More aggressive with AK?

[NineLions]

Not sure if I should have been more aggressive with AK.

Just starting the final table of a 18 seat SnG. Had few hands to play so far, the only things I won with were early limps with hands that really should have been thrown away.


pokerstars Game #8190003592: Tournament #41780821, $1.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2007/01/29 - 23:13:29 (ET)
Table '41780821 2' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Erica104 (2260 in chips)
Seat 2: ODEE9 (2100 in chips)
Seat 3: snaker2520 (1780 in chips)
Seat 4: jtzig1 (2430 in chips)
Seat 5: Roe2269 (7820 in chips)
Seat 7: leafs fan67 (3500 in chips)
Seat 8: Ninelions (1810 in chips)
Seat 9: tiptoes (5300 in chips)
snaker2520: posts small blind 50
jtzig1: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Ninelions [Kd Ah]
Roe2269: raises 200 to 300
leafs fan67: folds
Ninelions: calls 300


Calling here because the table has been limpy so I don't expect anyone else to call. I'm expecting to be heads up. With aces or kings I reraise, but with AK and a short stack I want to have something left if I don't flop anything.


Ninelions: calls 300
tiptoes: folds
Erica104: folds
ODEE9: folds
snaker2520: folds
jtzig1: folds
*** FLOP *** [Js Kh 9c]
Roe2269: bets 300


c-bet, or caught a piece of the flop? At any rate, I think I need to push at this point. But, I forget my stack size and just reraise.

Ninelions: raises 600 to 900
Roe2269: calls 600
*** TURN *** [Js Kh 9c] [Jh]
Roe2269: bets 500
Ninelions: raises 110 to 610 and is all-in
Roe2269: calls 110


Too little, to late all the way through?

 

[shinedown.45]

being shortstacked with A-K is a for sure all-in pre-flop.IMO

 

[zebranky]

how to deal with AK

there's two ways you can play it, depending on whether you think AK is a big profit hand or not.
Me, I view it as a win small / lose big hand, so I like the PF call. Your out of position, and you don't want to commit all your chips when your only callers are going to be coinflip hands.
By the same token, you hit the flop (probably better than anyone else), push all in. Your stack is too small to get fancy with your hand, so just commit here and figure you're probably ahead.
As for the turn - you'r already committed to this hand with 1200 of your 1800 in the pot, so go ahead and get the rest in.

Hope for the best on this one...

The other way, as the last poster said, is to push PF - being the short stack, you may just get some bad callers who figure you're desperate

 

[crash7]

10 or less blinds with AK is an easy all in. Only time you dont want to go all in is when you suspect someone has AA or KK. You want to isolate your opponents to a race situation AK vs AQ at best and at worse AK vs QQ where you are only 5% behind. But if you have more than 10 blinds and are confident enough in your playing that you feel you can afford to "play" or make some moves post flop then play the AK the same as you would any other time.

 

[NineLions]

The original plan was to see the flop. If I missed, I still have 10 BBs so I get one more chance to push. I should have thought further and planned to at least push on the flop if I caught a piece of it.

As it turned out in this case, I was ahead on the flop. Villian had JQ, and another J hit on the turn ...

 

[blankoblanco]

I definitely push pre-flop. AK is a good drawing hand, so I like to let myself all 5 cards, or just get the other guy to fold while I have lots of fold equity. What was currently in the pot was a significant amount given your stack size, and any time you can take that much down with AK and not have to go to showdown I think it's a pretty good idea.

 

[Steveg1976]

This thread is over a year and half old....There isn't one newer that interested you?

 

[JustRaiseTheBlinds]

You have to raise with AK. Don't matter if you don''t get a caller. Now it's an easy limp for him. So he could have and 2 cards in is hand. You don't have a read about him this way. If he hits 2 pair on that board. It's gonna be a expensive hand for ya.
I think you have to be more aggressive.

 

[tcarson]

I dont know about you guys, but I have been playing alot on stars lately to try to get into some big tourneys, and AK never seems to hit. Ive been having to play J8 suited and crap like that cause those hands always hit on there. AK never hits for me at all.

 

[Steveg1976]

^^ prove this with a reasonable sample size otherwise people will consider this to be whining...

 

[philber420]

No doubt you should have pushed, you said there were lots of limpers, you dont want many hands going up against your AK, move all in and go heads up against 1 hand

 

[crash7]

Any two unpaired cards have about a 33% chance of making a pair on the flop. So by the powers of deductive reasoning about 66% of the time your AK is not going to hit the flop. In fact 66% of the time your opponent's unpaired hand isn't going to hit the flop either. That alone is the reason you want to play AK aggressive to limit the number of cards that can hit the flop. If you can get it heads up your opponent (unless they have a big pair) is going to underdog a flop from you maybe 1 out of every 3 tries. And even when he does that you still have about a 24-30% chance of out drawing him with an over card.