Timid with AK?

[William Wilson]

Here’s a hand that came up tonight at an $11 S&G at Stars. The deck has been just steamrolling me, and I’m chip leader with $4780 with the blinds still 15/30 and eight-handed. The nearest player to me has $3160, and has been very aggressive.

I’m two off the button and loving life when I’m dealt A /images/graemlins/heart.gif K /images/graemlins/spade.gif

UTG ($1520) raises 90 to 120, no biggy. The next player to his left (the guy with $3160) bumps it up to 210 and it’s folded around to me.

I’ve been smoking, I’ve got the chip lead, it’s early and I really don’t want to mess with the next big stack. I think for only a bit … and muck.

Is this awful?

For the record, flop came A /images/graemlins/club.gif 6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif K /images/graemlins/club.gif, UTG checked, EP bets 210, UTG folds. The flop depressed me until I convinced myself he had either KK or AA and my fold saved the day.

Although this all became moot -- I went on to win the tournament against the player in question after some solid play heads-up /images/graemlins/grin.gif -- I can't stop thinking about the decision.

Is it OK to see these monsters under the bed with a huge chip lead?

Also, I had just moved up a level after building my bankroll to 20 buy-ins at the $5.50 level, and could have been a bit timid.

I will appreciate any comments. Thanks in advance.

Bill

[William]

I think you can afford to see the flop with your hand and the miniraises.

Of course when you hit that well it's going to be difficult not to play the hand to the end and sometimes, they do have AA or KK. The rest of the times though you end up owning most of their chips.

Because you have many chips, that doesn't mean you now have to wait for the monster hands and running for the hill everytime somebody raises. Chips are like amunitions. When you have plenty of them, use them and let the rest of the field worry about what you "might" have this time.

As I said, sometimes you run into a monster. That's part of your poker education and you must learn to deal with it. Not playing you good hands and convincing yourself it was the safest decision, it's a dangerous path to follow.

Take care,
William /images/graemlins/cool.gif