Standard AK play?

[Burno]

Stars one table. About 10 or 15 hands in. Hero has around 1250, villain has him covered, and has done nothing out of the ordinary.

Blinds 15/30

One EMP limper to hero in MP who sees A /images/graemlins/spade.gif K /images/graemlins/club.gif and raises to 150. CO calls, button calls, blinds drop, limper calls.

Pot ~650

FLOP 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 3 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 4 /images/graemlins/club.gif

Limper checks, Hero bets 450, CO folds, button folds.

Limper raises all in. Pot is now ~1550 and it is 650 for hero to call.

Hero calls.


Yuck? If so, please correct me where I went wrong.


Thanks,

Burno

[Unarmed]

PF - Fine

Flop - You missed (terribly given the texture of the flop) and its multi-way. Check this.

You bet, and get raised all in. Its easy to convince yourself that villain is drawing here but deadly in this case because:

a) you raised PF so he may assume you'll follow up with a continuation bet, hence checking a strong made hand is not neccessarily a mistake on his part.
b) you have the flush Ace, reducing the likelyhood he is on a flush draw

This is my standard line with a flopped set against an aggro opponent out of position on a 2-flush board BTW. People automatically put you on the draw.

Anyway, regardless of what he's on, you have nothing here, how can you call? You don't have to take down the pot everytime you have AK...

[Burno]

[ QUOTE ]

Anyway, regardless of what he's on, you have nothing here, how can you call? You don't have to take down the pot everytime you have AK...

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed I don't have to take down the pot every time with AK, but this isn't a bad flop for AK. And when he raises me all in I'm getting a great price to call. Villain has in order of likelihood a medium pair, a flush draw, A4, and then a set. I have 10 outs plus a backdoor draw against a lot of the hands he's pushing here. I'm probably crushed as often as I am actually ahead. I didn't feel he was that strong so I called.

I left out one critical piece of info, this was only a $5 tourney, as I was playing against a buddy of mine. B/c of this, the villain is a lot more likely to actually be on a draw or have a not so strong hand.

[Unarmed]

Its a terrible flop for a whiffed AKo because:

- its 4-way
- you have crappy position
- its two flush
- its all low cards after a PF raise and 3 flat callers
- its 3 connected cards after a PF raise and 3 flat callers
- none of your outs are to the nuts
- you're playing a SNG, not ring

Perhaps I'm missing something here...
You can debate the all-in call if you like based on pot odds, I'd rather conserve the rest of my chips and look to double up.

[Burno]

I appreciate your input on this , Unarmed.

I just can't stomach the idea of not betting the flop. It's not a big stretch to believe that I may even have the best hand after this flop. If I don't, there are players who will dump 88 here for fear of an overpair. IMO, these reasons plus the size of the pot warrant a bet.

If I had bet, gotten called, and then he pushed, it's an easy fold. But I think my hand just fares too well against his range when the price the pot is laying is factored in.

[Unarmed]

[ QUOTE ]
I just can't stomach the idea of not betting the flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

You really have to work on that then. /images/graemlins/grin.gif When Doyle says he bets 90% of flops after raising PF I'm pretty sure this falls into the 10% range, and Doyle doesn't play against calling stations. Against the typical $5 opponent there is absolutely nothing wrong with check/folding this flop.

Happy to help BTW!

[adanthar]

[ QUOTE ]
I just can't stomach the idea of not betting the flop. It's not a big stretch to believe that I may even have the best hand after this flop. If I don't, there are players who will dump 88 here for fear of an overpair. IMO, these reasons plus the size of the pot warrant a bet.


[/ QUOTE ]

It's a terrible bet precisely because 88 just doesn't fold here at all at Party. (But if you want this pot that badly, open push.)

Once in a great while, you'll be ahead in this hand. The rest of the time, you have 10, 7 or 3 outs, heavy emphasis on 7.

[RobGW]

I don't know anyone at the $5 table who will fold an overpair. Your getting called by 88 everytime imo. Too many people took the flop with you to bet at this. When more people call than you would expect you have to give them credit for something even at the $5 tables.