AK SNG hand

[Dallara]

Third or fourth hand of SNG, no reads on any players.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (9 handed)

BB (t905)
UTG (t800)
UTG+1 (t800)
MP1 (t1610)
MP2 (t690)
MP3 (t790)
CO (t775)
Button <font color="purple">(Villain)</font> (t770)
Hero (t860)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG calls t15, <font color="CC3333">UTG+1 raises to t45</font>, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, <font color="CC3333">Button <font color="purple">(Villain)</font> raises to t125</font>, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t400</font>, BB folds, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, Button <font color="purple">(Villain)</font> calls t275.

Flop: (t875) Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif, T/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="CC3333">Villain bets t370 (All-In)</font>, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t1245

After he calls my pretty big re-raise, I feel like I have to put him on a large pair. With the flop that came down, I feel like I'm way behind almost any big pair. KK and AA are obviously bad, and he's made trips with 10's or Q's. Anyone feel I should have bet the flop here or pushed pre-flop? I just felt like I could find better hands to risk all my stack with, and by bailing now I've still got half my stack.

[lastchance]

Yeah, you shoulda pushed preflop. Never raise half your stack, and when you do, just go out and attack.

[pshreck]

Almost no situation when betting half your stack is correct in NL.... only conceivable times are when you have AA and figure a player will call half your stack but not all (only works against weak opponents).

To the reraise.... you have 3 options. 1st is fold, which isnt too good, unless hes one of those players that will ONLY make this reraise with a premium pair.

2nd is cold call. This is debatable, but I find it wrong whenever you are out of position. If you miss, you can bet out and hope he missed, but I hate doing that (they either hit, or can bluff right back and your folding either way). If you miss and check you are basically forfeiting the hand. So I would say dont cold call this out of position.

3rd is push.I find my time value is good enough, that I will always gamble with AK early, considering when I double up my chances of ITM and 1st place go up a ton, and If i lose a coinflip then I just start a new one. Also, pushing puts the decision on him. There are plenty of times when you will get a fold from a hand like 77-JJ, There are also times when you will get calls from AJ, AQ, and KQ.

[Gramps]

You don't have a pair, there's been a raise and reraise, and you have &gt; 60 times the BB. You're only going to get an Ace, King, or straight on the flop 1/3 of the time. You're out of position.

Fold preflop. You're a dog against any pair, and a big dog against two in particular. Don't get fooled by those pretty looking cards, they're not very good here. You'll have plenty of opporntunities to get your chips in in a much better spot.

[wjmooner]

AK is a nice hand, but not against a raise and a reraise with relatively deep stacks. Easy fold preflop.

Having said that, if you must put yourself in what is probably best case scenario a coin-flip, then just push it all in and run off all five cards.

Chris