Bubble time - AK - Line check

[mybrainssore]

Live MTT.

10 players left, 9 cash.
9th pays £55, 1st pays £850

Smallest stack has 3.5K. I have 22K with blinds at 1K/2K.

Folds around to me on the small blind. I look down at AhKd.
Big Blind has roughly 30K. Average stack is about 35K.
I have just been moved to this table.

Whats the play here?

An all in move seems like an overbet, but folding seems to be a little tight. A limp could be used to entice action, but how much action do you want at this stage?

Personally at this stage i'm not going to get too involved with a big stack that can break me. But if i'm feelin it i may take a shot at him with a raise somewhere between 6-8k and see what happens. If he pops me back, i'll fold, if he calls, i'll use post flop strategy on how the flop comes, and if he folds, lucky me and continue on. If i'm only an average stack on the bubble like that. I'm generally a pretty passive player and trying to survive.

[Yuv]

Do you need 55 euro so badly to be afraid of this? You got 10.5 bb's after posting. This is a clear push to me. You want to see 5 cards, you can't raise and fold. If he calls you with a pair, outdraw him. If he has AA/KK, it wasn't meant to be. If he calls you with Ax, you're in great shape for the final table.

Just push.

[MeanGreenTT]

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....But if i'm feelin it i may take a shot at him with a raise somewhere between 6-8k and see what happens. If he pops me back, i'll fold,

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Put in damn near 1/2 your stack just to fold to a raise, leaving yourself with a whopping 5-7xbb???

If I read right, 2 tables, 5 handed?

This is one of those situations that always gets me in trouble 'cause a poosh looks like an overbet but a standard raise leaves us tied to the pot....

This has got to be a push, right?

I think you have 3 choices here: push, bet 6k w/ intent to play a stop and go, or limp w/ intent to move-in on any pre-flop raise and if called to lead the flop w/ a pot sized bet on a whiff and a min bet if you hit (to make it look like a delayed steal). Which one I'd pick would be based on what I'd seen him do and what he'd seen me do. At this point I'm OK w/ getting my chips in the middle since I'm looking to win it so: if I'd seen him aggressively defend his blinds I'd push (or if I'd already pushed and not shown recently); if he'd played weak/tight pre or post-flop I'd go w/ the stop and go; if he'd played LAGGY I'd limp.

[Firefly]

Just push it.
Unless the $55 Euros are that important to you, then fold.

[ QUOTE ]
Just push it.
Unless the $55 Euros are that important to you, then fold.

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How many Lira is 55 Euros??

PUSHPUSHPUSHPUSHPUSH

nuff said

[TomHimself]

stop n go arent good with AK, please people stop saying to sng with AK.

just push

Perhaps - but Greg views AK SnG as a viable play (his comments can be found in the MTT Anthology - I'm a new poster and couldn't see immediately how to link it). We could debate the merits in this particular case but I don't think it can be summarily dismissed as a viable play.

Regards,
HC

[ QUOTE ]
Perhaps - but Greg views AK SnG as a viable play (his comments can be found in the MTT Anthology - I'm a new poster and couldn't see immediately how to link it). We could debate the merits in this particular case but I don't think it can be summarily dismissed as a viable play.

Regards,
HC

[/ QUOTE ]

There's actually a few different reasons why I don't think a SnG is the right play in this situation. What do you do when the flop comes 3 of a suit you don't have, paired or draw heavy to a straight that fit a lot of calling hands which leave your AK drawing to only a few outs - or perhaps drawing dead. The whole idea is to get your money in when your equity in the hand is high and your opponent can either get away from the hand or call with a (hopefully) lesser hand and double you up. Once the flop comes and completely misses your AKo (which happens 2/3 of the time) is a SnG still the right play? Do you still have the guts to push all your chips in the middle thinking that you could easily be beaten and drawing dead at this point? Often the answer will be no, where a push preflop would still be the correct move as it puts maximum pressure on your opponent and almost requires that he has a "calling" hand or a strong desire to "gamble it up" in order to make the call.

In addition, when you add enough dead money into the pot due to blinds and antes then villain's calling range for a push becomes even wider thanks to the increased pot odds. This will allow you to double through with looser calls from villain where allowing villain to see a flop with a smaller raise lets him get away from the hand when the flop misses him and you miss out on the opportunity to double up through him. I think that this is the more important point here, as you want to force villain to commit more chips to the pot. Letting him see a flop before he makes that decision is a huge mistake since I think you are WAY ahead more often than not here and a raise all-in looks more like a steal attempt.