KK at final table

[binions]

Blinds 15-30K. Antes 3K. 7 handed.

UTG who is LAG makes it 60K to go. He has 1.5M stack.
Midposition smooth calls the 60K. He has 835K
186K in the pot.

I am to the immediate left of the smooth caller, and pick up KK . I have 575K. What is my best play?

1. Smooth call, or re-raise?
2. If re-raise, all in or something less?
3. If something less, how much?

[Caruso329]

I would re-raise to 200k. I think pushing might scare off an unsure AQ AJ or middle pair, but might get an over the top re-raise which I would call.

(I'm new to posting at the mtt forum so this might be the wrong idea, but it's what I would do)

EDIT: Crap, I just now saw that it was 7 handed. Considering this I would probably push PF.

[Hauser_III]

What are the stack sizes of the people to your left that haven't acted yet? If you smooth call, you're pricing in any drawing hands behind you, so I would definitely raise, rather than smooth call. Pot has 246k once you throw your initial 60k in, and any type of significant raise gets you at or close to the point where you're throwing in about half of your remaining chips, and that's always been my rule of thumb point for just pushing. If you just raise, say 200k on top of the 60k to call, and if either UTG or MP calls, there's 640k in the pot, you have about 315k left to bet after the flop if it's checked to you, and that gives the checker about 3:1 odds to call your all-in flop bet. I'm not sure I like giving those odds, especially not to MP (he's the one I'm worried about with the smoothcall of the min. raise).

[schwza]

i'd push. you don't want AK/AQ to call and then check/fold when the board flops rags. ditto for JJ on a AQx board.

(or the more obvious problems of flopping Axx and either paying off the rest of your stack or getting moved off the best hand.)

[Algasm]

Just about this exact situation is discussed in HoH. He reraised to 200k with his kings.

[Hauser_III]

[ QUOTE ]
Just about this exact situation is discussed in HoH. He reraised to 200k with his kings.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this the discussion of the sandwich play in the hand involving Sam Farha and Jason Lester ? It looks like it.

[binions]

[ QUOTE ]
Just about this exact situation is discussed in HoH. He reraised to 200k with his kings.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dammit man. That's where I took the example from. Was hoping to get some discussion on the problem without the influence of HoH.

It just seems to me that you have to push all in. A re-raise to 200K is 35% of your stack. That smells of monster to me - especially combined with the squeeze play aspect. I would prefer this play with less than a premium hand, because it is such a good bluff from a relatively small stack.

An all in bet is more likely to be viewed as a steal and get called than a small raise, IMO. If called, you are a 65-80% to double up. And if they fold, you pick up 186K. Yippee.

Then there is the problem of pot commiting yourself with KK if you do get called, and having an A flop. Now what?

[Algasm]

When I first read that story I wondered why he didn't just push all in. What would he do if an Ace flopped?
I was getting the feeling that he doesn't like to just push all in before the flop. If you look at some of his examples he doesn't seem to advocate the push if you have less than 10x the BB.

[Potowame]

Yes the Ace would be a bitch , but in this situation is a Big A calling here?

I would think AK is pushing over the top preflop to see all 5 cards , and AQ-AJ are more than likley folding from the first raiser. The caller might call your raise with AQ but again if a Big ACE is playing I think they are pushing preflop.

Either way you are pot commited, so make a crying call or check it and hope that he bets his QQ-JJ on the turn.