3 limpers, a miniraise, a caller and I have AKo on the button

[downtown]

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I would call here.

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Oh my. Not good.

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I rarely speak in absolutes, but anything other than a push here is a definitely a major leak in a $33 SNG.

[45suited]

I should explain. You have significant FE and if called, you have a very strong hand. There's easily enough in the pot to push here, IMO. At the least, I'd put in a big raise. My style would be just to push.

Think about just calling. Yes, you have position. But surely you know that EVERYONE in the hand will also call. So, 'essentially' you're playing at least SIX handed in an unraised pot. I call it basically unraised because the mini-raise after limpers does NOTHING to define anyone's hand. You could hit TP and still easily lose to all sorts of random connected cards or whatever.

The overlay here is huge. You have great FE. Pushing and adding 255 to your stack would be great. If you're called, you're in decent shape too.

Why not just double, or maybe triple the raise? Why put your whole tourney life at stake here against a possible coin flip? It is very likely that either the raiser or caller has pockets. You are risking your whole stack if u get called in such a situation. I agree you probably have at least a 50% chance of taking it down pre, but if you take it down pre, you only win 225. Is that worth risking your tourney life without a monster holding? Why not bet an amount to define your hand, and hopefully hit a flop, then get your chips in when you really do have a great hand?

[beetyjoose]

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I would probably raise to 120 (60 more to go). This would likely make the limpers fold because of them being sandwiched between you and the raiser and caller

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Are you serious? 60 more would not make anyone fold; even it is 90 more for the limpers.

Especially if they are limping with suited connectors our small PP they would be stupid to fold with a pot being built up so large preflop. You definetly want to atleast try to isolate in this position.

[45suited]

Nuance doesn't work well in 800 chip tournaments.

Often, the simplest solution is the best solution.

I know you might feel 'safer' with your approach, but it really isn't, IMO. There is enough of an overlay that I will happily race if somebody with 55 has the stones to call me. But I doubt they will. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

60 more could easily force a fold of the two limpers IMO. A smart player would realize that because he is sandwiched between you and the other raiser/caller, this is a hand, even with small pockets, he should just let go. At any rate, at least one of the limpers folds, if not both. And you have made a hand defining raise. I say a raise of 60 more is fine.

I am not saying your approach is clearly incorrect. I am just saying what I believe the BEST way to play it is. Good poker involves always having avenues of escape for as long as possible. You put in 120, you still got plenty of chips left if someone comes over your top. Why not give yourself a chance to win alot of chips on this hand, but have an avenue of escape if someone has you dominated?

[downtown]

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60 more could easily force a fold of the two limpers IMO. A smart player would realize that because he is sandwiched between you and the other raiser/caller, this is a hand, even with small pockets, he should just let go. At any rate, at least one of the limpers folds, if not both. And you have made a hand defining raise. I say a raise of 60 more is fine.

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No, a raise of 60 is terrible and is making me puke onto my nice shirt! You're giving all kinds of hands odds to draw. You're going to get more than 1 caller. You're going to be totally lost in the hand even when you hit an A or K. You're passing on a huge opportunity to pick up chips equal to 1/3 of your stack. I am repeating myself from my earlier post. Read 45Suited's post too, and ilya's post below this one.

[ilya]

Folding is terrible cos there's no reason to believe you're badly beat & besides you have FE; calling is terrible cos even when you hit your TPTK isn't gonna be good a lot of the time with this many people in the pot; re-raising less than all-in is pointless as it commits you to the pot anyway;

therefore, push.

[Sabrazack]

Whaddyaknow, heres a push i would put my money on any day [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] No doubt.