Full Tilt Poker Game #24978312556: $22,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) (193159485), Table 25 – 6000/12000 Ante 1500 – No Limit Hold’em – 19:47:23 ET – 2010/10/24
Seat 1: rjmgrace (611,820)
Seat 2: TheAssassinato (438,006)
Seat 6: werpennstate23 (206,836)
Seat 7: krasark (214,482)
Seat 8: Pageh656 (480,951)
Seat 9: healey87 (162,784)
rjmgrace antes 1,500
TheAssassinato antes 1,500
werpennstate23 antes 1,500
krasark antes 1,500
Pageh656 antes 1,500
healey87 antes 1,500
werpennstate23 posts the small blind of 6,000
krasark posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheAssassinato 
Pageh656 folds
healey87 folds
rjmgrace folds
TheAssassinato raises to 436,506, and is all in
werpennstate23 folds
krasark folds
Uncalled bet of 424,506 returned to TheAssassinato
TheAssassinato mucks
TheAssassinato wins the pot (39,000)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 39,000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: rjmgrace folded before the Flop
Seat 2: TheAssassinato (button) collected (39,000), mucked
Seat 6: werpennstate23 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: krasark (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: Pageh656 folded before the Flop
Seat 9: healey87 folded before the Flop
I use this hand history often in my lessons to show off a common error that many MTTers make.
What error could I be making however? IT’S UNEXPLOITABLE BRAH. WTF YOU WASTING MY TIME WITH?
In my opinion I made a mistake in this hand because by shoving I fold out the hands I really want to play with me. There’s a very good chance both opponents behind me, with both around 18x, will jam over my button open with a weaker ace than mine. Having my opponent dead to three outs is one of the best spots I can have. If we race off the chips with my statistical advantage, on average I will earn more chips than what I would get just picking up what’s in the middle right now. Therefore, the higher-variance yet more profitable play, is to raise and call.
While this does increase your variance, I also think it will reduce it in later spots. When you button open, your range is less polarized, because you’ve shown you’re willing to raise/call lighter. I’ve noticed some of my opponents elect to not shove into me with much when they see this. If I show I’m shoving my marginally profitable hands, and raise/calling my better holdings, some guys love to shove on my opens all day.
Yes, it is profitable if you shove. What hands should we be more inclined to shove however? I think the smaller pairs and hands like Q-10 suited are what we want to shove here. It’s unexploitable, and we will fold out several A-x and two overcard combinations that would have pretty decent equity versus our hands. In this instance, where we are often a slight underdog or barely better than a flip when we get called, we don’t mind shoving and reducing our variance. It’s less likely we will get our money dominating our opponent’s holding.