Comments on SNG play...

[Tilt]

My advice:

Push this preflop.
Push lots of hands preflop if folded to you. A8+, 55+, KQ is a good range if people call often. If they fold often push many more hands.
Do not minraise or call at this point. The only exception might be AA. If you only push hands they are just as likely to call you when you have a monster as when you do not.

Oh and if you get all in, suckout on them. Spike your ace. Send him packing. Don't let 55 hold up. Thats a coin flip and you should win every time. I cracked aces 3 times last night with garbage. If I can do that, you ought to at least make AK a winner.

[valenzuela]

I dont get tricky pre-flop is an image thing, if a good player realizes u dont push aces and u push K3 ure in trouble for the rest of ur life against him. Even avg.players will realize ur not pushing ur stronger hands(short-term image). Even so if uve been pushing a lot lately & suddenly u min-raise good players( even though their one or two on each loow buyin sng) will know u have a monster.

[11t]

You played this hand terrible, push preflop.

[Van Strummer]

According to tournament poker for advanced players, it is usually correct to move in with AK if your stack is 2-5 times what is already in the pot. I think you should have pushed here, probably avoiding some 50/50 situations.

[MSUcougar]

You need to increase your aggression around the bubble. Your ONLY plays preflop at this point in the tourney should be push or fold. In my opinion, limping on the bubble is never the correct play.

With AK in this spot I am pushing preflop 100% of the time. I'd be very content to pick up the 300 in blinds, or even better get a call from a smaller A.

In this particular instance, big stack would probably still call you with 55, but that's just how it goes.

[blk911]

Thank you all for the varying perspectives.

My take away is the quasi-limp-in w/AK needs to be ratchetted up to aggressive; particularly in a 4 hander...

Point taken...and implimented last nite. Much more successful in getting out the marginal high card callers and the PP players. One occasion grabbed a few chips, the other grabbed all his coins (holding suited junk...he's obviously not a 2+2 reader [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

blk

[luckyplayer]

I don't think anybody has commented on this yet, but if you hate the all-in play, maybe these things are not for you. The whole point of winning strategy with these things is knowing when and when not to push/call pushes. This is essentially a push game with a little no limit holdem thrown into the first 3-4 rounds.

Ring games and/or multi table tourneys may be more of what you're looking for.