$5 MTT Early Action with Pocket Kings

[Rednax]

No-limit Texas Hold'em $5+$1 225 Players - top 20 money
Blinds are 15/30

No special reads other than table is fishy, inclined to overbet and occasionally undervalue, and call almost anything.

I sometimes have trouble determining when I want to shut others out and when I need to keep them in. And there is the question of what it will take to shut someone out of keep them in.

(And if you're thinking to yourself that your answer would be different if this was a $50 tourney, please indicate as I've got one coming up soon.) /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Seat 1: $3,755 in chips)
Seat 2: $265 in chips)
Seat 3: $3,120 in chips)
Seat 4: $1,785 in chips)
Seat 5: $1,285 in chips)
Seat 6: $1,780 in chips)
Seat 7: $3,690 in chips)
Seat 8: [KH,KD] ($1,415 in chips)
Seat 9: $1,280 in chips)
Seat 10: $965 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS
Seat 9 posts blind ($15), Seat 10 posts blind ($30).

PRE-FLOP
Seat 1 bets $120, Seat 2 grind bets $210, Seat 3 folds, Seat 4 calls $210, Seat 5 folds, Seat 6 folds, Seat 7 folds, Seat 8 ????

And I've got a followup question afterwards. Thank you again!

[Potowame]

Well in a higher buy-in it would be rare to see this type of action. I love seeing the UTG raise , than a reraise and a cold caller, Fishy as it gets. You see mixture of hands here , for Ax-AK 22-AA KJ KQ.

I would go ahead and push, you will at least get called in one place. You may get lucky and get AK ,QQ, JJ, all calling you, or some other mixture of hands that you crush.

[asofel]

[ QUOTE ]
Well in a higher buy-in it would be rare to see this type of action. I love seeing the UTG raise , than a reraise and a cold caller, Fishy as it gets. You see mixture of hands here , for Ax-AK 22-AA KJ KQ.

I would go ahead and push, you will at least get called in one place. You may get lucky and get AK ,QQ, JJ, all calling you, or some other mixture of hands that you crush.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Sam T.]

My rule with KK is to see how many chips of mine and others I can get in the middle pre-flop.

Given this incredibly fishy action, I might try the often-used-but-rarely-correct min-raise. If you push, you might get a caller, but you might not. If you min-raise (or maybe raise to t500), I doubt it will close the betting; this hand has momentum, and it's not going to stop until there is a huge pile of chips in the middle. One of these idjits will push, and another may call the push.

It's risky, but hey, let's triple up when we have the chance.

My two cents,

Sam

[MLG]

bad idea, you're giving anybody with an A the correct odds to draw at you. Make them make a mistake.

[Sam T.]

MLG,

I just started trying to explain my argument, by saying that he's going to get called by Ace-face even if he pushes, so he should try to get both AK and AQ to come along for the ride.

But as I was writing I decided it was bull[censored].

Never mind,

Sam T

[MLG]

heh, its always tempting to get overly tricky, but just play these hands straight forward and you'll get more than enough bad calls anyway.

[Ultimate George]

If you won't push with KK, what exactly will you push with? Sometimes you'll run into Aces, but it's not likely.

[Rednax]

Thanks everyone for your comments. You really got to the heart of the issue for me which was (I think), do I protect the Kings or do I try to make a big score, given the nature of the tournament?

I did in fact raise 600 (about pot size) thinking I would fold if an Ace hit and there was much action. Both callled. The flop came 3H,9C,6S and there were two checks to me (Seat 2 was already allin). I went allin for 815 and got two folds. Thoughts?

[crookedhat99]

[ QUOTE ]
If you won't push with KK, what exactly will you push with? Sometimes you'll run into Aces, but it's not likely.

[/ QUOTE ]

He wasn't too scared to push, he was just trying to extract the most money possible.

[Sam T.]

Actually, I think this is another argument for pushing pre-flop. The fish love their aces pre-flop, but even the worst of 'em know when they miss. A flop full of blanks killed your action, and cost you money.

As for the flop bet, you really don't have enough chips to value bet. They're drawing extremely thin (three, two or one outs), and it would be nice to get more money in the middle. But any sort of underbet would very nearly give them odds to call, and we can't have that. The pot is big. Win it now.

My two cents,

Sam

[Elaboration]

Hi Red,

I dont think there is any sense messing around here. I would push and expect to be called by at least one guy.

Regards,
E