AKo in the Pokerroom GP

[ChipsAhoya]

I was playing in the $100 Grand Prix on Pokerroom this afternoon, and I had fallen down to 2x the buy in from being up 3x the buy in after T9 sucked out on my AT.

The villain in question had been at my table from the start, and I had seen him play very loosely, but sometimes he had small pairs. I had been showing down winning hands, and I was chip leader in the whole tournament for a while, so my bets were very respected at the table.

BB: ($3,835 in chips)
UTG: ($3,000 in chips)
UTG1: ($4,024 in chips)
UTG2: ($4,186 in chips)
MP1: ($1,954 in chips)
MP2: ($2,348 in chips)
MP3: ChipsAhoya [KH,AD] ($3,050 in chips)
CO: ($6,240 in chips)
Button: ($6,804 in chips)
SB ($865 in chips)

Blinds are $150/$300

PRE-FLOP
4 folds, Villain bets $1,000, ChipsAhoya calls $1,000, 4 folds.

I really debated going all-in here, I thought the villain might be on a steal w/ crap, but he might also have a pair. If he's on a steal, he folds, and if he has a pair, he calls my all-in and I'm a dog. I've tried not to get married to AK preflop, so I flat called. Was this a mistake considering both the situation and my read? I also thought about min-raising, which would have basically put him all in, but I didn't know what the point of that would be. Was my stack short enough to push here regardless of most other considerations, I guess?

FLOP [board cards 8H,QH,QS ]
Villain bets $1,348 and is all-in, ChipsAhoya calls $1,348.

At this point, I knew he had nothing. It was inconcievable that I was behind here, so I called. I would make this call every time here based on that read of the player, so I guess there's not much to critique here, just preflop...

TURN [board cards 8H,QH,QS,6D ]

RIVER [board cards 8H,QH,QS,6D,9D ]

SHOWDOWN in White:
<font color="white"> Dragon2 shows [ 6H,10D ]
ChipsAhoya shows [ KH,AD ]
Villain wins $5,146. </font>

Thanks!
-ChipsAhoya

[ClaytonN]

[ QUOTE ]
PRE-FLOP
4 folds, Villain bets $1,000, ChipsAhoya calls $1,000,

[/ QUOTE ]

aaaaaaaaaack

[edfilan]

[ QUOTE ]
...If he's on a steal, he folds, and if he has a pair, he calls my all-in and I'm a dog...

[/ QUOTE ]

You want him to fold if he's on a steal. Secondly, you're only a shade behind a pair (excluding AA-KK). You need to push to

1) Gain folding equity to possibly win it right there
2) Be able to see all 5 board cards if villain calls.

You missed the flop and called his all in anyway. You should have had them all in preflop.

[MLG]

[ QUOTE ]
If he's on a steal, he folds, and if he has a pair, he calls my all-in and I'm a dog.

[/ QUOTE ]

Villain is not folding here, he just raised over half his stack. If you push and villain folds his "steal" he just made a tremendous mistake and you should be thrilled. You are gonna get called by a wide range of hands here, and you will be way ahead often. Calling preflop is an awful awful awful play here. There are times not to get married to AK, when you have 10bbs and a shortstack villain who has bet half his stack it is not a good time to not get married to AK. In fact, date it, wine and dine it, sign a prenup, do whatever you have to do to marry yourself to it.

[ChipsAhoya]

That makes sense, that's what I thought, but I froze up, I guess.... Perhaps he would have been correct to call w/ his T6o anyway... At least I made a good read.

So what would be the highest percentage of my stack where it's acceptable to flat call w/ AKo?

-ChipsAhoya

[2005]

The only tournaments where I flat call on a regular basis with AKo are main events where I start w/ 200 or more BBs(even then, I don't like to do it too often unless it's from the blinds).

[schwza]

you'll get better/more responses if you don't include results. when you do, it just looks like a bad beat story.

[ChipsAhoya]

Well people don't have to look at the results in white... I know a lot of people like to, though, so they're there... It's not a bad beat story because I'm just wondering if my pre-flop play was correct, which it turns out not to be. Saying what he had later was just related to my read being correct, which wasn't really part of what I was asking about, so it shouldn't matter...

2005, what do you usually do w/ AK facing a raise, then? Min raise? 3x or 4x the raise if it's not too much of your stack? Or just push usually?

-ChipsAhoya

[ChipsAhoya]

I flipped through Dan Harrington's book again, and he says to just call a 3x BB raise if you have AK. Granted I was short stacked here, but I'm wondering about what to do if I'm not.

-ChipsAhoya

[2005]

[ QUOTE ]
2005, what do you usually do w/ AK facing a raise, then? Min raise? 3x or 4x the raise if it's not too much of your stack? Or just push usually?

[/ QUOTE ]

I hate this answer, but.... IT DEPENDS

I normally make a normal size re-raise unless it's a big portion of my stack. For instance, say Original Raiser(OR) and I are about even in chips, he makes a 3x raise and we have about 50 BB each. I like to make it 9 or 10x. This way I can pick up the pot alot of the time or I can fold to a re-raise if I feel it's right. This is my stock play, but it can obviously be changed.

Gavin G