My last hand - how would you play it?

[Marcin Doliwa]

Hi,
I play tournaments on PS, and often finish in money, but I cannot get to the real money. Today i played $30 NL tourney, got to the final table, and lost 9th /images/graemlins/frown.gif.
Here's how it was played, i'd like you to cvomment it:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t800 (9 handed)

MP1 (t1725)
MP2 (t16601)
MP3 (t25697)
CO (t30517)
Hero (t10216)
SB (t23800)
BB (t20046)
UTG (t27589)
UTG+1 (t14809)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K/images/graemlins/spade.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to t1600, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Hero raises to t4800, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 raises to t14759, Hero calls t5366 (All-In).

Flop: (t25275) 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 4/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in) </font>

Turn: (t25275) 8/images/graemlins/heart.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in) </font>

River: (t25275) T/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 1 all-in) </font>

Final Pot: t25275

Results in white below: <font color="white">
UTG+1 shows Ac Ad (two pair, aces and fours).
Hero shows Ks As (one pair, fours).
Outcome: UTG+1 wins t25275. </font>

His preflop rise was suspicious, he could have really good hand like AA, KK or something like AQ, KQs, middle pair. So what do you think, how should i play preflop, smooth call, or rerise?

Regards,
Doli

[La Brujita]

Welcome the 2+2! For me this is a difficult hand you posted. One thing I know is I don't like your raise to 4800 because you have committed yourself to the pot so if you are going to be raising that much you need to be all in.

What concerns me is the mini raise pre flop. Had you previously played with this player or had any read on him? For me this is very read dependent.

It looks to me (I hope I don't get flamed) that your choices are all in or smooth call. The problem I see with a smooth call is most of the time you are not going to improve on the flop and you have not clarified your hand by raising (and about 15% of your stack is now involved). You are in eighth place right now so a push doesn't seem horrible.

If it was me I would have pushed and been knocked out.

Also, there must have been 50 chip antes as well which change the problem a bit.

Regards

[nolanfan34]

I don't think a smooth call is a terrible play here either. Take a flop and see what kind of play UTG+1 makes. You can get away from your hand then if you miss the flop completely. With the blinds at t800, you still would have a big enough stack to be patient and hope to get a big hand again.

I just don't like your raise PF because of exactly what happened. Put yourself in UTG+1's shoes. This player isn't the lowest stack, but probably needs to make a move, to really get up into the money, just like you. He/she did raise in EP, and you have to respect that somewhat. When they came back over the top, you have to think you're going to be in a coinflip, best case scenario, and likely are way behind. There's a player who is very short stacked and likely to be eliminated soon, so UTG+1 must have a good hand to go to battle with.

Congrats on making it to the final table regardless, you must have played well to do that.

[ZootMurph]

Any UTG or UTG+1 MINIMAL raise at a final table is looking for action. That scares me. At most final tables, you will see big raises out of the gate. These are less scary than a small raise. However, with AKs you have to play. Since you could be up against a pocket pair, you should call PF and see a flop. If the flop doesn't hit you and he bets out strong, fold the hand.

Remember, against a pocket pair where you have two overcards, you still need to make something with AK. I will always just call with this hand unless I'm first in.

As others have said, I don't like that preflop reraise either... you should consider in that situation how far you are willing to go. When you reraise, you are putting yourself in a position to be raised allin. Will you call the allin or fold? If you'd call an allin, just go allin yourself and get it over with.

[Jon Matthews]

If you think you can get him to lay down some of the time after raising then raise all in. If not then just call and see a flop. You have position so you may as well use it rather than getting all in. Another reason for playing this passively is the shortstack with 2BB's worth of chips left might soon be gone, moving you up a spot in the money.


Jon

[Marcin Doliwa]

Thx for congrats, when i lost this hand i knew that i should have called, and see what'll happend, but it's the next important lesson, and i know i have to work on playing big slicks, cause it's really hard to play it well in such situations.

Regards,
Doli

[Chief911]

I most agree with a previous poster talking about smooth calling and seeing what happens. Use your position to your advantage. If you are UTG, its a little different. But he is. Make him sweat it.

Chief911

[La Brujita]

Just wanted to add two thoughts on the smooth calling vs. pushing decision:

1. One of the benefits of pushing with AK is that it buys you a through ticket to the river which is very helpful if you are up against a pocket pair (especially QQ or lower). You also get the additional equity of seeing a flush draw or backdoor flush draw to the river with your AK suited.

2. The bulk of the money is paid in the top three places. I agree a smooth call will increase your chance of outlasting the very short stack. But amplifying the "read dependant" point, if there is a reasonable chance raiser holds QQ or lower, a double up here putting you right in the hunt might have positive ev due to payout structures.

Regards

[M.B.E.]

The preflop minraise very frequently turns out to be AA or KK. If you had seen this player minraise preflop a few other times, then you're probably okay and you should push in -- hopefully you take the pot right there, but you might be called by a smaller pocket pair. But if this player usually raises 3xBB and is now minraising, you may even want to fold the AKs preflop. Especially since this is the final table: if you can outlast four or five players the gain is usually 4% or so of the prize pool, not too shabby.

If you have no read at all on this player (i.e. don't know what his "usual" raise is), then you should probably smoothcall, but still be suspicious of AA or KK. If the flop then comes ace-high you can be confident, but if it comes king-high be very careful.

As others have pointed out, your decision to reraise to 4800 (approx. half your stack) was a mistake; it puts you in a very tough situation if the opponent calls your reraise and then bets the flop.