AK - simple question ($100+9 Party MTT)

[MarkD]

So I suck at tourney's and here’s the most recent example. This is a Party Poker 100+9 MTT. It’s early and blinds are 25-50. My hands have been completely junky and my situations have not been good for blind steals so I have played exactly one hand and stole the blinds.

My stack is currently about 820ish and I’m in the BB with AKo. UTG limps, UTG+2 limps, a mid position player limps and it’s on me.

UTG has around 150 left after he limps in.
UTG+3 has a monster stack of about 9000 (seriously).
MP has around 1250.

I don’t have reads on these guys since I have been multi-tabling the 15-30 at the same time (yah, I know, reads are important, yada yada). So, what is the correct play here?

For what it’s worth, here is my play and my reasoning. I moved in expecting to get called by UTG, with his small stack, and possibly UTG+2, with his huge stack. I expected that my hand was probably the best and that I had decent equity in this pot. I also thought that it was unlikely for the MP player to risk 75% of his chips in this situations since if he had a small-medium pocket pair he had to know he was in a coin flip situation, and if he had a non-pair hand then it has to be an easy fold for him.

So, I expected to get called by the small stack and possibly the big stack, OR, I would win the pot uncontested and I don’t really mind this result. Increasing my stack by 225 chips with AK here didn’t seem like too bad of proposition, so the way I saw it, I was in a good spot if they fold and a good spot if they called. I thought about raising it to around 200 leaving myself 600 chips, but if any player calls then I have 600 chips and the pot has 600 chips and I don’t see myself folding anyways (maybe I just suck).

So, critique my reasoning here and tell me what I did wrong and also tell me what the right play is. I’m sick of sucking at tournaments.

[MLG]

I like moving in there. You might also get looked up by a hand you dominate. If not, you certainly won't be in trouble. If you don't get called then the chips you pick up are more than enough to justify the play.

[Lloyd]

I would have done the same thing. You probably have the best hand or are at most a coinflip against someone with a small pair.

A normal raise (and I would make it 275 because of the limpers) pretty much pot commits you against the big stack since he might very well put you all-in on the flop (if you don't push) even if he doesn't have a made hand. So by making a normal raise you are essentially committing all of your chips out of position so why not push now giving the big stack some incentive to fold. So I definitely prefer a push versus a normal raise.

There's some merit to a call but you're going to miss the flop enough times that I don't think you'd be getting enough value for your pre-flop holding. I'd want to see 5 cards with AK and I don't want three other players in there with me.

So I think you played this correctly.

[MarkD]

[ QUOTE ]
There's some merit to a call but you're going to miss the flop enough times that I don't think you'd be getting enough value for your pre-flop holding. I'd want to see 5 cards with AK and I don't want three other players in there with me.


[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't mention this fact, but it was also on my mind when the hand played out.

[DonButtons]

Nothing wrong with this play.

[Ian J]

I like your play here alot for reasons stated already. Nice hand.

[MarkD]

UTG called nearly instantly with A5o, the big stack folded and the MP player thought for a while and called with 99. I failed to improve and was knocked out of the tournament feeling like I got shafted, or possibly screwed up.

I posted this hand partially for validation, but also to confirm some of my own thinking that lead me to my decision. I learned a long time ago that poker is all about making the right decisions - who gets pushed the pot is an entirely different matter.

Thanks everyone.

[kuro]

You made the right play. There's really not much you can do. Sometimes you pick up a hand in a situation where proper play ends up with you going broke. You just have to keep reminding yourself that winning a MTT is hard and if you don't take some risks you're doomed to failure over the long haul.