AK in BB lots of limpers

[sofere]

Early in $5.50 Stars

Do I play more aggressive preflop? How was Postflop Play?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Hero (t1480)
UTG (t1490)
UTG+1 (t1340)
MP1 (t1390)
MP2 (t1430)
MP3 (t1530)
CO (t1340)
Button (t1980)
SB (t1520)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K/images/graemlins/club.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls t20, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls t20, Button folds, SB completes, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t60</font>, MP1 calls t40, CO calls t40, SB calls t40.

Flop: (t240) 5/images/graemlins/club.gif, T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t240</font>, MP1 calls t240, CO calls t240, <font color="#CC3333">SB raises to t480</font>, Hero folds, MP1 calls t240, CO folds.

Thanks.

[Benholio]

Pre-flop I would have raised a bit more. Your standard raise should go up slightly as more people limp into the pot, so that you might still narrow the field a bit and help to define your opponents hands.

Your pot sized bet on the flop is fine, but now you are kinda stuck when SB raises. Can't really figure out what he has at all since he just comlpeted PF, then called a raise that he could call with anything he could complete with. This is where a bigger PF raise might have helped.

I find myself just shoving in here with my TPTK and Ace of diamonds. I'm also a Party player, so stacks are much more shallow and don't allow you to get away from this kind of hand very often.

[SuitedSixes]

Push. TPTK and back door flush draw. Early in a low buy-in tournament you'll get called by all kinds of crap, make them pay. If you're up against KT, TT, or 55 . . . well, that's just poker.

[lorinda]

For those who saw my previous reply, it was rubbish, ignore it.

Lori

[housenuts]

you gotta raise more PF. probably to 100. that should narrow the field. with all those callers, and callers after the flop too i think someone has a set of 5's at least. one of the other chumps is probably on a flush draw. you gotta push. the real problem woulda been fixed if you raised more PF though.

[Elektrik]

With two limpers and the blinds, pot is t70. I'm making this, at minimum, t100 - t120 to go.

Pot sized bet on the flop is good, and it's a tricky situation with two callers and a min raise. It's true they could be slowplaying a set or K10 here, but I'm going to go ahead and say push, particularly at this level. I don't think it's an easy decision either way though.

[sofere]

[ QUOTE ]
with all those callers, and callers after the flop too i think someone has a set of 5's at least. one of the other chumps is probably on a flush draw. you gotta push.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't understand what you're trying to say? You said that someone has at least has a set against my TPTK. Why would I have to push then?

Yeah...the 3xBB raise was pretty weak with so many limpers and a stronger raise would've definitely helped my cause. I read in another thread that you should add 2xbb for each limper. Is this about right? (of course if that bet is more than 40% of my stack its an all in)

[SpeakEasy]

[ QUOTE ]
I read in another thread that you should add 2xbb for each limper. Is this about right? (of course if that bet is more than 40% of my stack its an all in)

[/ QUOTE ]

Ask yourself why you raised PF -- to build the pot or thin the field?

If your goal was to build the pot -- bravo, since no one will fold to this raise. If your goal was to thin the field, the 3xBB raise fails miserably from the BB with limpers, and is actually counter-productive. Given that (1) your position is the BB and (2) you are playing the $5 table (players more likely to call a raise, since they are less likely to understand the "gap" concept), your raise did nothing more than build the pot and give others better pot odds when they hit a draw on the flop.

Raising standard for this level of play -- I would make close to or equal to a pot sized raise PF. This protects your hand better, and gets the limpers to fold the marginal junk with which they limped. Then, you will know you are up against a solid hand on the flop if you get action.

Given how you played the hand, I would call the raise on the flop or push, as others have recommended. My guess is that the flop-raiser was on a draw.

[RobGW]

Ask yourself why SB would checkraise here. If he had 2 pair or top pair he most likely would have led out because of the diamonds. He is min raising on top of that so it looks like he wants callers. Looks like a set to me. If thats the case then your fold was good. You still have plenty of chips to work with. On PP you may be stuck with this hand but on Stars, you have enough $$ to get away from it.

[sofere]

[ QUOTE ]
Given how you played the hand, I would call the raise on the flop or push, as others have recommended. My guess is that the flop-raiser was on a draw.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've learned to give even the $5 players a little bit of credit when they are re-raising a pot sized bet with callers behind them. I've been knocked out by 2-pair/sets way too many times against TPTK and have seen many many flopped 2 pair vs flopped straights. Maybe I'm just a wuss.

My feeling was that later in the tourney I may have called this, but it was too early to push in this situation.

Turned out my feeling was correct.

Here's the rest of the hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Hero (t1480)
UTG (t1490)
UTG+1 (t1340)
MP1 (t1390)
MP2 (t1430)
MP3 (t1530)
CO (t1340)
Button (t1980)
SB (t1520)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K/images/graemlins/club.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls t20, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls t20, Button folds, SB completes, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t60</font>, MP1 calls t40, CO calls t40, SB calls t40.

Flop: (t240) 5/images/graemlins/club.gif, T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="#0000FF">(4 players)</font>
SB checks, <font color="#CC3333">Hero bets t240</font>, MP1 calls t240, CO calls t240, <font color="#CC3333">SB raises to t480</font>, Hero folds, MP1 calls t240, CO folds.

Turn: (t1680) 3/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">SB bets t120</font>, MP1 calls t120.

River: (t1920) 2/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">SB bets t240</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP1 raises to t730</font>, SB calls t490.

Final Pot: t3380

Results in white below: <font color="#FFFFFF">
SB has 5h Ks (two pair, kings and fives).
MP1 has Ts 4s (one pair, tens).
Outcome: SB wins t3380. </font>

[RobGW]

He should have lead out with that vulnerable of a hand but hey, this is the $5 table. Anyways, all the posts about raising more pre-flop probably would have saved this pot for you.

[partygirluk]

Raise more preflop. Generally 3.5BB + 1BB per limper is a good figure. When you get checkraise min bet having shown aggression throughout, one pair is beat. So, good fold. If he has pushed all in I would be more likely to call, as that looks more drawish. The min raise at this level is almost always two pair or a set.

[partygirluk]

Just to add, SB played the way in which to minimise his winnings from you. If he pots then I probably push, and if he C/R a larger amount, I most likely go all in too.

[SpeakEasy]

[ QUOTE ]
SB has 5h Ks (two pair, kings and fives).
MP1 has Ts 4s (one pair, tens).
Outcome: SB wins t3380.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for posting the outcome. Overall, it looks like the conclusions are:
1. Bigger raise PF probably gets the K5o and the T4s out. You win a small pot PF.
2. You made a good read on the flop (but it probably could have been avoided).

This is an excellent example of PF raising strategy -- look at what the other players called your raise with...