$5 NLHE MTT: $$5 NLHE MTT: Heads up at a final table with AKs

sedlacekj

sedlacekj

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Hi, This hand was from a tourney where I took 2nd place, but I think I could have played this hand differently. This one is 5 hands from the end.

Hero on the button with AcKc and 765,000, blinds are 8K/16K

Preflop
Hero calls (should I raise here?)

Flop 7c5d7d
I bet 16K, min raise
villlain calls

Turn 2c
I bet 16K
Villian raises 66K
I reraise 216K ( I have flush draw)
Villian calls

River Kh (I bust)
I bet 250K
Villian reraises all-in with 257K
I call
 
Jdjakubisin

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First, do you mean you are the big blind? You say you are the dealer but you are acting first.

I have played the end of a few tourneys where the blinds are so high no one wants to risk too much or show too much immediate strength so there is a lot of calling single bigs and waiting to pull out the big guns until you are getting the other guy into pot commitment. I don't see a problem calling with AK there. If the flop doesn't treat you well, you can still back out not having to worry about betting to get smaller hands out of the running to hit their crappy little straight or two pair.

Which leads me to my next point; you could easily back out from that guy tripping his sevens or whatever hand he made that I assume you lost that hand to.
 
sedlacekj

sedlacekj

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Jdjakubisin said:
First, do you mean you are the big blind? You say you are the dealer but you are acting first.

I have played the end of a few tourneys where the blinds are so high no one wants to risk too much or show too much immediate strength so there is a lot of calling single bigs and waiting to pull out the big guns until you are getting the other guy into pot commitment. I don't see a problem calling with AK there. If the flop doesn't treat you well, you can still back out not having to worry about betting to get smaller hands out of the running to hit their crappy little straight or two pair.

Which leads me to my next point; you could easily back out from that guy tripping his sevens or whatever hand he made that I assume you lost that hand to.
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Yes, he had Triple 7. I'm not sure now on the position, but that is how I had it wrote down. I wasn't sure which two positions remained in head-to-head. I was leading the betting, head to head. Should have I got out after the villain raised 66K at the turn? Or at least called it instead of 3 betting it? Maybe if I had raised pre-flop I could have folded the 7X hand.
 
Jdjakubisin

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I'd feel refreshed that I am about to get another deal of cards. Yea, get out there.
 
Matt Vaughan

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In HU play, the button pays the small blinds and acts first preflop. He says he calls so I assume he's the button and just neglects to ever mention the BB checking... Not that it changes the preflop recommendations a ton.

Jdjakubisin said:
First, do you mean you are the big blind? You say you are the dealer but you are acting first.
Click to expand...

We're over 30bb effective with the opponent and have a premium hand. Yes, I'm raising preflop. Everything that happens after is weird and difficult to analyze in part because we limp, he checks the BB (I think), and can have every single 7x possible.

The flop is fine as played I guess.

The turn I'm not sure why we are betting min again, but as played we get raised. Great, we showed weakness, we actually have a pretty good hand for HU, there are worse hands he can raise as bluffs, and we have tons of equity even when he has it. Let's c--- oh wait we 3bet... I'm not sure what the point of this is. We get every single bluff to fold (all of which we beat), and we reopen the betting for him to potentially stick it in vs us (which I think is bad unless you have history enough to say he can be 4betting the turn light... most people at these stakes just won't).

So call. We're getting a fine price on that 66k with PLENTY of chips behind when we hit. The hand becomes so simple at that point. We'd river the K, he'd bet again, and we'd call. As played, I don't know wtf is going on on the river, if we're actually in the BB and we led (which again I think is bad because if he ever DOES have bluffs now he just goes away with them instead of potentially barreling off, and he just never shows up with a worse hand here that can call).

If we're actually IP and he checked, I honestly think I'd just be checking back. He's representing a very polarized range when he raise/calls turn - he generally has either a 7, a combo draw, a boat, or just pure stone air. So idk what we can even get called by if we are betting here. Either way it's great we river a pair but that doesn't make it a bet by any stretch with the action as given.
 
sedlacekj

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Scourrge said:
In HU play, the button pays the small blinds and acts first preflop. He says he calls so I assume he's the button and just neglects to ever mention the BB checking... Not that it changes the preflop recommendations a ton.



We're over 30bb effective with the opponent and have a premium hand. Yes, I'm raising preflop. Everything that happens after is weird and difficult to analyze in part because we limp, he checks the BB (I think), and can have every single 7x possible.

The flop is fine as played I guess.

The turn I'm not sure why we are betting min again, but as played we get raised. Great, we showed weakness, we actually have a pretty good hand for HU, there are worse hands he can raise as bluffs, and we have tons of equity even when he has it. Let's c--- oh wait we 3bet... I'm not sure what the point of this is. We get every single bluff to fold (all of which we beat), and we reopen the betting for him to potentially stick it in vs us (which I think is bad unless you have history enough to say he can be 4betting the turn light... most people at these stakes just won't).

So call. We're getting a fine price on that 66k with PLENTY of chips behind when we hit. The hand becomes so simple at that point. We'd river the K, he'd bet again, and we'd call. As played, I don't know wtf is going on on the river, if we're actually in the BB and we led (which again I think is bad because if he ever DOES have bluffs now he just goes away with them instead of potentially barreling off, and he just never shows up with a worse hand here that can call).

If we're actually IP and he checked, I honestly think I'd just be checking back. He's representing a very polarized range when he raise/calls turn - he generally has either a 7, a combo draw, a boat, or just pure stone air. So idk what we can even get called by if we are betting here. Either way it's great we river a pair but that doesn't make it a bet by any stretch with the action as given.
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As I understand you, you would raise pre-flop, call the 66 on the turn and not raise there. I am guessing check at the river also? This was my first final table, so I really didn't know what was going on myself.
 
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vwpokernut

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This was my first final table, so I really didn't know what was going on myself.
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While ICM should be considered at the final stages, that doesn't mean you have to necessarily bring out a new poker play book

You got to the final table for a reason, keep up the great work and pick your spots

Do realize that less people at the table your suited broadways go way up compared to full-ring. But that doesn't mean you can't get away from them when you start getting shoved back at
 
K

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I know most have said they always raise AK preflop, I'll add that I may sometimes call here depending on play of the opponent. I often enough will run into the guy that raises very often if you call from the small blind in HU. I like to mix in limping with some big hands and re-raise his anticipated raise to get him off that play. It usually only takes a couple instances of that to get villain to slow down on that play.

Anywho, against a normal opponent with no specific exploitable play like I described above...a raise is mandatory. I think back to back min bets comes off very weak, some sort of draw makes a ton of sense for you from his perspective. I'm not surprised he raised, I would be raising with all my draws here except gutshots expecting you to simply have overs that could fold. If you simply call this spot, there's about 200k in the pot heading to the river...which becomes and easy check or call for you and you live with the result if you hit an A or K. Maybe he bets 150k with his 7 and you lose...you still have 400k to play with.
 
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mara2259

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Text on the whole page and what hand is not indicated in the villain. Call preflop with AK is the beginning of your troubles. True in the text it is not clear what exactly you called. And after the paired board, you suddenly began to show activity. I think you lost quite naturally.:help:
 
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skeptix

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You should generally be raising on the button with occasional limps mixed in alongside a few folds. On flop you should just call their donk lead (folding is probably better than raising). As played, on turn I'd be worried about a 7 and I'd take the free card to try and make the flush. As played on turn, I also go broke on the river.

You should have just called the flop bet, called a turn bet and then called a river bet.
 
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