AK on SB, early in mid-size tourney (with poll)

[emoneypitt]

Just wanted to get some perspectives on what you would do in this sitiation.

It's early in a $26, 32K guarantee on Full Tilt. Blinds are 20/40 and I have AK on SB. UTG+1 raises to 120 and UTG+2 insta reraises to 360 and then folds around to me.

The thing about AK is that I know it's ultimately just a drawing hand preflop so that's why I didn't want to risk reraising or shoving my stack here. So I flat called to see a 3 way flop. A low flop comes and I have to get out because I know at least one of the villains has a pocket pair.

I guess the thing that got me is that a K ended up spiking on the turn and I could have scored a big pot early. Hand is below for further review.


Full Tilt Poker Game #7128166979: $32,000 Guarantee (53483703), Table 139 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:13:13 ET - 2008/07/07
Seat 1: gametime22 (3,510)
Seat 2: studmouse (2,215)
Seat 3: emoneypitt (2,885)
Seat 4: t_selection (2,955)
Seat 5: sapsan223 (5,895)
Seat 6: luckyvillain77 (3,855)
Seat 7: lixao (3,090)
Seat 8: sketch a (2,790)
Seat 9: champcurl (2,805)
emoneypitt posts the small blind of 20
t_selection posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to emoneypitt [As Kd]
sapsan223 folds
luckyvillain77 has 15 seconds left to act
luckyvillain77 raises to 120
lixao has 15 seconds left to act
lixao raises to 360
sketch a folds
champcurl folds
gametime22 folds
studmouse folds
emoneypitt calls 340
t_selection has 15 seconds left to act
t_selection folds
luckyvillain77 calls 240
*** FLOP *** [8s 2d 4c]
emoneypitt checks
luckyvillain77 bets 480
lixao has 15 seconds left to act
lixao has requested TIME
lixao raises to 1,250
emoneypitt folds
luckyvillain77 calls 770
*** TURN *** [8s 2d 4c] [Kh]
luckyvillain77 checks
studmouse has been disconnected
studmouse has reconnected
lixao has 15 seconds left to act
lixao checks
*** RIVER *** [8s 2d 4c Kh] [2h]
luckyvillain77 checks
lixao bets 1,480, and is all in
luckyvillain77 has 15 seconds left to act
luckyvillain77 calls 1,480
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lixao shows [Js Jc] two pair, Jacks and Twos
luckyvillain77 mucks
lixao wins the pot (6,580) with two pair, Jacks and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,580 | Rake 0
Board: [8s 2d 4c Kh 2h]
Seat 1: gametime22 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: studmouse (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: emoneypitt (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: t_selection (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: sapsan223 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: luckyvillain77 mucked [7h 7s] - two pair, Sevens and Twos
Seat 7: lixao showed [Js Jc] and won (6,580) with two pair, Jacks and Twos
Seat 8: sketch a didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: champcurl didn't bet (folded)

[gamer4life27]

What was the entry fee? If it was small, then re-raise big them. If it's a big entry fee, then raise them slightly less. You don't want to call here because that rings bells in your opponents minds to tell them you are holding something big. You want to raise here, try to get some small pocket pairs or small aces or not so good hands out of the way and possibley take the pot right there.

If you re-raise, and someone comes over the top of you for an all in, then basically you bring it down to pot odds. They could either have a pocket pair, or you have them crushed with them holding nothing, and you have two overs, or one over. But either way, bring that situation down to pot odds.

If they call, after they raised, then you know they have a pocket pair, or suited connectors, or a hand like that to make a flop decision. That person (I'm guessing) probably would have just called with pocket jacks to see if any over cards come off on the flop, or if he hits a set.

Basically, I would have raised pre flop in the SB there. You may not have posistion on people, but I don't think anything of position. I can play any position I am put into.

[Wyte22]

I am shoving here, this is why:

If my opp is not super tight, he could have QQ-TT with that re-raise. That means it is almost even money race. Yes, almost even money races are not good for your heart, but if you wanna win big, you gotta gamble some. The main reason for the shove, I want to isolate him from the orginial raiser because AK is not very good at all against 2 opps. If my opp was super tight (seeing less than 15% of flops), i am folding this without a second thought but since it is early and you might have somewhat of a read on your opps but not a good sample size, I am shoving, if your out, hey, that's poker, if you win, hey that's poker

Also to note: If you win this, it will show people that you can't be bluffed easily, because you will call them down, soo when people raise you after that, they really do have something.

This is just MY personal experience/Opinion.

[BtrGetThere]

I would fold. It's UTG+1 raise and UTG+2 reraise so that means you are almost always against big pair and many times against AA/KK.

I know the level of play isn't that great on those low buy-in tournaments but that's the reason you can find better spots to double up.

[irishpkr]

It's pretty scary action, and we're not even closing the action here, so there's no chance in hell I'm just calling to get shoved on by UTG, so its shove/fold time. But with UTG+2 showing a lot of strength 3betting the UTG+1, I'd just go ahead and muck it here.

The problems we have with calling are that: we aren't closing the action, and we also have reverse implied odds issues here - that is to say, if we do hit our A or K, we're not gonna get masses of action from a scared JJ or QQ, and usually we only get action from KK or AA which hits a set/overpair. Oh and we're gonna hit the flop only one in 3 times too, and we're out of position, pretty nasty spot.

Problems with shoving: we're gonna be getting our money in bad here I think, I think our fold equity is almost zero, and we're gonna face AA/KK quite often, and at best we'll be on the bad side of a flip.

So yeah I'm a nit, we might have the best hand here some of the time, and I guess we're only 70BB deep, but this might be a time for looking for 'a better spot'

[Vito_Nuccio]

Originally Posted by irishpkr It's pretty scary action, and we're not even closing the action here, so there's no chance in hell I'm just calling to get shoved on by UTG, so its shove/fold time. But with UTG+2 showing a lot of strength 3betting the UTG+1, I'd just go ahead and muck it here. The problems we have with calling are that: we aren't closing the action, and we also have reverse implied odds issues here - that is to say, if we do hit our A or K, we're not gonna get masses of action from a scared JJ or QQ, and usually we only get action from KK or AA which hits a set/overpair. Oh and we're gonna hit the flop only one in 3 times too, and we're out of position, pretty nasty spot. Problems with shoving: we're gonna be getting our money in bad here I think, I think our fold equity is almost zero, and we're gonna face AA/KK quite often, and at best we'll be on the bad side of a flip. So yeah I'm a nit, we might have the best hand here some of the time, and I guess we're only 70BB deep, but this might be a time for looking for 'a better spot'

I agree with the above, fold here with the re-raise. The blinds are only 20-40 and you have plenty of chips. A call or a raise could be in order if only one other raise, but with the two raises, you have to think AK is behind.

I do not see why two responders replied with the low stakes issue. We are not talking about 5-10 bucks. This is a $26 tourney, plenty big enough to attract some decent players. Playing in a $26 tourney is a little different then $10 or less. You get a little less donks and a little better play as the stakes go up.

As for shoving and hoping for the best, it is too early to risk the stack with AK against two raisers.

Later,

[Boilermaker]

i fold here also in this particular situation...reason being the re-raise by UTG2 preflop was a good indicator of a high pocket pair.. You do have 2 nice over cards on flop, but these other 2 players had a few more chips than you so it would be risky early on, not knowing what kind of cards the others were playing and how they bet certain hands...If I had them way outchipped, Ida prolly pushed them allin preflop and let them decide whether to fold or risk elimination.