$11: AK in the BB facing a 4xBB raise from the button

[spentrent]

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) converter

UTG+1 (t1083)
MP1 (t440)
MP2 (t1617)
MP3 (t635)
CO (t705)
Button (t935)
SB (t790)
Hero (t755)
UTG (t1040)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">6 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Button raises to t125</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero is all-in


Is this a +$EV play with high variance? Or a -$EV play because we're only in level 2?

(I'm fairly confident it's a +CEV play)

[lastchance]

I think this is fine and standard.

[tminus]

id fold to this one, you have plenty of chips and are dominated by any pair...plus the game just started

not to highjack but i JUST posted a hand that is similiar except the blinds are higher in mine:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...14&amp;fpart=1

[spentrent]

[ QUOTE ]
id fold to this one, you have plenty of chips and are dominated by any pair...plus the game just started

[/ QUOTE ]

I dunno... I've got some FE (since I'm coming over the top) and even if he has a pair -- and calls -- the pot will give me the right price.

I mean, to say AK is "dominated" by a pair is kind of misleading when the pot is overlaying my odds of holding up.

EDIT: FIX THAT URL BTW! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Isura]

I dunno, I think I wouldn't push here. Late in level 3 this is fine with only 14bb or so, but it seems to early. Intuitively it's +CEV (I'd make this play in the same situation in a multi), but there's more to consider even at level 2 of a SNG. The more we are called here, the more our variance will be, and this is a bad thing this early. If villain is capable of folding all but AA-QQ here (and is raising a much wider range in the first place), then I'd push. I'd like to hear what others have to say, I usually slow down to preflop aggression with AK early.

[Isura]

[ QUOTE ]
id fold to this one, you have plenty of chips and are dominated by any pair...plus the game just started

not to highjack but i JUST posted a hand that is similiar except the blinds are higher in mine:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...14&amp;fpart=1

[/ QUOTE ]

Blinds/stacks are way different, and you're facing a raise an a push in that hand. But besides that, pretty similar. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[spentrent]

Interesting take Ramanujan [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

I want to find that line in the SNG sand where it becomes optimal to make this play (regarding level, stacks, etc). I can imagine the line being closer to or on level 1 as the buyin grows due to the increasing skill of the players.

[Dr_Jeckyl_00]

I like this play, best to be all-in w/ AK... often hard to fold. Slightly worse than 50/50 to most PP, and way better than every other hand (which is more likely, especially AQ, AJ, Ax)

[Bigwig]

Who said fold?!?!?!

Folding is idiotic.

If I had a larger chip stack I'd call.

As it is, I'd push this every day and twice on Wednesday. That's right--Wednesday.

[Isura]

[ QUOTE ]
Who said fold?!?!?!

Folding is idiotic.

If I had a larger chip stack I'd call.

As it is, I'd push this every day and twice on Wednesday. That's right--Wednesday.

[/ QUOTE ]

At what stack size do you start calling instead of pushing?