AK in high gear

Greetings,


I'm playing in an online tournament and it is still early. Blinds are 25-50 and the average stack is 1000.


My table is fairly tight. A couple of solid players.


The context: I am UTG+2 and have AJs. I pop it to 200 and everyone folds. Next hand, UTG+1, I get AQo and pop it to 200 and get called by the BB. I flop a Q, bet the flop and the turn and my opponent folds.


Now I'm UTG and get AKo (with about 1200). I raise again to 200, a middle player calls (1000) and the button, a solid, thinking player, pushes all-in for a total of 830. It's up to me.


Call, reraise or fold?


Thanks,


Nicolas

Move in. When you raise 3 times in a row, ppl. will naturally assume that you're stealing with a random hand. Since the MP didn't raise he is signaling that he probably can be pushed off his hand. So the button doesn't need a monster to move in here and unless he happens to have AA or KK (unlikely) you are either on a coin-flip or a huge favorite. Also you're getting better than 2:1 (assuming the limper will muck) so you would need a very good read on the button to lay down AK.


cu


Ignatius

All-in /images/smile.gif


I am sure they suspect something less than AK since you have raised 3 times in a row!


Ken Poklitar

ohKanada@hotmail.com

I was going to post a similar question: Early in PP $20.00 tournament UTG with AK Raise to 75.00 middle position player goes all in. Everyone else folds, if I call and lose I will be left with approx $200.00..Was to early to get a read only approx 12 hands..Consensus???

I agree with Ignatius and ohKanada. Call is worst with muck not far behind. Force the guy in the middle to commit or get off and he is probably off.

Nicholas,


Under normal circumstances, I would release the hand instantly, but since you have been giving the appearance of trying to push your weight around in early position - and some guys like to keep stealing until they're caught - I'd say you have to consider that as a factor.


Nevertheless, at a tight table, the fact that your giant raise was merely called cold, PLUS someone on the button representing a large hand, you need to fold. Your call may likely guarantee that the guy in the middle will call, and AK winning unimproved, especially out of position and without chips to push around, is not that likley here.


If not for the original caller in the middle, I would call pretty confident that the button is making a play on me with a hand I am either a slight dog to or heavily dominating.


M.

I agree, The cold call by mid player makes it much more dangerous.


Good chance that one of the 2 opponents has him counterfeited, while the other has a medium to large pair.


Therefore, I might seriously consider mucking given the circumstances, whereas if I had a reasonably aggressive button player as the ONLY opponent doing the all in reraise after this series of hands, I'd probably be quite willing to get all the chips in. He'd probably make this move with AQ or KQ, JQ suited, or something worse if he suspects you are stealing from too tight a table.


With 2 opponents, I'd rather be the guy holding the mid to large pair going in against 2 counterfeited "Ace big" hands.

i don't know the stack sizes, but you might re-raise, calling has got to be wrong in case MP calls you again, or fires in. I think if you fire in MP might let go with something as good as jacks. Depending on where you are in terms of how close to money i would fold/move all in (if your very close fold obviously)

Thanks for the replies...


I think the play is to fold without the first 2 hands.


But, considering my previous play, I called all-in. The other player folded.


Solid player had KK...oops...but I flopped an ace and voilà!


Thanks again,


Nicolas