(22) Am I missing something on how to play AK

[kyro]

CO has 520 chips. I'd be curious to know why.

[tigerite]

[ QUOTE ]

You should move allin. CO is shortstacked and made a ridiculously large raise, and thus probably sucks. You are probably a clear favorite against his range of hands.

I have folded AKo in situations SIMILAR to this in the past, but in this one there are just too many positives to fold.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, yeah, if it's a donk who raises with crap like I said, a push is great here. If such a read can be possible here, then go for it. Does depend a lot on how he lost those 200+ chips.

[zambonidrivr]

One of the lessons I've had to learn while moving from $10's-$50's, is that making laydowns like this will greatly improve your success rate. Yes, you may have the best hand here, by why push this small edge at level 1? Aces, kings, queens? Sure, call or shove it in. It may help if you shift your mindset from thinking about the cards you hold, and consider your stack and the level that your in. IMO, calling is worst here as you want to preserve as much FE as you can. I can understand a shove, especially at the $10's, but I think as you move up, you need to feel good about letting this go. I wish I had the same discipline with my MTT game.

[splashpot]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow I'm really surprised to see people recommending a fold. I would push or stop & go.

[/ QUOTE ]

[pooh74]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Wow I'm really surprised to see people recommending a fold. I would push or stop & go.

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

[pooh74]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow I'm really surprised to see people recommending a fold. I would push or stop & go.

[/ QUOTE ]

instead of just quoting this I am going to add my 2 cents...

How much of an edge do you people think you have in these things? Not enough...trust me.


I push.

[mosdef]

[ QUOTE ]
Also note that a player at any level would be CORRECT to pay off on an ace high or king high flop w QQ in this spot, with only 395 behind. Not because of pot odds of course, but because you cant just allow your opponent to stop+go, and if checked to, you must bet in such a giant pot .

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't follow this. If I have QQ in this situation (395 behind, A or K on flop, checked to) I am checking behind. If I bet and he has no A or no K, he's going to fold and I get nothing. If he has an A or a K, he calls and I'm toast. If I check behind, when he has an A or K I still lose on the turn or river, but I would have lost if I bet on the flop anyway. If he has no A and no K he may bluff on the turn or the river and then I win something where if I had bet the flop I would have won nothing.

[Karak567]

I push here every time.

[pius]

Pushing here is a major mistake in my opinion. The independent chip model theory tells us that the chips earned are less valuable than the ones we lose. Therefore you should be weary to get all your chips in the pot against someone you will usually call you holding a slightly superior hand.

Concerning the other option of calling the picture is a little more blurry. The EV depends a lot on how you and your opponent are going to play postflop. All we can conclude is that you'll have to play significantly better than your opponent to make up for the EV you lose simply by putting you chips in the middle for the call.

So I think it's marginal whether you should call or fold here.

[Slim Pickens]

[ QUOTE ]
We do realize our opponent only has lkie 400 chips after the raise? Also we might WANT our opponent to call as they could easily have something like AQ, AJ, KQ who knows....worst thing to do is call and fold on the flop when your opponent whiffed with AJ and you missed with AK.

I'm not willing to flat call for 125 in a tiny pot with the plan of folding for 400 more if I miss, aganist a range that could be quite wide.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess I'm folding flops like QJx, but that's about it... probably not all undercards since I can easily put him on AQ or AJ. The problem his raise causes you is that now there's no way to get any information about his hand without putting him all-in.

I still don't quite get why you don't like folding if you miss? You are calling 125 to win 1100 if you hit and lose 125 if you miss, if you fold every time. Bad players at the 22's aren't laying down QQ on a king-high (and sometimes not an ace-high) board if you check the flop.