Was this reasonable to do?

[FTK]

Some background info :

I play every evening in the PP 5$ buy in tournament. Lots of players (1500-2500) and i like the challenge.
I play always very tight and normally finish just in or just out of the money.

I wanted to try a different playing style and play much
more agressive in the start of the tournament. Just to
see if i can build a big stack early that would carry
me to the final table(where the real money is).

The first hand in the first tournament where i promised myself to loosen up this happens :

I'm on the button and get dealed AK suited.
Early player raises 100, everyone in front of
me folds. I make it 200 to go (seems loose enough
compared to how i normally play !).
Everyone else folds and the original raiser goes
all-in. I called and lost to KK.

My decision to call was based on the following
reasoning :

1. With his all-in its reasonable to put him
on KK or AA. --> Bad to very bad odds for me.

2. This early in a tournament everything is
possible. People raise with middle pairs all
the time in these tournaments. His hand
could therefore also be QQ-66 or AK-AJ
--> Reasonable odds for me.

3. If i loose now, no real harm done. I will
loose 5$ (no big deal for me). I prefer to
go out on the first hand than after 2 hours
of playing and just out of the money.

4. If I win this hand i'm in a good shape to
keep following the agressive style i wanted
to use this tournament. People see i do raise
with good cards and i'm not scared out of the
pot by an all-in.

4. If I fold now, i loose 20% of my starting chips.
Nothing lethal, but my table image will be broken
beyond repair. Everyone will think i tried to buy
the pot and folded to a reraise of someone who did
have good cards. It will take a long time before
I can start to be agressive again on this table.

My question is : Was this decision to call reasonable and
was my reasoning that made me call correct ?

[Sam T.]

Couple of thoughts:

1) Why min-raise here if you're going to call the all-in? Push if you're feeling hoppy, call and see a flop if you're feeling cautious.

2) I just hate calling all-ins with AK, especially when your read was AA or KK. It's possible you're ahead of a very loose AQ, but unlikely. Remember, at this point you're a dog to a couple of ducks. Way too early to take a coinflip.

[schwza]

i'm assuming you start w 1000 chips...

i would reraise pre-flop. if a 5+1 plays like the rebuy period of a bigger tournament (i imagine it would), i would just go all-in. i think that a bad hand like ATo is fairly likely to call you, but is unlikely to push. in order for you to get really paid off if you see a flop, you need villain to have an A or a K, and for one of the two remaining A/K's to hit on the flop. or you can push and see if you can get your money in as a 75/25 favorite. if you don't get called, you'll look like a bit of a maniac and you'll have to tighten up a little.

players at low limits raise without good values, and rarely fold to a pre-flop 3-bet. (i played in my first king of the zoo event the other day and it was surprisingly common to see the cutoff open-raise, the SB make a smallish reraise, and the cutoff fold). pushing punishes this tendancy.

[ QUOTE ]
If i loose now, no real harm done. I will
loose 5$ (no big deal for me). I prefer to
go out on the first hand than after 2 hours
of playing and just out of the money.

[/ QUOTE ]

this is a good reason to just let it fly and push.

i agree with the other poster who said min-raising should be last on the list. my preferences are:

1) push
2) raise to 350
3) call
4) min-raise
5) fold

[DougShrapnel]

As someone who plays selectively loose early in a tourney with tons of players. I can offer two pieces of advice.

If you are making it to the end of a tourney just in or just out of the money normaly(which I assume means 50% or more) You are playing an impressive game. You probaly have noticed that players only play their top maybe 8-12% of hands. And you really need to make some adjustment. The blinds are large and you should be stealing some of them. Knowing when and where is the hard part. If it's bubble time and someone is stalling. They are obviously more interested in making the money than having a shot at 1st.
Or maybe playing at a much higher level then you have all tourney. Step your game up here. If you are looking to get a top prize this is where I'd be focusing. And I certainly don't have all the answers, maybe look at the 3 orbits before you got knocked out for a good hand to post to see if there was a missed opportunity.

What hands are you getting knocked out on?

Are you missing opportunities to steal?

Are you letting large stacks call with mediocre holdings only to draw out on you?

Are you getting outplayed?


Ok so about the actual hand.
AKs is not exactly loose and if a near minimum raise is far loose than normal you are missing out on taking control of the hand alot of times. You need to raise more if you are prepared to go all-in with it. By only raising near the minimum you are not giving your self the fold equity, and still (risking In terms of actual money) the same as you would making it 400.

It doesn't matter that he had kings. You will get called by alot of [censored] that you will love the shape you are in.


[ QUOTE ]
4. If I fold now, i loose 20% of my starting chips.
Nothing lethal, but my table image will be broken
beyond repair. Everyone will think i tried to buy
the pot and folded to a reraise of someone who did
have good cards. It will take a long time before
I can start to be agressive again on this table

[/ QUOTE ]
Mason says that folding does very little for table image.
It takes several failed steal attemps before people catch on. And as far as aggression goes. You should be much more aggresive with a shorter stack. Because people will call you with much worse cards. Your AKs in this hand would be an auto push over the top with 700 or less chips.

Anyways I'm leaving out tons of stuff, but gl with the new strategy.

[zaxx19]

2) I just hate calling all-ins with AK, especially when your read was AA or KK. It's possible you're ahead of a very loose AQ, but unlikely. Remember, at this point you're a dog to a couple of ducks. Way too early to take a coinflip.


Now use the word donkey a half dozen times...this was me 2 months ago. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I still dont like calling all ins with AKo the best evidence is that it does about the same against J10s...as AKo does against QQ. Just ponder that for a minute...and youll see why even some nut with a suited connector wanting to bust to you will be fairly dangerous.