$5.50 NLHE MTT Rebuy: AK vs loose player

pokerstars No-Limit Hold'em, 5.5 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 12 Ante (9 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from http://www.flopturnriver.com/

Hero (MP2) (t2,759)
MP3 (t3,700)
CO (t1,829)
Button (t3,676)
SB (t1,129)
BB (t1,481)
UTG (t11,236)
UTG+1 (t8,218)
MP1 (t2,976)

Hero's M: 10.69

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with K , A
2 folds, MP1 raises to t220, Hero raises to t2,747 (All-In), 5 folds, MP1 calls t2,527

Flop: (t5,752) 6 , Q , K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t5,752) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t5,752) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t5,752

Results below:




This was a hand vs a loose player , so I thought to shove to put pressure on him , mmmm.... Should I have played it differently , in spite of the fact that he was a loose player ?

@antonis32123, first of all i want to ask, are you totally sure he is a loose player? How many hands you have seen from that guy? How many hands you have seen that guy was calling big shove with the bad hands? If there are less than 100 hands with that guy, i would be careful with assumptions. You see, he could be a tight player, who was just running damn good. Especially if he didn't had many showdowns.
The second thing i trying to figure out is: what's the point to shove with a stack like 27,5 BB? Especially if you have position on the original raiser. Wouldn't 3-bet fit better there? You see, shoving AK is kind of gambling. Most of the time you have coin flips and just rarely you are ahead, especially with such a huge shove sizing.

However there is an exception. If you assuming, that your villain is a better player, than you, who able outplay you on post-flop despite of the fact he will be out of position, maybe shove is a good idea, as all-in situation favors the worse players. But i personally will shove only with stack 15BB or less there.

AK v Loose.

I used to play the AK very aggressively, but I never flopped an A or a K, so I tightened up a lot, but I would still attack loose player with the hand, but, I still have not flopped an A or a K, so now I just lose my AK to crappy hands instead of losing to good hands.

You were doomed the moment you were dealt the cards no mattered how you played this hand. If he is loose as you think there are many hands he will fold to your raise. Calling would not have saved you either. On the flop he would have raise and you probably would have 3 bet him and called his shove. Even if you just called his flop be would you have folded this hand by the river? Probably not considering how short your stack was.

I would have played the hand a bit differently but the result would have been the same. I would have 3-bet him pre-flop to 640 and bet about 1/2 pot on the flop and all in on the turn based on the cards that came out.

alienat3d said:

@antonis32123, first of all i want to ask, are you totally sure he is a loose player? How many hands you have seen from that guy? ...........................................
The second thing i trying to figure out is: what's the point to shove with a stack like 27,5 BB? Especially if you have position on the original raiser. Wouldn't 3-bet fit better there? .....................................................

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If I see sb playing many hands and making many bets/raises I have the habit to tag him as a loose , but you are right , I don't have many hands to be sure , just the hands I saw on that table , not so many . Anyway , maybe I was afraid because I was card dead untill then , then I got this hand and I saw him raising small , and I got afraid he was setting me a trap . Yes 27.5 many big blinds , a 3 bet should have been better

ken nielson said:

I would have played the hand a bit differently but the result would have been the same. I would have 3-bet him pre-flop to 640 and bet about 1/2 pot on the flop and all in on the turn based on the cards that came out.

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Yes, this 3 bet 640 should have been better so as to see the flop .

To the next hand/tournament/sat

its fine to 3b jam AK here, but your stack is just a little big so I actually prefer to 3b and be happy to get it in preflop or on most flops. this is too keep his range wider and AQ/KQ/AJ this way. If you have 22bb I prefer just shipping it.

I'd prefer to 3b to about 650-700. If he jams sigh call and understand you're probably flipping. if he calls then pot will be about 1,550 to 1,650 and you'll have about 2,000 back. Pretty good situation since you'll either have top pair or 2 overs on every flop.

missjacki said:

............... I actually prefer to 3b ............If you have 22bb I prefer just shipping it........................

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22blinds and less is ok to ship in such a situation , it's good to know from now on Yes , 3bet would have been wiser with such a stack But ,I just can't understand how he calls 25 blinds with a stack of 27 blinds only with 66 I might had QQ that I didn't want to 3bet ,or 99+ Anyway...

Thanks missjacki for your answer

22 bbs and a shove? See a flop. If you hit, you'll double up as most likely a shove from opp is coming. If not you live to see another hand.

TDTODDY said:

22 bbs and a shove? See a flop. If you hit, you'll double up as most likely a shove from opp is coming. If not you live to see another hand.

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that's one way of looking at it. But never how I approach playing AK in tourneys with a shortish stack.

AK is an absolute powerhouse in tourneys (because we are so frequently playing with under 40bb eff stacks). And IMHO, a lot of this power comes from fold equity. making people fold hands that have good equity vs us. and when we do get called we're usually in decent shape.

IMO, AK isn't necessarily a hand you're trying to hit and then double up. of course doubling is sweet but it's a hand that is versatile and strong and with short stacks should be played basically like its AA preflop. On the flop it loses a TON of it's strength (unlike AA). so if you can get hands like 55 or QJ to fold without having to hit or bluff, you've played AK great. and if they decide that they want to gamble with their samll/med pocket pairs you've got great equity.

If you think he is loose, and it is a rebuy so people do play quite loose early on. Then the call isn't bad but not much you beat other than KJ, AQ