Pocket Pairs vs. AK
 

Long time reader, first time poster.

I played in two live tournaments this weekend (85 and 126 players) and out of 14 hours worth of hands I am kinda frustrated but don't want to think I am going crazy.

My frustration stems from getting beat by AK while holding pocket pairs 5 times, and each time was for a good portion of my chips.

Did I play the following scenarios wrong or is it just a case of bad luck.

Hand 1 - down to 17 players (8 at my table)and I have the chip lead at my table. I am on the button and blinds are 300/600. Two callers between the blinds and me and I have about a 2 to 1 cheap lead over both of the blinds. I push on KK and SB folds, BB thinks about it and calls. Two callers fold. We flip and he shows AK. Catches the A on the river to knock me down.

Hand 2 - down to 9 players and I am about 5th in chips. I am UTG with 500/1000 blinds. The top two in chips are LP (one on the button). I push with QQ and button calls. He flips AK and catches an A on the turn.

Hand 3 - Early in tournament and I am on the button and hold about a 3 to 1 chip lead over the big blind. Folds all the way around and I raise 5 times the big blind with KK. BB check raises all in (only 3 times the big blind to call). I call. He's holding AK and catches it on the turn.

Hand 4 (I think this was my worse play) - Down to 70 players and the series leader is on the button. He is a very shifty player and at this point I have been playing real tight. I have about 200 more chips then him and he has tried to steal the last few blinds. Blinds are 50/100 and I am the SB with pocket 10s. Everyone folds and he rasies to 200. I waste little time and push. (We are awarded points for our fineshes as well as the tournament payouts, so it would be very good for the rest of the players if he was to go out early, my thought while pushing was he may be more worried about the series points and would fold). He waits a while and calls with the dreaded AK, catches it on the river.

Hand 5 - Last hand found me and my small stack (420) UTG and I catch pocket 4s. Push all in and button calls. SB and BB call. The other three check to the river where an A hits the board. While they are betting I start packing up my bags fearing the worse and sure enough the button pushes to clear out the blinds and flips AK.

Now to be fair I can honestly say I had AK about 20 times and hit a winner with it maybe 3 or 4 times when it came to a showdown.

Re: Pocket Pairs vs. AK
 

Need your stack sizes and opponent stack sizes for more help.

I would say you'd be better off not pushing so much preflop with your pocket pairs. Maybe this was purely situational on your part, but you might be better off raising less preflop with your big pairs, around 3x-4x BB depending on the scenario (You played the 3rd hand fine, though I have no idea how big your stacks were).

Hope this helps

Re: Pocket Pairs vs. AK
 

Rainman3000,

Hand 1: No problem, unfortunate that he hits the three outer

Hand 2: Don't know how many chips you had, but if you're less than 8-10K I don't see a problem. I suppose, especially from early position (confronted by the chip leaders in LP) you have to consider whether you're prepared to test your QQ on a coin flip. However, at the final table I don't see any option but pushing QQ. You aren't going to lay it down to a re-raise (unless you have an excellent read).

Hand 3: No problem with his play or yours

Hand 4: If you knew he was strong, and likely to call if he didn't have regard for the series points, I don't like yuor re-raise. It is a weak play to rely on a fold due to the consequences of an early exit for an highly rated player. If s/he thinks it is the right play to call, s/he will call (their game will not change dramatically in the early stages of tournament). Perhaps, if this had occured one or two places from the points, he may have been inclined to fold. I think its an easy lay down if you think he's too strong for you, although it was once more a coin-flip scenario aso you weren't trailing by a great margin.

Hand 5: You're shortstacked, this hand doesn't mean a great deal.

Re: Pocket Pairs vs. AK
 

Thanks deuces09 and CITIUS,

Stack sizes for the hands were as follows

Hand 1 - I had about 8000 to his 4000
Hand 2 - I had about 5800 to his 9000
Hand 3 - I had about 2100 to his 700
Hand 4 - I had about 3000 to his 2800
Hand 5 - I had 420 to his 5000

Re: Pocket Pairs vs. AK
 

Just something to consider if you aren't already doing so... use the 'Stop & Go.' I get nailed a lot with pairs vs AK and have added the Stop & Go to my game and it has really helped. I still get nailed with JJ vs AA & TT vs KK but when your opponent has AK/AQ, not letting them see all 5 board cards is a certain advantage. It only works when your stack is big enough to be a threat but it is a nice play.