AK suited play after re-buy has ended...

[Patton4]

Just looking for thoughts on a play I made right after the re-buy period had ended in a tourney in Sycuan in San Diego. I was small blind, chip leader at my table with about 5600 in chips. Blinds are 100/200. 4 limpers in front of me, all of whom I almost have doubled in stack size. I look at AK suited. I have played exactly three hands so far and should have a nice tight image. Big blind has about 900 chips less than me. Since the re-buy period has just ended I'm ready to start being the aggressor, so I push all-in. BB calls, two limpers fold, one calls, and the last folds. Is this just way too aggressive at this point or do people tend not to risk their stacks with marginal hands right after the re-buy period, when if they lose they are gone? Keep in mind this was my first live multi-table no limit tourney. I'm guessing that with my lmited knowledge of poker this was just a matter of risk versus reward, with my risk being to high for an 800 chip steal, but do you mind a call with AK in this position?Results to follow...

[Patton4]

The Big Blind turned up AQ off, the limper (with 2400 chips) turned up JJ. The flop brought a Q, the turn an A, and the river gave no help to anyone and I was crippled.

[cferejohn]

I don't know that you had to go all-in here. A raise to 1200 probably does the same thing, and might actually get more folds because all-in by the chip leader after all those limpers looks like a move to some people.

I'm guessing you got called by two medium-low pairs. I think your play was fine, and unless BB had at least QQ, I think his play was suspect-to-horrible (depending on what exactly his hand was).

The overcaller is probably just an idiot. I can't imagine a hand I would play that way (unless he was UTG and limping AA/KK in hopes of reraising maybe).

In the end, I think you played it fine. If I did make the smaller raise, it would have been with the intention of calling a re-raise. The reason for the smaller raise is not to risk less, but to make it more likely that people would fold (since this smaller raise looks more like a bigger hand in some people's eyes).

[cferejohn]

You did what you could. BB needs his head examine. The limper too. There is a time, early in a tournament, where limping with JJ in EP would be OK. Now that he has barely more than 10x the BB, this is not that time.