King-Queen Suited with 18 Big Blinds -- Play or Pass?

DECISION POINT: You are in a tournament with a stack of 18 big blinds. Preflop, it folds to you on the button with . The action is on you...

What do you do?

PRO ANSWER: First-in late position play with an awkward stack can be tricky. Our awkward stack size makes it somewhat easier for either the small blind or big blind to play back against us.

In general, you should tighten up your late position open-raising range with awkward effective stacks (10-20 big blinds), since failed steal attempts use significant portions of your remaining stack.

There are two main strategies to pursue when holding hands in our tighter, late position opening range. We can either move all in (using an awkward stack…