Playing a local no-limit hold em SNG................

The other night I was playing a 1-table SNG at a local casino in Florida. As usual, the table was full of donks (all-in frenzy and the whole nine).

Early in the game I had a comfortable chip lead from winning big pots against people who called me down with a top pair with a weak kicker.

At this point the table was 9-handed and I was in the small blind. Everyone folded and I looked down at my A-K offsuit. The big blind guy seemed like a rather tight player with a modest chip stack but not yet a short stack.

I raised him 3.5 times the big blind and he hesitated for a moment and called my raise. The flop came 4-5-A (no flush draw). With my top pair with top kicker, I bet about half the pot and he quickly raised twice my bet. I called. The turn was 6. I checked and he moved the rest of his chips in, which was about 1/3 of the pot size and 1/3 of my remaining chips.

I stopped and thought about it. I knew he didn't hit the straight. Considering the donkiness of the table I figured there was enough likelihood that this was a bad bluff attempt with A-x. So I reluctantly called.

It turned out that he had 4-4 to make the set of 4s. The river was an ace so he beat my tip Aces with a full house. And I no longer had my chip lead.

How else would you have played this hand? I am leaning toward thinking I should've put the donk all-in pre-flop so that he would've mucked his 4s. I would like your opinions on this situation.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

KashHunt.