Holding a small PP in EP in a SNG

[averick]

Did a couple of SnGs today and found myself in a certain spot quite a few times. I would be shortstacked and pick up a small pocket pair (22-66) UTG, with the SnG being in mid to mid late stage, which means that half the table is shortstacked too. Is it standard to always push here (other than being on the bubble)? I have virtually no SnG experience and haven't read any books on it either, so I wasn't too sure. This might seem like a no-brainer to those SnG grinders so I would appreciate comments on the best play here. What I noticed is when shoving in EP with a small PP, you easily run into bigger PPs or 2 broadway overcards which have a ton of equity against my hand. Here's a link to one of the hands: 44 UTG This was a 45 man $12 SnG and there were probably around 14 remaining. Top 7 get paid. You guys can ignore how the hand played out as I do not want to be results oriented.

[GaF]

Re: Holding a small PP in EP in a SNG If you are shortstacked (can you be more specific about exactly how short stacked you mean?) then you are more than happy to pick up the blinds. You are more than happy to coin flip to double up - you only worry about an overpair. If you have 66 and 6 players to act after you, then I think that the odds of an overpair are .... erm .... for the first card out, 32 of the 50 remaining cards are overcards to your 6, then 3 of the remaining 49 cards will pair up with the first card .... so that's (32/50)*(3/49)=3.9% (about 1 in 25 or 26) But that's for 1 player.. It's 100%-3.9%=96.1% that he doesnt have the overpair .... So it's 96.1% ^ 6 = 78.6% that none of the players after you have an overpair (or 21.4% that at least one of the players to follow you has an overpair). Of course, having an overpair doesnt guarantee that they'll call - it's a lot easier to shove for your tournament with 66, than it is to call for your tournament with 77. If I'm UTG with an M just over 2, and in the BB next hand with 2 random cards, then I'm open shoving every time this far from the money with 44.