AKo, how would you play this hand?

[Shammu]

Live tourny, $150 buy in, 260 players, 26 left, top 20 get paid, final table get paid good money. Blinds are 1000/2000 with 300 anties, hero has 31,200 chips. Villan has 32,000 chips. Villan is UTG and opens the pot with a raise to 10,000, Hero is MP2 with AKo, CO and SB are big stacks. Your move? Villan is a relatively tight player.

[Pulplife]

You won't get to many replies without giving more information.

Mainly your table image, as well as villians.

What would villian raise 5BB with, especially being 1/3 his stack and UTG.

I may fold here if I thought villian to be TAG.

I push if he's been stealling a lot or has shown down speculative hands lately.

Another aspect is, how tough is the table? If you are outmatched, definately push..If not, you have a decision to make based on your read of villian.

[Shammu]

Not much read on the table, I was moved to that table few hands ago, I would think that Villan is tight, the rest of the table would not want to get involved since it's very close to the money.

Also, I have pushed twice before and everyone folded, I showed them one hand which was JJ.

[pfkaok]

I probably push vs. most here, but it really would depend just how tight villian is. since he's betting about 1/3 of stack he's pretty much commiting, so you just have to look at how good AKo is here compared to his range. with the blinds and antees in there already, he'll have to have a very small range here to make folding correct. most likely you'd be in a coinflip here, but as long as he's sometimes raising here with AQ, AJ, or KQ or worse, then pushing is probably +EV.

also, UTG at 8 or 9 handed. could make a slight difference.

[pfkaok]

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the rest of the table would not want to get involved since it's very close to the money.

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hard to say in these spots. a lot of times this means that he's very likely to have a monster, else he'd fold PF, but could also mean that he's noticed people being overly tight, so he's deciding to raise with more hands in an effort to pick up blinds. 5BB is a weird raise in this spot for villian though. hard to say if its AA or KK trying to get somebody to call and be committed, or if its TT or something trying to pick up the pot and planning to fold to a reraise b/c they figure that a reraise from a tight table at buble time is surely a monster. and there at least has to be some chance that its with a weaker hand trying to pick up the blinds. This really is pretty read dependant, b/c you certainly want to push here vs. the type of player who likes to make "good laydowns" without really thinking a whole lot about pot odds. if they'd fold TT or JJ (or smaller pair)here then raising is a must. And if they're loose, so they're raising a lot of hands up front then of course its an easy push... but the only type of player who you don't want is somebody who is tight in their raising standards, AND will make the call with mid pairs here since they'd be getting like 2:1

[Seadood228]

I'm folding this one. You don't have a lot of FE and villian likes his hand enough to pot commit himself. Personally I don't think he's all that strong, but in every case I think he's slightly ahead. If you factor in AQ-AK into his possible holdings (which I don't), then this becomes a closer push.

It's very close though, and there are plenty of factors that could sway the decision either way.

BTW I am a sissy tight player who feels comfortable with a short stack [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[BB_Specials]

If you are looking to get to that final table, I say push here. I figure that the villan is raising 5xBB because he has a strong hand that can be beat. i.e. he does not want any callers catching on him. TT-QQ is probably what he has.

I push and hope to spike an A or K. But I like to gamble. If you get paid off here you are going to the final two tables with a hefty stack. If you don't make it, ces't la vie [sp?].

A call would probably be the worst because a call has you completely commited and your probably going all-in any way. A fold wouldn't be bad if you are looking to just make it into the money here. You have a decent stack and you might be able to find a better spot than this one.

I still push because I want all 5 cards to hit my A or K.