Would I have lost my stack anyway?

[El Professor]

20+2 SnG @ Stars
I have about 2000 blinds 25/50
dealt AK suited in the big blind, UTG raises 200, has me covered slightly, I've seen him play very marginal hands. 3 limpers (also pretty loose), I move in. Raiser calls, everyone else folds, he shows QQ

Flop comes AKT, turn a blank, river..... you guessed it a J

So my question is, if I had called or made a moderate reraise and he called, wouldn't I have to be dedicated to the hand on the flop? How could I have played this differently?

[CrisBrown]

Hi Professor,

On deep money, I'd rather not get all-in pre-flop on AK. I'd have just called at the flop. There's 875 in the pot, and your call will make it over 1000. You have a chance to win a big pot on an A- or K-high flop, and you can get away from the hand cheaply if you miss.

You're positioned to big pot, or lose a small one. You can't ask for better than that.

Cris

[El Professor]

Thanks Cris,

I appreciate your input. Had I simply called, what would my next move be? Being in EP, what kind of bet would I have to make here? If I was forced all in, wouldn't I have to call?

[CrisBrown]

Hi Professor,

You push in at this flop. If someone has QT, oh well. If QQ calls and catches the T ... again ... oh well.

Cris (who just lost an $1150 pot at $2/4 NL when I pushed with a straight at the turn, was called by a set, and the board paired at the river. And the worst of it was ... it was the last hand I was going to play tonight anyway....)

[El Professor]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Professor,

You push in at this flop. If someone has QT, oh well. If QQ calls and catches the T ... again ... oh well.

Cris (who just lost an $1150 pot at $2/4 NL when I pushed with a straight at the turn, was called by a set, and the board paired at the river. And the worst of it was ... it was the last hand I was going to play tonight anyway....)

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking the same thing. In hindsight, I figure it was my fate to lose on that hand /images/graemlins/smirk.gif Luckily I played another 20 SnG right away and won it.

Thanks for the input, and about your loss - OUCH, hopefully you have a big enough bankroll to overcome such a huge loss

[CrisBrown]

Hi Professor,

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the input, and about your loss - OUCH, hopefully you have a big enough bankroll to overcome such a huge loss

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, "only" $400 of it was my money (i.e.: what I bought in with). The other $175 that was my contribution to that monster pot was money I'd won tonight. And yes, I do have a sufficient bankroll to cover these kinds of swings. If I couldn't afford to lose $400 in a session, I wouldn't play in a $2/4 NL ring game.

In fact, a brief gloat, I paid the mortgage this month with my poker earnings, which felt very, very good. I just wish I'd quit one hand earlier tonight....

Cris

[TheGrifter]

El,

There is no reason to go bust with AK here.

First of all, you have 40BB in front of you, there are very few circumstances where you should be pushing in with 40BB with AK, you allow AQ to get away and every other hand that calls you is bad news. QQ is actually the best case scenario for you (Yes, I know there are idiots who will call with worse, but betting so large will make even the goons think twice).

I understand your reasoning on this play, you want to pick up the pot now (approx. 900) and since these players are loose you like your chances to do so. I like that reasoning against a number of limpers, but these are not limpers. You're up against an UTG 4xBB raiser and 3 people who called that raise cold. Somebody has you beat. There is almost certainly a PP (possibly more than one) out there.

From the sound of it, these are players that will call a large UTG raise with KQ/KJ AQ/AJ, so take advantage of that. If you call and pot it or push (both have their merits but I prefer a push) on the flop you may get some dominated hands to call. (Not just in this instance, but anytime you make TPTK)

Also, you can be almost sure that UTG will fire off some kind of bet on the flop, if a couple of limpers call, you raise all-in = huge pot, you have excellent position relative to the raiser for this hand.

Remember, AK is no hand preflop. The biggest advantage that AK has is that it can not really flop bad, the worst that can happen is you have two overcards and any pair is TPTK. So take advantage of that, in this situation it is possible that QQ would call on the flop anyway (although that would be a terrible call) but overall, in this situation you'll be much better off calling and seeing a flop. (And if you miss, get away!! too many people stick with AK on a blank flop)

[talkinghead]

I don't think you would have lost your stack if you called, then pushed the flop for all your chips as QQ would probably have layed it down.

Having said that, I would have done the same thing pre-flop reasoning the following.
While likely that one of the others has a PP, No reason to suspect that they are high enough to call re-raises with.
I would reason that the loose UTG player is worth taking on with AK as there is plenty of nonsense he could have that you've got beat and the players just calling would re-raise with 1010-AA (probably) so pushing with AK to win whats out there is fine and good. Had the UTG been tight I probably would have called though.