Hello TPE.

I have been running sims on Holdem Resources Calculator around calling on the direct bubble with AK when doing so will bust us.

There was a thread on here a while back which produced some interesting dialogue. Some said its a definite call, others a definite fold, the answer being in the end of course, “it depends”.

Of course it is dependent on whether, for instance, someone will be blinded out the next hand, or is so seriously short stacked that their demise will almost certainly happen imminently, but I came across something which I can make head nor tail of.

I set up the direct bubble of an 18 man sit n go. All five remaining players have 1000 chips. 5 left, 4 paid. UG shoves, giving the CO an understandable 1.4% call range (QQ+). The Button also an understandable 1.4% to call (QQ+).

But the Small Blind’s call range jumps to a surprising 5.1% (TT+, AQo+, AJs+). I know he has a small blind invested, but that doesn’t account for the jump as far as I can see.

The real surprise is the Big Blind. He has a whopping 59% call range here (A2o+,K6o+,Q8o+,22+T2s+).

Of course, he has a big blind invested, but that certainly alone cannot account for the wild jump in call range.

Simple question…what gives? Why can the Big Blind call so much wider here under ICM than the rest when they all have an equal chance of making the money?