What do you do when you hold a strong hand and a player makes a massive overbet?

For example, say you are in the big blind with AK offsuit, a very strong hand but certainly not a lock. Any pair is 50% to win against you. It's folded to the small blind who pushes all in for 1300 when the blinds are only 80/160. So you only have a little invested but you have to put in a ton of chips to call. This happened to me just now, I called and he had ace 2 suited and won when a 2 came on the flop. Was it a bad call?

No, it was not a bad call. SB has less than 10bbs and his pushing range is huge here, particularly since it was folded to him. I don't know what your chipstack was, but with AK I call this every time. Easy call.

It was a good call. Especially with AK. AK shines in exactly these situations --- preflop all-in with short stacks.

If SB moves in with his top 50% of hands (which is quite reasonable in this situation), you are 65% favorite.

For his top 25%, you are 64% favorite.
For his top 10%(which is ridiculously tight), you are still 58% favorite.

I probably would fold not a big fan of AK I lose more with that than any other cards even if u wimp in with it if you dont catch a good flop fold fold fold

You're trying to WIN the tourney. You made the right move.

What do you call with if you won't call with AK? AA, KK, then lose to a TQ offsuit?

Everything you do in poker is risky, it IS called gambling.

Any two cards can win!!!

I believe your call was good but depends on your chip stack. Did it cripple you or leave you enough chips to continue? If it might cripple me I might lay it down depending on the player etc

[the same thing happen 2 me bad beat

This is an easy call. The SB has only 8 big blinds and tries to pick up your blind.
It's a standard move, and when you have something as huge as AK you have to call.

if you cant call here you'll never win a tournament. easy call

when u have AK preflop its one of the best hands out there and its a good idea to call with that, if the flop comes and u have nothing tho FOLD

You say "blinds are only 80/160", but the SB has less than 10 BBs. Folded to him, good time to push with any ace, hoping you can't call. But you have a great hand to call with.


??? U don't get no chance to fold; u called a shove.

I believe part of the reason people do massive bets like that is because they are holding something that they don't want to have called... So I'd say it was a good call.

That's not a massive overbet. The SB only has 8BB. There is no other play for them. Especially OOP!

If they limp, they will miss the flop completely 2/3 of the time. Being OOP, if they bluff lead, they will get called when they are beat. Conversely, they will not make money when they hit the flop if the BB doesn't hit as well.

If the SB raises say 3BB, they are pot committed. In another post I showed that if the smaller stack is less than 5*Raise, then you have odds to call if you are re-raised. So it is better to shove to maximize FE. In this case 5*3BB=15BB, so an all-in is the only sensible action.

Of course the BB calls here with AK regardless of their stack as the percentages show(a few posts above). The only time the BB may fold is if they are hopelessly short and trying to sneak in the money and the bubble is close.