button moves all in for 5,950 and both Blinds fold.

Now we need to decide what is the most profitable move. Anytime your opponent is all-in you should determine your pot odds.

In this case, there is around 8,000 chips in the pot and it costs you an additional 4,950 to call, giving you pot odds of 8000-4950 or about 1.6-1. Given these odds, you need to have at least 38% equity in the hand to continue (1.6-1 is roughly equal to 62-38).

Another way to calculate the equity needed to call is to divide the call amount by the total future pot size (4950/12950 = .38 or 38%).

Holding pocket sixes we are likely to have more than 38% equity against most opponent’s hand ranges. We have just over 38% equity against the hand range of 77+, AJs+, KQs, AJo+, KQo (pocket pairs 77 or higher, AJ or higher and KQ, suited and offsuit versions for all).

Thus we can use this hand range as a milestone for our estimated profitability. If our opponent has this hand range or wider, we should call. If they have a narrower hand range than this, we should fold.

Many opponents will reshove their 15 big blind stack with a much wider hand range than this, therefore we should call this all-in as our default play. We would need information that a specific opponent reshoves only with fewer, more premium hands in order for us to fold this hand preflop. However, in general, calling in this spot is correct.

Calling is the best play