level 1, AKo push

[Matt R.]

My friend thought this was a bad play, and I'm looking for some opinions here. Party $10+1. The hand:


#Game No : 2336610279
***** Hand History for Game 2336610279 *****
NL Hold'em $10 Buy-in + $1 Entry Fee Trny:13789595 Level:1 Blinds(10/15) - Saturday, July 09, 16:46:12 EDT 2005
Table Table 11511 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 1: ottodude111 ( $770 )
Seat 2: Memento_Mori ( $790 )
Seat 4: ATH76 ( $615 )
Seat 7: tarrvr ( $770 )
Seat 3: psilocyborg ( $890 )
Seat 6: MattR81 ( $775 )
Seat 10: RupertPWalla ( $1290 )
Seat 8: leafs16 ( $785 )
Seat 9: Saranthus ( $1315 )
Trny:13789595 Level:1
Blinds(10/15)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to MattR81 [ Ac Ks ]
Saranthus calls [15].
RupertPWalla raises [50].
ottodude111 folds.
Memento_Mori folds.
psilocyborg folds.
ATH76 folds.
MattR81 is all-In [775]


The previous hand, the intial raiser in this hand made a t70 raise with AT from MP1. He then proceeded to call an all-in on a flop of 9TQ -- his pair of tens happened to be good. Therefore, I was pretty sure AK was the best hand and I wanted to raise. The smallest raise I felt like I could make here would be t150, and I didn't want to get involved post-flop with this player who could have anything if he calls, with only 650 behind and a 300+ chip pot. I could easily have the best hand if I miss, and a continuation bet would leave me with under 500 chips if it got called. So I pushed. Friend thought I should just call since I had the button. Comments?

[bkbluedevil]

I'd call and use the position to my advantage. I'd like this play more if you were in the blinds. Also if this guy is the type to play any ace, why not call and try to flop an ace and stack him if you do?

[Matt R.]

My reasoning is that the 67% of the time I DON'T flop an ace or a king I don't want to be put in a situation where I have to make a continuation bet against a calling station -- a continuation bet that will leave me with well under 500 chips. Also, players at this level are more than willing to call preflop all-ins with weaker aces than AK (as evidenced by his previous hand, even though it wasn't preflop).

Edit: oops, just calling would make the continuation bet smaller, so it wouldn't leave me with so few chips. Anyway, I still didn't really like the idea of getting involved post-flop with a calling station since I'll miss a pair 67% of the time or so. And I was pretty sure I had the better hand, so I thought just calling was much weaker than raising.

2nd Edit -- By the way, I prefer calling over raising against an unknown opponent, but my read on him swayed my decision.

[bluewilde]

I have bad experience with thinking "ok, this guy overplays weak aces" and then saying "well then my AK has to win!" just in time to reraise all-in and get called by a pair. If he does play hands like AT, I think you can get more money out of him more safely by just calling and using position if an ace flops (as suggested above), but getting away if you don't catch much. Certainly there's a problem of him hitting two pair with a weaker ace, any advice on handling this risk?

I've been asking about AK recently, and people have been advising me to avoid staking my tournament on it too early as I'll often be a coin-flip to win. I think that this is still applicable here. Call me out on this if it's not, if you guys think I need to be pushing AK against looser players. I think it does too much to jeapordize survival, but for stronger players (i'm still a huge noob) it might be more doable.

[bkbluedevil]

Who said anything about a continuation bet? I'm arguing for a call ergo by definition you cannot make a continuation bet. Also no one is forcing you to call one unless you hit, in which case you should raise since this player seems like he would call of his stack with a worse hand.

[bkbluedevil]

[ QUOTE ]
Certainly there's a problem of him heating two pair with a weaker ace, any advice on handling this risk?


[/ QUOTE ]

Against the any ace whores, I pay them off. This is really really rare though so it's no much of a risk. It's like fearing set over set. Just say "nh" and load a new one.

[Matt R.]

Okay, continuation bet isn't the right term. But if it's checked to me, I'm going to bet a ragged flop with AK. Otherwise, why call in the first place if you're going to check the flop, fold the turn the 67% of the time you don't hit? I think AK is too strong to do this against a player that I know is a donk. But I see what you're saying, and I don't think just calling is BAD. I just prefer raising because, with my read, I figured to be a very big favorite to the hands he's raising with here.

Also -- I could easily be folding the best hand to a continuation by HIM if I just call preflop and don't hit a pair.

[bobhalford]

My play here is to reraise to about 130, cause if the donk folds, then you don't get much out of your hand. Make him pay to see the flop.