Another fun AK hand

[SossMan]

Another hand from a home game tourney from Labor Day.
$100 buy in, 20 players 4 places pay 40/30/20/10%.

This hand is very early and most people have their initial stacks of 10k.
Blinds are 50-100, no antes.

My table is a mix of very new to very good, with most at the table too loose preflop and too tight on the flop and have no idea how position influences play. In short, a good table for me. They all play scared against me...except the villian in this hand, who is very laggy, and apparently only carries credit cards, because he's never heard of a "check".

Part 1: Preflop
Villian (Laggy) has me covered by about 1000 (11k - 10k)

I get A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] in MP. Two limpers to me I raise to: t500.
Laggy (on my direct left), makes it t1000 to go. Blinds fold, one limper calls (?).

What's my action?

[Pat Southern]

I call and see the flop, its going to be hard to play this hand out of position if you reraise anything less than allin since you know the LAG will bet any flop you check to him.

[MLG]

Call preflop. If you hit then check-raise all-in. If you miss bet out at the flop here (maybe 1500 or so), and put some pressure on him.

[SossMan]

<font color="blue"> If you miss bet out at the flop here (maybe 1500 or so), and put some pressure on him.
</font>

it's 3 handed to the flop if I call.

[MLG]

Right missed that part. I'm not wild about just flat calling preflop then. Given what you said about the competition the limper probably doesn't have AA, and Raisey mcBet could have a rather large range of hands. However, I just can't see a reraise of less than All-in here, as Laggy will probably at least call, and entice the limper along yet again. Playing a big pot 3 handed out of position is not pleasant with AK. Moving all-in is a viable option, but maybe not the best one.

I think calling preflop is probably best. When you hit you still check-raise laggy all-in. When you miss it gets trickier. If limper checks, you check, and lag bets (shock of shocks) you can probably fold if the limper calls. If the limper folds you have to at least seriously consider that you might have the best hand. You can't call though, as credit card boy surely isn't checking behind you on the turn. I suppose you could c-raise all-in on any flop if that happens, but then why not just go all-in preflop. So, if limper checks I bet then if lag folds (?) and limper calls you are probably behind, but you play the rest of the hand with position and can decide whether or not to bluff a later street. If you bet and lag raises you can fold.

Dude, this hand sucks.

[GoldenHorde]

I really hate ever just calling with A-K pre-flop but this seems to be one of those rare occassions when calling is the correct move.

I'm not sure how valid a point this is but i've found when i'm playing inferior competition (home or small buy in live tournies) that I have much more success if I tone down my pre-flop aggression, and concentrate more on seeing alot of cheap flops and using the readily available reads to outplay people after the flop.

[SossMan]

<font color="blue"> I'm not sure how valid a point this is but i've found when i'm playing inferior competition (home or small buy in live tournies) that I have much more success if I tone down my pre-flop aggression, and concentrate more on seeing alot of cheap flops and using the readily available reads to outplay people after the flop. </font>

I agree here, but if they are going to call an overbet preflop with ATs when I have AKs, I want to collect that preflop equity. I do agree, however, that keeping pots smaller allows your opponents to make bigger mistakes later. That's why this hand is interesting to me.

[durron597]

What do you think of the chances of LAG calling you with 88-JJ if you move in? What about AQ? Do you think his miniraise is likely to mean AA or KK? Also, what do you think of the limp-call as a sign of strength (since you say he's supposedly scared of you?)

To get the chips in the pot right now would be a 15% increase in stack size. If the miniraise nor the limp call you have reason to think of as a sign of extreme strength, I like moving in here. I've found that LAG players tend to fall in one of two categories, they either don't like calling allins - they want to be the aggressor, or they call allins way too often (like would call you here with AJ or AQ).

[SossMan]

A decent plan...lot's of if's, though. The limper makes a definite plan a little tougher..
That being said, I flat called because I wasn't sure I wanted to reraise to like 2500-3000 to reopen the action (since another reraise from Yahoo #1 or #2 would almost certainly send me to the bathroom to "yoddle in the porcelain canyon"). FWIW, this is how I would play AA/KK.
With QQ, I would insta-push.

With AKs, however, I wasn't sure that Laggy McNeverFold on my left would fold the hands I would want him to fold, or call with the hands that I would want him to call with. By this, I think if I push, he's going to call me w/ 99/TT/JJ and probably fold AJ/AT maybe even AQ. These are all hands that he would make the original raise with.

I put the limper on a slightly tigher range of hands since I was kind of surprised he called. Something like JJ-55, AQ-ATs. I believe he would have raised (either initially, or limp RR'd w/ AA-QQ, AK). Well, maybe he has AK.

Since I didn't really feel comfortable pushing, and didn't want to reopen the action with a standard raise, and you weren't going to pry AKs from my cold-dead hands, I called.

Flop was interesting.

5 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 2 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 9 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

EP checks. Your action?

(i have A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img])

[MLG]

check-raise all-in, assuming laggy bets and limper either calls or folds.