[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
AKs doesn't mind playing multiway. I'd say call. You can get away from an unfavorable flop, and if you hit you will make more from the the speculators behind you.

That being said, I don't think you have much to lose by going all-in here. I just think calling is the better play, in case one (or both) of your aces in in the short stack's hand and MP2 has a pair.

-D.

[/ QUOTE ]

But if you go all in there's a decent chance MP2 folds. Going up against a dominated hand with a little dead money in the pot is great. The problem with calling is that you are reducing your chances of winning the pot, and losing 1/4 of your stack would be a very bad result and a waste of AK.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, but IMHO this is really really bad advice. The only proper play is to call, for several reasons.

1) AKs is a premium hand, but it is a premium drawing hand. At best you are a little ahead preflop. At worst, you are pretty far behind. Is this a situation in which you want to totally commit yourself, with 5/7'ths of the hand yet to come? With two players already in the pot, and your overcall, you are likely to inherit the button. So you will already have position.

2) (as suggested by the earlier poster, with whom I agree)Whether limit or no limit, bigger suited connectors do play well against more than one player. Yes, of course they also do play ok head-up. But in this scenario, there is nothing to gain by trying to force the third player out of the hand, and potentially a lot to gain by keeping him in (with very little added risk to yourself). In this scenario, you have the potential to have the best of both world, to be multiway for one stack, and be head-up for another stack.

3) Going all in to try to isolate the all-in short stack and make dead money of the MP's original cold call, is a bad play for many reasons. The larger stacked player in the middle will only call if he is already ahead of you (or even worse, has you dominated). Unless he is a complete idiot, he is going to toss mediocre hands like AQo, AJo, and middle pairs.

The short stacked UTG player is already all in. You aren't going to win any more chips from him if he loses. You aren't going to give him any more chips if he wins.

What you want to do is extract as many chips as possible from the guy in the middle, when you hit your hand and he doesn't, and donate as few chips as possible to MP when the flop misses you and/or it becomes clear that this player has you beat.

If you catch a couple of hearts, or King and/or Ace, then you are likely to be in a very strong position to bet out your hand, whether a raise if MP bets out or a value bet if MP checks. If MP has stayed in with AQo or AQs and the flop brings an Ace, then you in great shape to get most of his stack. However, if he has something like AQo or AJo and you push him off the pot pre-flop, then you have no chance at any of his remaining chips (this time around).

There is no benefit to putting all your chips at risk pre-flop. It is an unnecessary risk.

If and when you catch a piece of the flop, there will be more than enough time to get your stuff in there, and if you play your hand right, hopefully you will drag MP along for the ride.

However, if you simply call and the flop completely misses you, then you can escape with only minor damage and more than enough chips (relative to the blinds) to re-build your stack.