10k guaranteed, 50+5 multi on Empire - near bubble

[gh9801]

25 players remaining, top 20 pay, first is $2700
200/400 blinds

My friend, Hero, is below average with ~4500 chips and UTG.
He covers both the BB and SB, but not by much. Everyone else covers Hero.
Villain seems competent, has ~15000 chips and is in the CO seat.

Hero is dealt AcKc and minraised to 800, all folds, Villain puts Hero allin, all folds to Hero.

How would you play this from the beginning? If you raise how much? Or maybe limp or fold?

If you raised minimum, what's your action now that MP puts you allin near the bubble?

[Dudd]

You have to call. What else are you waiting for? That being said, push first. A minraise is horrible, and a real raise commits you. So, just push.

[DemonDeac]

ur friend needs to work on his game
need to do more than min raise and go all in or AT LEAST make a more substantial preflop raise

[Cland]

If your looking to sneak into the money you fold.

Otherwise you call/go all-in (my prefered play).

If he is competent he won't let that min raise fly, if he has a hand > 3s or K/Jo

Actually if I had this hand I might min raise hopeing someone would put me all-in or limp where I would 99% auto push on the flop, I would be more inclinded to do this if I was short stacked in the middle of the tournament b/c I would be looking for some calls.

[gh9801]

My friend and I agreed that min-raising in that spot was horrible. But is allin the only play here? Sure he's a little short stacked, but if he limps and calls a typical preflop raise, can he fold an unfavorable flop and check-raise a good flop, or is he just pot committed? I don't like the all-in because any caller has him beat, while on the other hand if he just limps and check folds a bad flop, he can still steal blinds.

[Dudd]

If you want to limp short stacked under the gun with AKs, seriously, poker might not be the game for you. I don't mean to be harsh, but that might be the only play worse than minraising. You say that by limping and folding, he can still steal blinds. Well, if you aren't willing to take a shot at stealing blinds with AKs, well, what are you waiting for? Are you only going to 'steal' with AA, KK, and QQ? Just push and pray that no one has AA or KK. Anything else, and you're either a favorite or a slight underdog, and you might even add an easy 600 to your stack if no one wants to call you down. You might go home, but in order to win, you have to take risks.

[Shilly]

This is fuzzy logic. Why are you "beaten" anytime someone calls? 95% of the time you'll be at worst a coinflip, sometimes dominating or freerolling against another AK. You're GREATLY underestimating the number of hands that call you here.

If your table shows a good distribution of chips throughout the whole tournament, you're going to have to pick up blinds a few times to even cash. Push here UTG every time.

[broomcorn12]

Auto push for 4 reasons.


1) Its bubble time. A tite player may even lay down jj in this spot with a desire to not take a toss and cash. Take advantage of this time.
2) Although initially the bet seems huge (11BB for a 1.5BB pot) if u put in a standard raise of 3 or 4 BBs there is no way u r muckin to a reraise. So just push urself.
3) Position. If i was ur table, I would put u on 3 hands, AK, QQ or JJ. You would have played aa or kk slower. By raising all in outta first chair, and being the first 1 to enter the pot, u tell the table u have a great hand, meaning ull most likely take down the pot and if someone does call u with 10 10(which i snap fold), jj or qq ur not in bad shape.
4) If u do go for a standard raise, you make people at ur table believe that they somehow have folding equity on you by putting u AI. This perceived folding equity makes them more likely to take their pair against you. By taking away that option from them with an AI urself, you eliminate a reraise from a medium pair. I think you and ur friend agree that with an AI ur not craving a toss with still 11BBs left. So, grit ur teeth and go AI, who knows AQ might be unable to lay his hand.