One more AK preflop decision
 

2nd hour of the nightly Stars $11R. I have a little less than 6000 chips. Blinds are 100/200.

I am on the Button with AKo. 3 people limp to me. All of them have me covered. The pot now has 900 chips in it. I push.

My thinking was that a raise to 800 or 1000 chips would make this a very difficult hand to play on the flop, and 900 chips was enough to steal at this time. If I got 2 callers, the pot would have about 3500 chips, and I would be down to about 5000 chips. Not much left to do but push or fold.

Was the push the best thing to do? Or would a raise have been a better idea?

Re: One more AK preflop decision
 

not enough info...how many people left? what was the average stack? what was your table image at this point?

Re: One more AK preflop decision
 

Thats how i'd probably play it too for the same reasons. However, how do you play TT - AA in this situation? If you don't play big pairs the same way at least some of the time, you become vulnerable to being correctly called by 66 and such.

Re: One more AK preflop decision
 

i'd raise to 1k. you're on the button. playing a flop is not so bad.

Re: One more AK preflop decision
 

[ QUOTE ]
not enough info...how many people left? what was the average stack? what was your table image at this point?

[/ QUOTE ] Of course there's enough info. I said it was the 2nd hour of the Stars $11R. That means that there are a ton of people left, that the average stack is quite a big larger than mine, and that table image doesn't mean a whole lot anymore, since the 2nd hour is played so differently from the 1st hour (a maniac during the 1st hour can be a rock during the 2nd hour).

Re: One more AK preflop decision
 

[ QUOTE ]
i'd raise to 1k. you're on the button. playing a flop is not so bad.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. You need to get more value out of this hand. This is a good tourny to get post-flop practice in.

Re: One more AK preflop decision
 

One of the things that seperate a good player from a great player is that a great player is able to extract the most amount of chips from a given hand.

Pushing here will only get called by a hand that currently beats you. Raising will likely narrow the field a little as well as help your define your opponents hands.

Why is this hard to play after the flop? If you raise here you're last to act on the flop and it's more than likely that it'll be checked over to you. That looks like a damn good position to me.