Pushing AK Preflop

[mason55]

I almost never push AK preflop. In fact, I can't remember a single time that I have done it in the past 2 months. Moving up to the 100's, however, I find things to be a little more loose and aggressive. This is the first time that I felt really comfortable pushing AK preflop.

Table history: I've been here 20 minutes. 10 minutes ago seat two pushed into me preflop when I had AA. He left and a new seat two sat down. This is the villain in this hand.

5 minutes ago I was UTG+1. I made it $4 with QJs. Villain called. I flopped the nut straight, we got it all in on the flop and he showed KT for flopped two pair.

2 minutes ago I was SB. UTG made it $2 (he was doing this almost every hand. Button called I made it $7 with AQs to take it down. Villain made it $12. Me and UTG both called. Flop came T8T, I check, villain bets pot, we both fold.

So on to the current hand.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ BB (6 max, 6 handed) converter

Hero ($247.50)
Button ($125.90)
SB ($31.97)
BB ($59.65)
UTG ($63.90)
MP ($65.70)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. SB posts a blind of $0.50.

UTG calls, MP folds, Hero raises to $4, Villain raises to $25, SB folds, BB folds, UTG folds, MP folds, Hero pushes for $250, Villain calls all in


Look standard? Since I feel like villain is playing back to me this is a pretty good time to push right?

[Isura]

Your table history is not enough information to think he is playing back IMO. Fold to the reraise preflop. I'd also make it 5-6 preflop since I want to isolate the 60bb stack with this hand.

Edit: I find in the $100 game, players will rarely raise $25 preflop and fold to a push.

[rikz]

I never go all-in over a re-raiser in a cash game with AK just because I don't like my chances if I'm called. Especially if villain is laggy, because he just might call with TT, JJ, or QQ as often as KK or AA - all of which have me behind preflop.

Since I don't like pushing, I'd be inclined to fold to the $25 reraise. If I really thought villain was overplaying his hands and making too many continuation bets with 2nd pair, gutshots, or over cards, then I'd call the reraise preflop and then check/fold if I miss the flop, or check/raise significantly (up to all-in) if I hit TPTK (in which case I'd be screwed if my read was wrong and he really DID have AA or KK this time).

[mason55]

Wow. I figured this would be a perfect spot. He has shown he's a donkey (he 4-bet-pushed with bottom two when I raised PF on an AKT board) and he's shown that he's aggressive PF (3 betting a caller and a raiser).

What situations DO you look for when pushing AK PF because, like I said, this seems perfect.

I cant ever rationalize pushing AK pf without having tournament chips in front of me. Something about the fact that I will almost always have a better spot to stack them later just makes me not want to do it.

Is this weak-tight?

[mason55]

[ QUOTE ]
I never go all-in over a re-raiser in a cash game with AK just because I don't like my chances if I'm called. Especially if villain is laggy, because he just might call with TT, JJ, or QQ as often as KK or AA - all of which have me behind preflop.

Since I don't like pushing, I'd be inclined to fold to the $25 reraise. If I really thought villain was overplaying his hands and making too many continuation bets with 2nd pair, gutshots, or over cards, then I'd call the reraise preflop and then check/fold if I miss the flop, or check/raise significantly (up to all-in) if I hit TPTK (in which case I'd be screwed if my read was wrong and he really DID have AA or KK this time).

[/ QUOTE ]

I think calling his re-raise is REALLY bad. Here's the thing. If you're going to get it all in on an A or K high flop ANYWAYS, what good does flat callling do you? AK wants to see all 5 cards against an underpair and your chances of getting paid off by QQ/JJ/TT go down drastically with an A or K out there. Also, if he's willing to stack with AQ it will be much easier to do it PF than postflop.

[mason55]

[ QUOTE ]
I cant ever rationalize pushing AK pf without having tournament chips in front of me. Something about the fact that I will almost always have a better spot to stack them later just makes me not want to do it.

Is this weak-tight?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I'm trying to find out. I haven't seen a good, mathematically based coherant argument that pushing is bad.

[amoeba]

I almost always fold to the raise to 25.

Is your push attempting to avoid a coinflip/split pot or to get value off an ultra lag?

[Isura]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow. I figured this would be a perfect spot. He has shown he's a donkey (he 4-bet-pushed with bottom two when I raised PF on an AKT board) and he's shown that he's aggressive PF (3 betting a caller and a raiser).

What situations DO you look for when pushing AK PF because, like I said, this seems perfect.

[/ QUOTE ]

But you cannot be certain that his postflop aggressiveness and looseness directly translate to preflop aggression. And the thing about seeing him 3-bet preflop before, well that could have just been a good hand... Since you haven't seen him get out of line 3-betting preflop yet, this play is pretty risky. I would no doubt push if I thought he was doing this with junk a lot of the time.

There are spots to push AK preflop. This situation most often occurs when the villain has 50bb or less. In a cash game, I find the value of pushing AK preflop comes from when dominated hands call, not from FE, and dominated aces don't call often enough with deep stacks from my experience.

[mason55]

[ QUOTE ]
I almost always fold to the raise to 25.

Is your push attempting to avoid a coinflip/split pot or to get value off an ultra lag?

[/ QUOTE ]

Value off of what seems to be a fish/lag.