SPA syndrome

[rivered]

I've been taking a break from ring games this week and playing small limit sngs at party. Anyways, I had a lot of SPAs get me (small pairs allin). I had a number of instances where I reraised big with AK, ended up allin against 33, 44ish hands and lost out. It's unbelievable how many players think these cards are good to call allin with.

I find calling with AK very weak and folding obviously not an option unless it's a pretty big raise, which I'll often fold to early. But this is more of a middle game problem, around 50/100, someone raises to 250 and I'll push with around a 1000 chips. They call and turn over some little pair.

What do you think is a good defense? My thinking is people believe you'd slow play a big pocket pair and always think you're raising AK. Is the only defense to also play big pockets the same way? It seems to me I just have to take the beats and raise it once it gets this late in the tourny.

[housenuts]

well you'll win almost half of these, and the other times you'll be up against worse hands than PP's. i think you just gotta keep on trucking.

[willie]

eh, it's a great hand to build a stack with late in the game- or to pad your stack. Low pockets- ah well you're 50/50 (lil less, but on a single trial it is essentially 50/50)

add to this the time you're shown a dominated ace- be it aq or aj and you'll be ahead with this hand in time.

And yes, similar raises can be made with an overpair, but people tend to think of the hands that they can beat and call.

[lorinda]

What do you think is a good defense?

Flop an Ace.

Is the only defense to also play big pockets the same way? It seems to me I just have to take the beats and raise it once it gets this late in the tourny.

More seriously yes.

If they are going to call with small pockets against your AK they will do it against your KK, you are just having one of those infuriating runs where their hand always seems to fit yours to their liking.

Lori

[wjmooner]

If you play AK any different than 99-AA in the middle stages of a tourney preflop then you are making a mistake, as observant players will notice you overplaying AK and not your pairs.

This is the same mistake that Murphy made against Matt Dean at the WSOP this year. Dean reraised with JJ and Murphy reraised all in (a massive overbet). Dean didn't think Murphy would do that with AA or KK, so realistically he's only worried about QQ, so he calls and busts him.

Of course, he at least had JJ and not 33. With 33 the calls are horrible of course, and sure, you can try to min-raise you rockets occasionally, but like others have said, you'll get those same calls when you have JJ or KK as well.

Good luck
Chris