Play a Hand With the Masters #2 Pre-Flop

[betgo]

I would call and play for the limpraise. 90% of the time I would limpraise if the pot was raised, but I would have the option to flat call or fold. There would have to be a lot of action ahead of me to fold.

I would play this way because I don't like to play AK OOP. I am also better at strategy and having a general read on players than at playing flops. Of course if the pot isn't raised, you have possibly interesting postflop situations, but it is a lot easier to get away from teh hand in difficult situations.

I also like the limpraise because at this stage of a Party 100 the action tends to be aggressive and the pot will probably be raised. Early on there is lot of limping and there would be a good chance of multiple limpers. Later the play might be tight, the limp might not be raised, people might be suspicious of an early position limper, and just open raising would have a good chance of taking the blinds.

The stack size is well suited to a limpraise, as you can make a limpraise allin naturally. If someone raises to 400, you could also reraise to 1000 to better represent a big pair. Of course, you will put the rest of the chips in if reraised or on the flop.

I think the limpraise also gives some unpredictability to your play. A limpraise looks like a big pair or a semibluff, not AK. Also, if you limp in early position, people will put you on 22-TT, AA-KK, AT-AQ, KQ, suited broadway cards, or suited connectors/gappers. That is a pretty big range, but they are not expecting AK.

If you raise, there is the question of the size of the raise. A big raise might discourage action and would make it easier to put the money in if you miss the flop. A smaller raise gives you more flexibility, and makes it easier to get away from the hand.

If I raise and am reraised, I am pushing almost all the time. If there are a couple of players allin, I might have to think about it.

[Exitonly]

Havn't read other responses yet..

I'd raise to 300 here, and if reraised i'm probably pushing. Situations i would limp are if the table has been playing pretty aggressivly and i think i can count on it being raised if i just limp, then i would push over the top of the raiser.

[TomHimself]

[ QUOTE ]
One thing that should be noted throughout is the fact that people likely play differently against Gigabet than they do against JoeParty123. While I'm sure that Gigabet, from what I know, plays tighter than your average bear at this stage in the tournament when OOP, I think that his reputation might make people believe that he is insanely-super aggro at all times. Therefore, we should keep that in mind when thinking about the analysis.
*Giga, feel free to chime in on this assumption


[/ QUOTE ] I doubt Giga was playing under a reconizable name on Party, I thought he changes his name alot, but who knows.


I would raise to 300 and poush to a reraise. I would rarely limp with AK unless its a extremely aggressive table and I can pull a Limp reraise.

[Rduke55]

I'd raise 3-4xBB here. We have AK in early position. I can't imagine doing anything else.
In this spot I'd probably like closer to 4xBB since if an A or K falls it may kill our action. Plus it may ties some of the closer-to-1K stacks to the pot.
Not sure if that second part is reasonable at all.

[ZeeJustin]

I'd make my standard raise which will usually be 300. If Gigabet's standard raise was 250 or 350 or anything in between, I'd make that instead.

[johnnybeef]

[ QUOTE ]
under what scenarios would you just limp and why?

[/ QUOTE ]

does anyone else hate limping in ep with live cards besides me?

[gergery]

It depends. Sometimes I’ll raise to 300 and fold if reraised, if table is pretty tight. Sometimes I’ll raise to 425 and get it all in if reraised, if table is loose. Very rarely will I raise then just call a reraise – it’s jam or fold. I will limp if LP or blinds are agro/stealer types, and to mix up play.

Default is probably raise to 350 and continuation bet most flops.

FWIW, I don’t like the raise-to-300-then-continuation-bet line only if LPs are the ‘call with crap to bust the PFR’ types as its too easy to get outplayed vs. good LAGs

[Ryendal]

I am only learning, and I post my thoughts

2 choices.

* If the table is somewhat passive, I raise to 250.
a) I call a reraise of a stack > 1800 to play accordingly the flop. I don't want to get involved allin preflop in this case.
b) I reraise allin a stack < 1450
c) 1450 < stack < 1800 I can Fold Call Reraise ( reads useful here )
d) etc

*If it's very prolly to get a steal attempt at the table after my call, then I call and
a) call a normal raise
b) decide what to do if lot of action preflop.



In most cases my choice should be the second

[ansky451]

I raise to 250-300, but most likely 250. The advantage of 250 is that if called, you can keep the pot small and get away if you miss, but at the same time, the stacks arent deep enough for an opponent to get away from top pair lower kicker very often.

The only time I may limp this, is if I know there is at least one nut-job behind me, who loves to make raises preflop with marginal hands. I think limping often is asking for trouble with AK. There are a lot of flops where you can hit top pair, and be way behind- especially in a multi-way pot.

Another advantage of raising to 250, is that a player with AQ may be more inclined to reraise I think, because he'd see 250 as too low a raise to just call with a hand like AQs.

By raising preflop, we also set ourselves up to make a continuation bet that looks stronger, and we can take down the pot with ace high. The only way you can win the pot on the flop if you limp I think, is if you connect with it, in which case you are just hoping someone else connected smaller with it.

[Guelph]

The description says no strong reads on players, but any general table reads? Lots of limping? Lots of called raises? What type of raise takes down the pot immediately?

Without any of that information, I probably make it 400 here.

There are lots of scenarios for what the second action could be.

As far as what I would do, I'm always calling a push if my remaining opponents are short stacks. I'm isolating if there's a big stack that flat called the first time around and a short stack pushed, and I'm flipping a mental coin if the call is for all my chips.

I'm thinking of it as a pure coinflip situation. I think the times you run into AA/KK are cancelled out by the times that AQ/AJ get frisky, leaving you pretty much with a 50/50 hand.

Could this be one of those situations where Q factors into the decision?

If I feel an urgency to get chips now (the table's about to break and my stack is likely to make me short at the next table I'm at), I take the flip. If I'm at or above average, and at a table that will be there a while, I am a little more likely to pass, especially if I feel I'm significantly better than the others at the table.