Very tricky AK hand early in SNG

gildwulf · #1 06-10-2005, 10:53 AM

Would you have played this any more aggressively? Would you have raised the turn?

No reads.

EDIT: 20+2 Buy-in
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t15 (9 handed) converter

Button (t785)
SB (t1610)
BB (t800)
UTG (t785)
UTG+1 (t800)
MP1 (t800)
Hero (t800)
MP3 (t830)
CO (t790)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t35, 1 fold, Hero calls t35, 4 folds, BB calls t20.

Flop: (t112.50) 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (3 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets t100, BB calls t100, UTG+1 calls t100.

Turn: (t412.50) 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (3 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: (t412.50) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (3 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 bets t250, Hero calls t250, BB folds.

Final Pot: t912.50

introv · #2 06-10-2005, 11:02 AM

Betting the turn would be a bad idea, you have a good hand and a draw to the nuts. The last thing you want is to get reraised in this spot.

HesseJam · #3 06-10-2005, 11:05 AM

I am a SnG+PL noob so this is not "advice" but merely a "try":

I would have raised about 200 to 250ish on the turn. If somebody has 2p or better, so be it (but why didn't that somebody raised with the flush draw board?). If somebody has the flush you still have the redraw to the nuts. If somebody is on a flush draw after the turn you have him covered.

You won the pot, right?

gildwulf · #4 06-10-2005, 11:07 AM

I ran into 3 8s. Pretty much the cheapest I could have gotten out of there alive.

Z

Sidekick · #5 06-10-2005, 11:08 AM

When posting hands it is often helpful to include the buyin as well. It often helps for early play evaluation when no real reads are available.

Preflop: I prefer to reraise here to try and buy the button, but I don't have any real problems with just calling.

Flop: Nice bet. You just killed the odds for anyone that is on a draw.

Turn: I bet 200 here. It's true that if one of them was chasing the flush they just hit, but you have top pair with the nut flush draw. To me that is just too strong of a hand to not bet here.

River: Given how this hand has played out I think you have to just call here.

HesseJam · #6 06-10-2005, 11:45 AM

[ QUOTE ]

Preflop: I prefer to reraise here to try and buy the button, but I don't have any real problems with just calling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Reraise how much?

Unarmed · #7 06-10-2005, 11:51 AM

Perfect.

Sidekick · #8 06-10-2005, 02:19 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Preflop: I prefer to reraise here to try and buy the button, but I don't have any real problems with just calling.

[/ QUOTE ]

Reraise how much?

[/ QUOTE ]

Generally I would reraise to 90-100 here. This is enough to get most smaller pocket pairs and marginal hands to fold from most decent players. The initial raise to 35 is such a weak raise that I would have trouble putting the raiser on a really solid hand so I prefer to find out for certain now while I can do it cheaply.

If they just call I can figure that I'm most likely in good shape with my hand if my hand hits. If they come back over the top then I will generally fold at the 22s and 33s. At the 11s I would call the all-in. At a higher buy in I fold to a reraise all-in unless I've got some note on the player saying they love to bluff or make plays like this with weak holdings.

For me the problem with hands like these when you don't reraise with a strong holding against such a weak raise, is that you don't really define your opponent's hand.

gildwulf · #9 06-10-2005, 02:59 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Generally I would reraise to 90-100 here. This is enough to get most smaller pocket pairs and marginal hands to fold from most decent players. The initial raise to 35 is such a weak raise that I would have trouble putting the raiser on a really solid hand so I prefer to find out for certain now while I can do it cheaply.

[/ QUOTE ]

A reraise with AKo at early levels of an SNG? I understand the argument for raising limpers, but this just doesn't make any sense.

Reraising an UTG raise will produce any of the following outcomes:
1) He will call and you have no idea what hand he has AND you hit a nice flop (K rag rag).
2) He will call and you have no idea what hand he has AND you hit a garbage flop.
3) He will reraise you all-in and you have to fold AK.
4) He will fold a marginal hand that you could have extracted money from if you had seen a flop and hit an A or a K.

I don't really like any of these outcomes. Early in a 20+2 SNG, calling pre-flop gives the best chance to see a flop for a hand that desperately needs a good flop to continue. I think reraising an UTG raise early in a tournament preflop with AKo would be a marginal play at best and a big mistake at worst.

Z