Play a Hand With the Masters #2 Pre-Flop

[Lloyd]

Welcome to our second "Hand With the Masters". This was originally submitted by none other than Gigabet. Much thanks to him for taking the time to not only submit the hand but provide a lot of his thought process, more of which will hopefully come at the end when we bring our Masters together.

Here's how this is going to work (same as last time):

1. I've sent the hand to our expert panel (which included MLG and Che) decision point by decision point. So they only had access to the information that they would have had if they were playing the hand themselves. Obviously, this was an actual hand and when a panelist's line deviated from how the hand was played they still played the hand out as it actually went down. So if they said they would fold and in the actual hand it was raised, they played the next decision point as if they had raised.

2. I'm going to post the hand in multiple threads step by step over the next couple of days. This will make it as real as possible. I plan on adding a decision point approximately every 24 hours. Please be patient and understand that we're trying to 1) allow everyone a chance to view the decision point post prior to being influenced by a subsquent post; and 2) allow enough time for lots of discussion.

3. Once everyone has had a chance to comment on all aspects of the hand, I'll post how our experts played it out along with the thought process they have presented. We'll then give them an opportunity to post and discuss why they liked one approach versus another.

4. We'll bring the forum back to continue the discussion. Essentially, this will be the hand we'll talk about over the next week.

So without further adieu:

Setup
$100+9 Party Poker MTT
Blinds 50/100
Hero is Gigabet
No strong reads on other players

Stacks
UTG: t5380
Hero: t2670
MP: t1270
MP+1: t1333
MP+2: 2395
CO: t1394
Button: t2917
SB: 2270
BB: 2915

Pre-Flop
Hero is dealt A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

UTG folds. Action is on the hero.

Do you call or raise? If you raise, to what? Since most players usually raise with AK in this spot, under what scenarios would you just limp and why? If you raise and get re-raised, what's your plan (which obviously could depend on which player re-raises you)?

[KramerTM]

Standard raise to 300 here works for me. Only time I might limp here is if there is a maniac or two to my left that I can depend on to bump it up PF. If this happens, I happily re-raise him a sizeable amount and all-in if necessary.

Without any reads, I might have to fold if a comparable stack pushes all-in. Being that I am Gigabet, I am sure I can find a much better spot than this to accumulate chips.

[Lloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
Standard raise to 300 here works for me.

[/ QUOTE ]
And let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that there is more to playing a hand then just deciding what to do when it's your turn to act. I've included other questions that should be considered and discussed in this post (and will do so in subsequent posts as well). And certainly feel free to address other questions or issues that you might have.

[KramerTM]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Standard raise to 300 here works for me.

[/ QUOTE ]
And let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that there is more to playing a hand then just deciding what to do when it's your turn to act. I've included other questions that should be considered and discussed in this post (and will do so in subsequent posts as well). And certainly feel free to address other questions or issues that you might have.

[/ QUOTE ]

Could you perhaps delve further into the implications of Hero being Gigabet for the noobs?

[zoobird]

Yeah - it would be helpful to hear what Gigabet thinks his opponents know/think of his playing style.

[Lloyd]

I think asking Gigabet to talk about how he thinks he's perceived by others is asking a bit too much. I believe he has a general reputation of being an exceptional player (at times even referred to as the best online player), very good at reading opponents and putting people to a test, creative, and aggressive where aggression is warranted.

What could be interesting is for people to discuss how someone's reputation might influence their action and the action of others.

In my mind, AK in early position has everything to do with table dynamics. If I think I've got a loose reputation, I'm making my standard raise (usually 3x) and probably calling a push. I think this gives me the best odds of getting it all in against a hand I dominate. If it's an aggressive table or there is a particular player who tends to attack limpers, then I like a limp-re-raise or limp-push; this is a good way to take down a reasonably sized pot while still generating fold equity against a fair number of hands (pocket pairs) that are slight favorites pre-flop. There's also a good chance one of the medium stacks will push a hand like AQ, especially if I'm known to limp a lot.

Raising to 300 is my default play.

I like to raise to 350 here. I agree with the panel about calling an all in from one of the short stacks. I probably push if I get re-raised here, if I have any sort of a read and feel like he's got less than KK.

[Lloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree with the panel about calling an all in from one of the short stacks.

[/ QUOTE ]
How do you agree with the panel when the panel has not yet spoken?

[GrinningBuddha]

[ QUOTE ]
In my mind, AK in early position has everything to do with table dynamics. If I think I've got a loose reputation, I'm making my standard raise (usually 3x) and probably calling a push. I think this gives me the best odds of getting it all in against a hand I dominate. If it's an aggressive table or there is a particular player who tends to attack limpers, then I like a limp-re-raise or limp-push; this is a good way to take down a reasonably sized pot while still generating fold equity against a fair number of hands (pocket pairs) that are slight favorites pre-flop. There's also a good chance one of the medium stacks will push a hand like AQ, especially if I'm known to limp a lot.

Raising to 300 is my default play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I like Foucault's line here. 300 is standard unless I feel that there will be a chance to get my chips in as a big favorite (or even a slight underdog) against an aggressive player yet to act.