AKs push correct?

ebaudry · #1 07-21-2005, 04:42 PM

$30 STT at Party.

I raise AKs UG1 3BB, get two callers, then the big blind goes all in (we're on level 1). I call.

Anything wrong here?

Isura · #2 07-21-2005, 04:43 PM

I don't like it that much.

Ixnert · #3 07-21-2005, 04:55 PM

Not too fond of it.

Think about it...what's his likely range?

Even if you assume a bit of donkishness, you're probably looking at a pocket pair, AK, or maybe AQ. (If you assume a lot of donkishness, it could just be "Oooh, big pot, shiny, mine now!" with lots of hands, but you're likely too early to have any idea if villain is one of those.)

You're slightly behind any pair, a bunch behind AA/KK, and only significantly ahead of AQ. Even if you discount the likelihood of AA/KK, either because you don't think he'd play it that way or because you already hold one of each, you're certainly no better than 50/50 on balance, and probably worse. Even with the probably dead money from the two callers, at level 1 that doesn't account for much.

So unless you suspect the BB pusher of a high level of donkishness, I don't like this. Anything that would make you think that?

nate_king1 · #4 07-21-2005, 04:58 PM

No sense risking all of your chips very early on with only AK. If probably has a made hand. If you fold you only lose about 50 chips. No bigge.

ebaudry · #5 07-21-2005, 05:19 PM

Good point. I definitely over played it.

That said, I get the impression I would have had to have had QQ or better to call his ai... Is that about right?

I made another post asking about a similar question where someone played their JJ the same way I played my AKs and the responses so far have been in favor of the JJ All-in.

So where's the gray area, TT? QQ?

Thanks again.

Ixnert · #6 07-21-2005, 05:26 PM

This early, yes, you're looking for a premium pair to call here. Definitely with KK/AA, possibly with QQ/JJ/TT depending on if you have any reads. This means you'll be folding sometimes when you have the best hand, but that's poker.

As far as the JJ push in the other thread goes, it can be (usually is, actually) correct to push hands you wouldn't call a push with; I think that's the difference here.