($20) Early AKs

[Melchiades]

Horrible.

[zoobird]

How recent was UTG's bad beat?

[play2win]

Unless you feel like you could offer Harrington, McEvoy, Cloutier and other tournament poker greats some new advice I would say that this advice is far from horrible.

I wish I could take credit for the advice that I gave, but unfortunately I had to read it from someone who is far better than myself first. This is straight from their advice put forth in thier books regarding tourney poker.

They suggest that hands like AK and especially KQ are very over played in most cases. Especially in early stages which applies here.

One of the most important things to consider in tourney play is SURVIVAL!

You could take the argument put forth in the teachings of "Tournament Poker and the Art of War" by David Apostolico, and take the more aggressive route by pushing this hand using you chips as your "force". But I find playing that aggressive with that style only works well in live games for at least around $50 buy-in. Online aggressive play needs more luck to survive because you will get much more action on raises up to 5x BB, especially in early stages.

The only advantage to pushing in preflop is that you take all the decision making away on later streets so you are guaranteed to see all the cards. This gives you a chance to come from behind (which you probably are) all the way to the river without having to make any decisions. This is a good play for the novice, but I like to "play the hand", so should you if you are confident in your skills.

Pushing in when you could get crippled hoping for a "race" or 50/50 is not good tourney strategy. Everyone can agree on that. You won't last very long if you do it often, although it does need to be done occasionally in the right spots if you are going to win. This is not one of them. [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

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How recent was UTG's bad beat?

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Probably about 8-12 hands ago. My personal read was that his all-in probably wasn't tilt induced.

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AKs is a drawing hand. Winning hands Ace high is not too common. So you need to hit an Ace, King or a couple hearts, preferably on the flop.

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All the more reason to push this preflop. Just calling gets you to the flop where if you miss you have to fold to a bet. Many times AK will win on the turn or river and you want to be in to see those.

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Now you have one caller ahead of you. He has decent position, but not great. There are two things to consider here. He is a donk and wants to see if he can spike a ace with some type of Ax. Or he has just picked up a real monster and is hoping by making the flat call he can entice some other callers. Or he too has a decent PP or AK/AQ and wants to see the flop.

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If he has a monster here his call is horrible. There are too many people left to act. Plus the only two hands you have to worry about him having are AA and KK.

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Now you also have to consider the people left to act. There could be someone back there licking his chops loving all the action unfolding. You aren't the last one to act here. There are 3 people left to act. One has more chips than you, the SB will probably fold unless he has a monster. But if I had to speculate the BB is going to go all-in here as well regardless of what he is holding. Because he only has 60 left he won't effect your side pot but he will reduce the chances of sole ownership of the pot in a showdown.


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We're not worring about the short stacked BB here. And once again with 3 people to act we are only worried about AA and KK. The odds of 1 of them having that hand is very very small and considering we have AK it's even smaller. Playing that scared that some behind us 'may' pick up a monster is very bad play.

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Pushing all-in here is the wrong move. Your hand definitely warrants the call though. Take a look at the texture of the flop, see if you hit your "draw". With top pair and top kicker you can open up on the flop. If you miss completely than you can get away from it without crippling your stack and you chances to win. If you hit, now hopefully donk with the Ax is going to pay you off too. So you want the opportunity to get his chips while decreasing the chances of loosing yours.

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Wrong, pushing all in here is the right move. You will most likely fold everyone out and if anybody does call, including the limper, you are more than likely in good shape to win and at worst a coin flip. If everyone folds you are now getting better than 2 to 1 on your call because of the extra money in the pot.

You have one of the best hands in poker. This isn't a deep stacked event when you get your good hands you have to get your money in the pot and hope they hold up. This is an easy push.

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How recent was UTG's bad beat?

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Does it really matter? You're not folding AKs here in fear that he has AA or KK, right?

[arcticfox]

You are not worried about UTG here, you are worried about MP2. He has called a 16x pre-flop raise and you have no read on him. I'd actually fold this and wait for a better spot, followed by pushing being my number 2 option. Calling 25% of your stack for the 1 in 3 times you hit the flop looks the worst idea to me. My guess is that MP2 has a pocket pair, probably high, and its unlikely given the buy-in that he is folding to a push given he has called a 16x pre-flop raise, thats a fairly clear indication that he likes his hand.

I'd rather not race as likely a slight dog at this stage in the tournament.

If he has a good pocket pair why is he just calling? He would raise to prevent hands from AK like moving in. I'd say he has a medium to high pocket pair or more likely AQ. I'm pushing here and putting him to a decision. I have a great hand and am willing to go broke. I can't see folding this here.

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


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And that last comment is just painfull to read.

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Without taking the statement out of context, WHY?

You make a statement about it being painful but give no explanation. In the context of the thread, why do you feel this way?

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Wrong.

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Why? One word answers don't say much.