What strategy to use when every round someone goes all in pre-flop

Question

I was in the last 12 of a 45 player online tournament with a $1.50 buy in, NL Texas holdem. I was switched to a new table and every single round someone would go all in pre-flop, this continued for about 20 or so hands.

In the first couple of hands I lost a few chips as I did a 2x BB raise but folded after someone went all in. I was starting to get fairly short stacked due to the blinds and ante.

I wasn't getting any good hands so folding and then got an AQ so called an all in and lost most of my stack, ended up going all in a few hands later as I didn't have enough to cover the BB and went out.

What kind of strategy can I used when every round someone is going all in like this?

Answer 1

Well, there is not much you can do if you actually card dead in such a situation. It is not like the same player would be going all in all the time where you could decide to call with weaker holdings.

The only option here is probably to shove yourself first or 3-bet shove against wide opens to build the stack but in order to call, you actually need quite strong hands according to ICM calculations.

Answer 2

It also depends on how many people are getting paid and what are the stacks. Let's assume that 11 people are getting paid (so after eliminating one player, everyone else is in the bubble) and everyone in the game has roughly the same stack size. In this case, your optimal strategy is usually to shove with any hole cards if you get the chance to shove first, and fold any two cards (including AA). However, this is based on a strong assumption that all the players are competent enough to know their optimal strategy. And it seems ridiculous to fold AA.

The logic behind the strategy is that everyone left get large +EV when one player is eliminated. And no one is willing to take any risk to be the that one.

Of course it also depends on the reward structure. For example, if the 11th place get only a little money, then the strategy mentioned does not hold....