Maximizing EV with a monster in the SB

In last nights 3R on stars I was involved in a hand that I feel was a key hand in the later stage of the tournament for me.

There were about 100 players left out of 1300+ so we are in the money already. 1000/2000 blinds with 200 ante. I was in the SB and looked down at AA - stack of 26k after posting the small blind. All folds to the CO (36k stack) who open raises a standard 3xBB and the button folds. A reraise from me is going to surely pot commit me and I wanted to try and ensure this was heads up so I pushed to ensure the BB (100k+ stack) didn't call with odds to try and bust us both. Villain thought for a moment and folded.

Looking back I think that perhaps I should have smooth called his raise and jammed any flop. I may have even gotten an overcall from the BB and let him catch something on the flop too. I feel I missed out on a good chance to accumulate chips here by playing the hand too aggressively preflop. If I were able to extract more in this situation I would have had a good chance to go on to a final table.

Do you agree that a stop n go here is probably more +EV than a preflop push? I'm not usually looking for places to pull this off, but hindsight tells me that this is probably the perfect spot to either do that or smooth call and check any flop so the PFR can lead out and then reraise allin if his bet isn't big enough to do that from the start. Another line I had also thought of post-play was to reraise about half my stack with plans of jamming any flop but that looked a little too fishy to me with only 11BB remaining.

Did I push too hard preflop? Is there one move that would be more preferable than the other? Do you want to reveal the strength of your hand preflop by reraising and hope for a call or do you just let villain see a flop and hope he makes a worse hand that he'll call a push with?

I min raise this. BB rides along, I'm not real thrilled, would rather play this HU. CO has already committed 6000 to his steal, even if he has garbage, he'll more than likely still pay to see the flop. You now have 4000 more chips in the pot to win and if he gets a piece of the flop there is always the possibility of doubling up. Your push only insured that you won what was already in the pot and that you wouldn't get sucked out on. A minimum raise I think accomplishes so much more. I don't like a flat call here for the simple fact that BB may ride along and once the CO sees you've paid to play, he may not be real thrilled with his 57o after the flop. Get him to pony up now with a minimum raise.

[People_Mover]

this is where a min raise works giving him odds to call with a dominated hand, then jam any flop.

[Melchiades]

Why are people so scred of playing AA in a multiway pot? AA does great with 3-way action. I'm not sure what I do here, but I'm not scared of BB coming along.

not scared, just not thrilled. AA plays better HU. If i was scared i would've pushed immediately.

Yeah and my later analysis included the possibility that BB would overcall and give me even more EV. I realized this post-play and would like some analysis on the different scenarios I came up with afterwards as well as the line I took. I agree that I made a mistake pushing BB off the hand which is why I thought a call might be better than a raise with the hopes of an overcall and the possibility that 2 players would make something on the flop. What are your thoughts on this idea?

[N 82 50 24]

First, I'm a donk so don't flame my advice.

I would generally argue against flat calling. If you just flat call, then you could be trapping yourself on the flop. If you're willing to take the chance of playing the hand without any real information except what you presume to be the CO's raising range (very wide if he's like most people), then it's an okay move. You're essentially not going to be able to avoid putting your stack in later in the hand regardless of any strength that he shows. The advantage of course is that you're pretty likely to get your other 20K doubled as well if you can pull off the 'ole slowplay.

The reasons to push are obvious: you're a guaranteed favorite and you can get his whole stack in immediately. You can probably pick up about 10K without a showdown (the best way to win obv), and if he calls you're in great shape.

A minraise works well to commit him, but it makes it pretty obvious what you have. It may be the best way to double yourself.

If I was good at math and didn't have to meet someone for lunch, I would crunch the numbers...

[woodguy]

[ QUOTE ]
Looking back I think that perhaps I should have smooth called his raise and jammed any flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about smooth calling, hoping the BB comes along, check the flop, then hope they all bet then c/r all in?

AA is very nice to get when you have only 13BB's.

Yes, if you give odds for the BB to call, or you don't push the CO out with PF raise they may outflop you. But, you can't play scared poker and have to "gamble" that you don't get outflopped to try to maximize your hand here.

With 13BB's I would be pushing the CO out with a PF raise all in with junk, with a hand I call and try to get him to commit more chips on the flop.

Hopefully he hits top pair or a draw and doubles me up.

Regards,
Woodguy

[CardSharpCook]

if you want to increase variance and smoothcall this, I'm fine with that. However, don't push any flop, that'll just put him in a pretty great position where he can get away from tons of hands (true, he's calling a lot of dogs too). Chk/push the flop. Make him get SOME money in there. But yeah, I like the idea of increasing variance, but also increasing expectation.

AA is always tricky for me. "If I raise too much I'll scare everyone out, but if I don't raise enough someone's gonna suck out..." In this case with only the BB and the CO in the hand, a min raise would be my move here. This way you are likely gonna get action from the CO and the BB won't get to see a cheap flop. I would not, however, smooth call here being out of position and giving the BB a chance to suck out. Also minraising gives the CO a chance to come over the top of your reraise which would be ideal.