Time to push AK?
 

30+3 Party MTT, aprox. 1,500 entries with 1,300 remaining. About 30 minutes in, haven't played a hand yet. Blinded down to around 940 chips, UTG get AKo. I raise it to 100 (BB is 20), UTG+1 makes it 500 (has about 2k stack) to go, folded around to me. I don't think he has AA or KK as his raise doesn't entice me to call him and it really "feels" like a 99 - QQ kind of raise. My view is that the vast majority of the time I'll be no worse than a coin flip at this point and could be dominating AQ/AJ or he could be trying to snatch my 100 plus the blinds (unlikely, but possible).

In the past I would fold this hand without much thought. My recent experience in these 1,500 player tournies has been I get to within 50 spots of the money and don't have much to work with, have to push and get knocked out. I've been playing tight early and trying to use my "skills" to beat the hordes. As that strategy hasn't worked thus far I decided to take my chances here and pushed. Thoughts?

Re: Time to push AK?
 

WHU WHO WHERE.....FEELS JUST LIKE AA or KK from here buddy in fact thats was my standard reraise with KK awhile back in a situation like this. WHY do u sound so desperate to double up here?? Its like 30 minute into the tourney whats the big problem?? You have no folding equity and thats really not good with AKo. basically you are looking at a 35% winner here IMHO.... Maybe im confused but blinds are like what 15-30 here so whats the rush are you a double up or bust type of player normally??

Re: Time to push AK?
 

Can't call off half your chips hoping for an A or K on the flop and in bad position against a bigger stack. Can't really see folding AK either. I'd push as well. If he has an underpair, you want to see all five cards. If he has a weaker Ace, you don't mind seeing five cards. If he has Aces or kings, you are in bad shape.

Re: Time to push AK?
 

Why cant you just fold here exactly?? I must have missed that episode of " Who wants to pay off aces or kings"...

Re: Time to push AK?
 

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Can't call off half your chips hoping for an A or K on the flop and in bad position against a bigger stack. Can't really see folding AK either. I'd push as well.

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Why? Please give a list of hands that a reasonable player would raise w/ here. I'll give you a hint: its usually 3-4 long, and consists of AA/KK/QQ/AK. If you want to just donate chips, feel free. I, for one, am folding here.

Re: Time to push AK?
 

Damnnn DMK you are fine...........look just like that bytch on smallville........

Re: Time to push AK?
 

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Damnnn DMK you are fine...........look just like that bytch on smallville........

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she is. no need to call her a bytch though

Re: Time to push AK?
 

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Can't call off half your chips hoping for an A or K on the flop and in bad position against a bigger stack. Can't really see folding AK either. I'd push as well.

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Why? Please give a list of hands that a reasonable player would raise w/ here. I'll give you a hint: its usually 3-4 long, and consists of AA/KK/QQ/AK. If you want to just donate chips, feel free. I, for one, am folding here.

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I can see a big stack pushing people off hands with a wide range at this point. I'd like to know who else raises 5x with AA or KK in UTG+1's spot. I don't see that too much but I don't play a lot of the MTT's either. If I have AA there I'd sure try to get more money out of UTG and a raise of that size will scare off a lot of hands.

Re: Time to push AK?
 

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Can't call off half your chips hoping for an A or K on the flop and in bad position against a bigger stack. Can't really see folding AK either. I'd push as well.

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Why? Please give a list of hands that a reasonable player would raise w/ here. I'll give you a hint: its usually 3-4 long, and consists of AA/KK/QQ/AK. If you want to just donate chips, feel free. I, for one, am folding here.

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I can see a big stack pushing people off hands with a wide range at this point. I'd like to know who else raises 5x with AA or KK in UTG+1's spot. I don't see that too much but I don't play a lot of the MTT's either. If I have AA there I'd sure try to get more money out of UTG and a raise of that size will scare off a lot of hands.

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Apparently not, because you're willing to push w/ AK here. Thats exactly why I make this raise.

Re: Time to push AK?
 

Ur raise of 5x BB here would make me think ur reckless enough to call off your whole stack. With that in mind I would reraise you here with AA and KK to 500 to get you to call off the rest of your stack and pay me off.

30 minutes into the tourny, you don't need to be desparate. A standard 3x BB raise from UTG is sufficient to thin the field and save you some chips if you get reraised and decide to fold.

You're not going to win the tourny here on this hand but you can certainly lose it.