AK UTG

[curtisvill]

PP NL $100

It is the end of your first orbit so you do not have any real reads on people. You get AK unsiuted UTG. You raise to $7. A MP player raises to $15. You have about the same amount of $$$. Do you:

1) Reraise?

2) Call?

3) Push?

4) Fold?

What are your reasons.

John

[Richie Rich]

I'd probably fold. AK is a great starting hand, but in this case, there are several factors you need to take into account... (1) in PP NL100, a $7 PF raise smells of AK; (2) you're out of position for the entire hand; & (3) his $15 re-raise smells of AA/KK/QQ. I think he knows what you have...

I'd choose to fight a different battle.

[AeonBlues]

I call the bet, and look at the flop. Fold is also reasonable. I find that offten I am up against QQ, JJ, or AK, or even on ocasion AQs against this raise, as KK or AA will most offten make a larger raise. like to $20 or $25.

If I miss the flop, I check and fold.

AeonBlues

[1800GAMBLER]

Folding is awful. Raising is less awful since you can't get all in. Call. 'It's not even close'.

[Richie Rich]

Have to admit that I don't play 100NL on PP...so maybe this hand is a stretch out of my league. But if someone raised to 3 or 4 in NL50, and a player behind him re-raised to 8, then I don't think calling that raise from UTG with AKo is +EV in the long run.

You're getting almost 1:1 odds against JJ/QQ, but are a big underdog to AA/KK. I know that aggressive players are willing to make that raise as well with smaller pairs in PP NL100, but even then... Plus the fact that you're out of position for the rest of the hand.

Just my $.02

[1800GAMBLER]

You're forgetting the implied odds. JJ QQ KK will all give you more action postflop when you hit, you'll get a pot sized bet on the flop, and a pay off on the river.

AQ AJ A,idiot (all still common) will give you there stack.

P.s. these players aren't good.

[curtisvill]

I called. Flop was all rags. I checked the flop. MP went all in. I folded.

John

[Lunamondo]

I think I read (Ciaffone?) the correct expert strategy is to reraise all-in before the flop if little money and check-raise all-in on the flop if it's done without overbetting the pot, and fold before the flop if one has still more money.

The reraise here though is not all that big (and the game might be looser-aggressive, while I though still rate to put the reraiser to something better than AJ or AQ that I think the weaker players like to cold call with instead) and seems to have those mentioned implied odds, though they don't rate to continue here past the flop.

Your idea of getting more money on the river looks good, though needs analysis. If he has a weaker ace one might be losing money with that strategy. Not getting raised/reraised might be a problem when "backing" with that nut top pair.