Am i a Donkey?

[MikeyInc]

Instead of quoting the hand history directly, I’ll summarize for ease of reading.

It’s the near the very beginning of the tournament. The starting stacks were $1,500, and the blinds are $10-$20 with no antes. Nearly everyone still has around their starting stack, except for the initial limper in the hand who clearly doubled through someone already.

Three players limp to our hero on the button who has A K . Hero min-raises to $40 and gets called by the big blind and two of the three limper's. So there’s four to the flop for $40 each, and the effective stacks are still around $1,500.

Flop comes A 7 4 . Checked to the player on hero’s right who bets $120 (3/4 pot). Hero raises to $310 and gets called only by the bettor. (Pot now $790.) The turn is the 2 . Check, and Hero pushes for his remaining approximately $1,000 and gets called.

Are you a donkey? Certainly not. But I do have a few thoughts. First, I would definitely have raised more preflop. You’ve got the button and a terrific hand. Take advantage of the situation by putting some real money out there. It’s not really that min raising is bad, it’s just that a bigger raise is even better. There’s already $90 in the pot when the action gets to you, and since you’re obviously at least calling let’s say the pot is $110. That’s already fairly sizable when compared to your $1,500 stack.

As the pot gets large compared to the stack sizes, it makes more sense to “protect your hand” with raises designed to force your opponents to pay up or fold. With position I don’t think there’s any downside to following that principle. I would have made it around a pot-sized raise or perhaps even a bit more… maybe a raise to $150 or so. Min raising doesn’t press your advantage as much as you perhaps should have.



So My Question Two You All is Am i a Donkey In this Situation ?

[HeyKidMove]

You need to put a raise in there pf to 100 or so because of the two limpers. As played, everything else seems correct.

[frob23]

Originally Posted by MikeyInc It’s not really that min raising is bad...

Yes it is... that is exactly what is it... bad... it is bad every single time. A minraise especially in this spot does nothing you want it to do and everything you don't want your raise to do. When you bet or raise, you are trying to do something. You are trying to build the pot, thin the field, price people out... etc. A minraise here is never going to make it incorrect for anyone to call. Even the small blind is being offered better than 4-1 (130-30) to call... everyone else is getting much better (6.5-1). And once one of them calls the odds improve even more. None of the original limpers, unless they were WAY out of line in the first place, can fold here. You might clear the SB (you did) but that isn't sure because I could call in the SB for that price with a lot of hands.

The only thing you're doing is building the pot. You do not want to build the pot here with AK and 4+ people likely to see the flop. The pot is going to be too large to price some people out without committing your stack on the flop. And you don't want to do that without a really strong hand here... and you're just not going to get it enough. As it is... any serious action after this flop and you're done. You've priced in too many A-rag hands.

As played... I bet it's A-7... but whatever. You're in trouble here.

[liladypokerpro]

I prefer not to label someone as a donkey simply by one bad move.....the bad move being the initial raise amount.....it was WAY too small......I am on the same boat with Frob on this one......basically everything he said I agree with in this case.

[Huskers314]

I'm not even sure....the schizophrenia of the original post still has me confused. But yeah, the hand was played poorly so I'll pick donkey. Good luck, sir.

[BlackLava]

Was that a test to see how fast you could lose?

in my humble opinion, min raise preflop with AK suited is a donkey move and here it's the reason why you are unsure about your moves afterwards
BUT you could have your special reason there and that's what matter, as soon as you aren't doing so all the time with AK it's not the same story, so I will say too : You aren't a donkey by doing one bad choice
I've read a few posts from you elsewhere on the forum, I don't think you're a donkey

[MikeyInc]

haha thanks guys lol

[MikeyInc]

This has been a good thread surprisingly!!! Good Responses Very Informative