AK w/ AJ6 flop early in MTT, fold to re-raise

[pizzaman]

Pre-flop raise here would have helped alot. Pushes out the trash and you don't have to worry about j6o catching you here. Also helps you get a read on your opponent. Only reason to limp w/AK is to call raise pre-flop.

[networkman]

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Sometimes I raise w/ it sometimes I don't. If I had raised and Villain had AJ (or even A6 early in the MTT) he probably calls PF, and I am in the same boat on the flop.

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You have to raise preflop here unless you are trying to trap a LAG preflop. Early in a Multi I won't call a raise with A 6 or A J.

[JARID]

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Sometimes I raise w/ it sometimes I don't. If I had raised and Villain had AJ (or even A6 early in the MTT) he probably calls PF, and I am in the same boat on the flop.

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I think you need to consider that some of your strength is masked here. Most people raise pf with AK, so I don't think thats what he puts you on. Aren't AQ, AT, Axs all possibilities here as well? I can't see folding this to a min-raise.

-Jarid

[davidross]

I think it's pretty weak. I would re-raise here almost every time. Make it 700 more leaving you 800 if you decide to bail. You need to think about what he thinks you have. He doesn't put you on AK because you limped pre-flop (Why did you limp by the way?) He probably raises here with AQ, AT and of course AJ which is the hand you fear the most. At worst I call to see what he does on the turn, but I'm more likely to put him to the test here. If he has A6 you have a lot of outs, and if it's AJ then you still have the k'S.

[zaxx19]

Ya any raise unless is gonna be an auto fold for A6. AJ isnt a hand I really wanna play after a raise early in a tourney. AQ would not have limped. So.......I also used to limp with AK aloty in EP looking for a limp reraise or AQ or AJ to feed me chips. It isnt worht it bc of situations like this were you can easily get broke by some odd 2 pair..sets..etc etc.

[davidross]

Quote "You may be right about the purpose of his re-raise, but if I take your strategy and he bets in to me, then I have lost 40% of my chips. I am not too confident playing w/ half a stack early in a MTT,"

Why not? THats the whole benefit of playing hands early in the tournament, you have a chance to recover. Your whole play on this hand and the comments you have made make you seem extremely conservative. You have top pair top kicker, extremely well disguised because of your limp. and you're prepared to give it up because of a 200 chip bet. You must get blinded down a lot waiting for 2 pair or better hands to play out.

[texasrattlers]

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Quote "You may be right about the purpose of his re-raise, but if I take your strategy and he bets in to me, then I have lost 40% of my chips. I am not too confident playing w/ half a stack early in a MTT,"

Why not? THats the whole benefit of playing hands early in the tournament, you have a chance to recover.

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Is this standard MTT strategy? My main experience is in SNGs, where super-tight play early is rewarded so you have some chips to throw around when blinds go up. I can see playing hands early but I don't have too many chances to play for 40% of my stack if I lose.

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You have top pair top kicker, extremely well disguised because of your limp. and you're prepared to give it up because of a 200 chip bet.

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Well put. In a SNG I probably push this w/o hesitation. The good thing about SNGs is if I'm wrong I just fire up another one, whereas there is only a few MTTs that I play in. Perhaps I was playing this a little too conservatively.

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You must get blinded down a lot waiting for 2 pair or better hands to play out.

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No, not at all. I am just a basic TAG player. In this tourney I grew my stack to 9000 chips before my AK all in PF was beaten by AQ from a larger stack.

[texasrattlers]

This is an excellent point, also stated well by davidross. I did not consider this aspect. If I had I would have pushed and probably won the hand.