AK early in tourney

[AleoMagus]

Over the past couple months there has been reccuring doubt about my play of AK early in a tournament.

I play 10+1 and 30+3 Partypoker SNGs exclusively and the blind structure makes AK an almost automatic play at levels 4 and above. Unless I have a huge stack, I move in. AK does great this way, and a steal at this point is still worth a lot of chips. If the pot is raised weakly, I reraise all in. Against a big raise, I often fold. When the raiser (or me) is shortstacked, or it I am facing a weak opponent who I suspect is stealing I'll call those all ins.

Beyond the early stages of a tourney I really excel (or so my results would have me believe) and I am quite comfortable with my play.

Early on however, AK has been giving me a lot of trouble. In these events, plenty of players will call even 4xBB raises with anything. This is great, but it can make flopping an ace or a king (TPTK) very troublesome. Too often J3 made two pairs and I notoriously bust out early against these types of hands.

My problem is how to play this hand preflop if I know it is hard to get away from TPTK with Party's blind structure.

I want to just move in with AK PF, but the size of the blinds does not make this worthwhile. AA and KK are two of my most likely callers and the blinds I steal the rest of the time do not make up for AA and KK at this stage .Or do they? Do the fish who call with AQ and AJ make this profitable in these small buy in SNGs?

I have no trouble reraising all-in with AK, and with anything greater than a min-raise, this is my play in these tourneys

But, if nobody has opened-raised and moving in is a bad idea, how do I proceed? Ordinarily I'm raising at least 3xBB (more like 5xBB these days to try to get the maniacs out) but I am still not comfortable with flopping TPTK. The problem is, a pot sized bet if I do hit will usually commit me if I get reraised and the board is not too scary. I don't like this, but I don't want to conservatively bet TPTK either.

I have been thinking about just limp-reraising all in with AK. This seems troublesome as well. I could be up against anything if I don't get raised, and with so many callers, a pot sized bet with TPTK still might cost a lot if reraised or if I am the caller/raiser.

I am curious how good SNG players are playing AK early. If I do feel that my play of AK is terrible post flop, would opening all-in with it really be that bad a play. Would the Party fish and stolen blinds make up for the times I run into AA and KK? I know this is not the best way to play it, but right now I am just looking for a better way than my current abyssmal play.

I guess I just feel these days that I could almost do better in the 10+1 sngs if I just clicked 'away' until level 3 or 4. This is obviously not good. Don't get me wrong, I am not unhappy with my overall results, but I know what is keeping me from GREAT results, and it has a lot to do with my early round play.

Any thoughts?
Brad S

[t_perkin]

I find that a 4xBB gets you down to between 0 and 2 callers PF most of the time at the 10+1 level.

Yep, occaisonally someone hits two pair or trips when they shouldn't have been playing. That is just the way it goes - it is these players that are making your life so easy in the later stages of the tournament. You can't have it both ways!

I just never seem to hit with AK anyway.... /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Tim

[AleoMagus]

[ QUOTE ]
I find that a 4xBB gets you down to between 0 and 2 callers PF most of the time at the 10+1 level.

[/ QUOTE ]

On Partypoker?

In the first round, I find that 60 to go rarely narrows the field that much. I think this is especially true if there are already limpers in the pot. It seems like they all think 'Hey I called 15, why not 45 more?'

What about moving in preflop with blinds this small? Is it going to make enough off steals and dominated fish to be profitable in the long run (taking into account the times you are called by AA or KK)

Today I have been raising 10XBB just as an experiment and already I have been called by J3s and 59s. Both were limpers before my raise.

I just hate to give up AK on the flop because I know a lot of it's value comes from seeing the turn and river.

Any thoughts appreciated
Brad S

[Vaughny]

This may not be the "theoretically correct" play, but I've been busted in the same way as you and I hardly play anything other than AA or KK until 2 or three players are already out. Like I said, probably a stupid play, but it usually gets me to 5th place without effort.

[t_perkin]

In the first 10 hands on Party I am always in a bit of a quandry.
On the one hand I know I am likely to get an idiot caller so I move in knowing it is +EV move.
On the other hand if I figure to be the best player (or maybe second /images/graemlins/wink.gif) at the table then best not to take what could well be an even money chance this early.
But then doubling up usually means a cruise to at least 3rd palce. And if you lose now you can get straight into another /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Any thoughts anyone? is not moving in if you know you will get a weak caller a case of playing "too much of a tournament strategy" and giving away lots of EV ?

Tim

[CrisBrown]

Hi Brad,

It sounds like you're saying the PP SNGs are very loose in the early stages -- that's what I've read elsewhere -- and at a loose table, AK isn't all that great a hand. As a general rule, high cards don't play all that well in multi-way pots, because multi-way pots favor improved hands (two-pair or better). And even when you hit TPTK with AK, there may well be someone who called with Ace-Face or King-Face, so if any other face cards are on board, you may be behind.

AK is an excellent stealing hand, but again, it's pointless to steal at a loose table where people are going to call anyway. And unless you hit something, all you have is Ace-high.

So I'd play AKs for a raise, but probably let AKo in the early stages -- especially out of position -- until things tighten up enough that you're likely to get a heads-up pot.

Just one idea....

Cris