Hand from early in $30MTT with AKs

[RiverBear]

How badly did I play this?

First, I probably shouldn't have just cold called the early raise. Second, I probably should have called the reraise...Someone explain to me why?

Thanks.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (10 handed) converter

MP2 (t2030)
MP3 (t960)
CO (t975)
Hero (t960)
SB (t970)
BB (t985)
UTG (t1145)
UTG+1 (t975)
UTG+2 (t1340)
MP1 (t645)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls t15, UTG+2 calls t15, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, MP2 calls t15, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 raises to t125</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero calls t125, SB calls t115, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 folds, <font color="#CC3333">UTG+2 raises to t600</font>, MP2 folds, MP3 calls t475, Hero folds, SB calls t475.

Flop: (t1967.50) A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
MP3 folds.

Turn: (t1967.50) 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

River: (t1967.50) 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>

Final Pot: t1967.50

[betgo]

Given this is early in a $30 MTT, I would probably reraise initially and push after the reraise to 600. Probably the 3 people who went practically allin didn't have as good a hand as yours. If this was a WPT event, your fold would be correct.

[Sam T.]

Here's the problem with the small stacks at Party. It's t125 to you, and you want to re-raise, which makes some sense. Okay, but to what? You need to give the original raiser a reason to lay down, so it's gotta be at least t350 and that's 1/3 of your stack. If you go that route, three things can happen, and two are bad:

1) He folds. Hooray. But unlikely.

2) He calls. That's fine, but most of the time you will miss the flop. Then he bets into you, or check-raises your continuation bet. Congrats, you're now short-stacked.

3) He pushes over the top. Anyone here think, "Oh, good, I get to call an all-in with AKo! I bet he's got AQ."? I don't.

So calling isn't great, but neither is a re-raise here, unless you want to re-raise all-in. Moreover, if you are two to the flop, you've got position, and can play some poker.

In the end, there was a re-raise and call. Good fold. Don't be results oriented. If the final board was QJ552, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Acceptable play in a tough situation,

Sam

[Elaboration]

[ QUOTE ]
Don't be results oriented.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Sam,

Its not just the results, but a real probable range of hands that puts our hero in great shape. We might still be having this conversation because UTG+2 had AT and hero is second guessing himself. Maybe I'm being too optimistic?

I would re-raise pf most times here, so maybe I'm not thinking about this clearly enough.

[A_PLUS]

You call b/c there is almost 1500 in the pot, and probably close to 2000, for your apx 500 call. Even with a very high range of hands for your opponents, you are costing youtself my folding here. Are you going to bust out more often than not in this situation...yes. Are you going to make more long term money by making this call....yes

[betgo]

You should have raised at every chance. The short answer to why is because you are playing a bunch of fish.

[Elaboration]

Bear,

Consider the competition and make your decision accordingly. AKs is the best hand here way too much to fold.
I re-raise the initial raiser. After that I dont know if UTG+2 still reraises, but I'm not going away once he does.

Regards-

[RiverBear]

Sure enough, initial raiser got out of the pot, the two guys after me had AK and the reraiser had AQ. I either split the pot or, quite likely, get the AKo out and win it. I'm learning just how much stronger AK is in these lower buyins preflop than I would think.

...

[betgo]

Not a great situation if 2 other players have AK. You would be pretty much dead against a pocket pair. I don't think you could have gotten the other AK hands to fold, since they probably shouldn't fold when people are going allin with AQ or worse.

[PhilipBass]

I would have played it the same way as the hero. The early tournament limp plus huge re-raise often signifies AA. With two other t125 callers, what else could the t600 raiser possibly have?