Pocket Aces. All-In Against 3-5 Players?

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PoisonSaint

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I played in a No-Limit Tournament yesterday and got Pocket Aces in the Cut Off. There were 1 Limper and 1 Raiser ahead of me. I don't know what the BTN, SB, and BB will do. Of all those players only 1 of them can take me out (it happened to be the Limper). I was afraid if they called there will be too many people seeing the Flop so I pushed All-In. The Guy that can Take Me Out decided to Fold (which is what I needed done) and I won the hand against 2 guys who have about half my stack. In other words I took them out.

I was afraid if too many people see the flop one of them might out draw me with 2 pairs or something. I decided not to slowplay those Aces. I can re-raise but I was afraid the other would call anyway, so why not just push All-In with the best Pre-Flop hand. The 2 guys I took out have Pocket Kings and Pocket 1010s. Was this a good play? How would you do it differently? Is it really possible to make more Chips than I did?
 
MediaBLITZ

MediaBLITZ

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You are leaving a lot out (stage of the tourney, blinds, stack size) but yeah - you have two choices - huge reraise or shove. Shoving puts you at risk but if there is anytime to accept the risk it is with AA (imagine how the KK guy felt).
I don't like the idea the move was out of fear - it should be out of maximizing value. And shoving could very well have been the right play for that.
PoisonSaint said:
I played in a No-Limit Tournament yesterday and got Pocket Aces in the Cut Off. There were 1 Limper and 1 Raiser ahead of me. I don't know what the BTN, SB, and BB will do. Of all those players only 1 of them can take me out (it happened to be the Limper). I was afraid if they called there will be too many people seeing the Flop so I pushed All-In. The Guy that can Take Me Out decided to Fold (which is what I needed done) and I won the hand against 2 guys who have about half my stack. In other words I took them out.

I was afraid if too many people see the flop one of them might out draw me with 2 pairs or something. I decided not to slowplay those Aces. I can re-raise but I was afraid the other would call anyway, so why not just push All-In with the best Pre-Flop hand. The 2 guys I took out have Pocket Kings and Pocket 1010s. Was this a good play? How would you do it differently? Is it really possible to make more Chips than I did?
Click to expand...
 
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Carmine

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Shoving was good...Aces are good 80% of the time heads up, against 2 opponents you still were ahead (not by as much of course) so shoving was ok. There are some situations in a tournamnet where you might play them differantly but I think you did fine.
 
flatcaller

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This is tough to talk about being we have not enough info about stack size etc like Media said.
But anyways here i go with an analysis. First thing if you want to protect you AA 3or 4 bet is way more intimidating than shove. This is probably why TT called you, he will take you on cause lots of ppl love to shove AK and hand like this. He also may have called cause he was half stacked and getting tight on chips idk cause no mention of stack size. But the shove her may have been the correct play if i new chip stacks at the table but being the limper and raiser were half stack of you i am assuming 3 bet works better. Especially with this hand cause TT may still call, KK will get it all in, you re-shove, TT fold now it is heads up KKv AA which is awesome. End Note: 3 betting is far more intimidating than shoving, it is known in the poker world that ppl shove anything but not so many ppl 3 bet anything...
 
ckickenking

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Shoving all in was only choice because if you reraise most likely your opponent would've shove too. Both of them had good pocket, so you know the odd of one of them shoving was really high. Either way same outcome.
 
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flatcaller

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ckickenking said:
Shoving all in was only choice because if you reraise most likely your opponent would've shove too. Both of them had good pocket, so you know the odd of one of them shoving was really high. Either way same outcome.
Click to expand...

Yeah minus the factor you have no clue what their hands are preflop. You cant sit there and assume they will re shove. If they have AK/AQthey may just flat your 3bet or shove but if you shove they could easily fold there as well. One way or another shoving kills your value of aces, the way the hand played out was good. But once again without knowing how many chips are in play we can not make a definitive answer to the correct play.
 
Leo 50

Leo 50

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Knowing the results and the hands in hind sight it was a good move.

As flatcaller said sometimes it's better to 3 bet it.
In your case I'm sure you would have gotten at least one caller.
Maybe a bit less in profit but less odds of being outdrawn.

Anyway, nice hand

:cool:
 
blueskies

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I am shoving everytime in that spot unless i m incredibly deep stacked.
 
jaxpaboo

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I'm guessing that most players had short stacks. No need to get tricky and get more action. Make a 3x-4x raise or if that raise is 1/2 of your stack, go ahead and push.

With short stacks, you know the raiser is going to call you. You are really rooting for the big stack to call you as well. Tournaments are about accumulating as many chips as you can.
 
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