Live tourney: Opening by overbetting the pot?

I've searched the strategy forum a little about overbetting the pot, but most of what I found had to do with cash games or after the flop. There are a few posts that have some comments, but I wanted to get specific feedback about what I describe below.

I was recently in a small live game tourney of approximately 30 players. During the middle stages, a player who recently moved to the table opened the pot (he was probably 3rd to act in a 10 handed table) with a large overbet. If I'm recalling things correctly, he opened the pot somewhere around 5x BB. The tourney structure wasn't particularly great so 10BB was probably an above average stack, and it looked like he was likely committing a significant portion of his chipstack. Typical raises that I saw in the tourney was 3x the BB - I note this because there may be some games where the accepted/typical raise might be larger, but my observation was that this was not one of those tourneys.

Everyone folded to him and he flipped over AKoff. This wasn't a surprise to me because my guess was AQ, but opening the pot for a large overbet was something I had not seen much in live tourney at this point. What do you all think about overbetting with a hand like AK or AQ, as opposed to a made hand like a pocket pair? In this type of situation, I would hesitate to commit such a large amount with so many players left behind to act.

Well I mean your right and wrong at the same time, yes there could've been a classic coin flip, or even AA&KK lurking after him, yet at the same time you have to recall the, Order of hands, AA/KK/QQ/AK/JJ, you see. So with keeping with this in mind (I personally would'nt have raised so much), nor Do I even comprehend the reason behind it (Unless blinds were really high, and he was just average, so in a sense then it would be a good move, cuz everyone would know he was commited no matter what the flop was, the rest of his stack was going in). That's the only reason I can think of for this move. As for the whole raising big aspect, I would do this when there's alot of callers in the pot, and it's a heafty enough to almost DU.

with 10BBs left AK is definately a shove. and 5xBB open is definately better than 3x open in that spot if you only got 10BB left.

10BB is indeed not too much.
Basicly by betting half of his stack - he tells us: he will not fold.
It's a hard question in this situation... It depends on the other players.
Probably I'd do this kind of raise if I'm holding premium hands, and I know that some players behind me are not aware of my stack size, so I can double up on them...

But you can also play with this. Like in this case you (and I guess most of the people at the table) put him on a great hand. You can vary your raises, so after the ususal 3bbs, once in a while throwing in an overbet with cards like 89s can work pretty well (or basicly any 2 - usually you still have at least 30% chance to win, but againts tight players you won't get a call).
Of course you don't really want a call, but I guess in this case the other people will not try to resteal as they see you've already committed yourself. If you raise 3BB often, and 3BB all the time, it will not give you the image that you are holding strong hands.

Poker is dramatically changing, and position is still very important, but people tend to steal more often now from UTG and early positions in mid- and higher stake tourneys.

I don't think I would've been perplexed if there were limpers before him and the guy bet 3x + 1BB/limper, but yeah, whenever I've encountered plays like this online, more often than not, people seem to have premium hands. I do wonder if this player made the raise because he had just moved from another table and most people didn't know his playing style - maybe he figured there would be a good chance people will fold to him with such a large raise (unless they woke up with a premium hand)? I guess it could've been a gutsy strategic move on his part - I didn't stick around the table long enough to figure out how good this player was though. If anything, he made the play at the right time.

bolcs5 said:

Poker is dramatically changing, and position is still very important, but people tend to steal more often now from UTG and early positions in mid- and higher stake tourneys.

Click to expand...

While I haven't seen this too much, I agree that I'm starting to see more UTG raises. I don't recall seeing this play (or so I think) at the live tourney I was in, but I've seen plays like this in smaller online stakes as you mentioned. I think the tricky thing about opening the pot with an overbet is players may be inclined to think people are bluffing or raising with marginal holdings like middle pairs or a weak ace, so this may be a play on this type of thinking.

I believe that this is the incorrect move, as you could see with the
outcome. Raising with Ace King like that is completely worthless, since
it scares off any good possibly oportunites for money. Thing of it this way,
what do you think the people on the table are thinking? A guy, who doesnt
have position, is raising that hard! He must have something good, and he
would be completely stupid if he were doing that with rags, so im gonna
fold unless i have something real good. I wouldnt be surprised if A Q folded
to that bet. Now, overbetting with JJs isnt the worst idea... at least in late
position. If you see a queen or a king or ace come up, your kicking yourself, especially if there are a lot of people on the table. Now if you had
raised, you would have kicked a lot of people out, making the chances slimmer
that someone got the card, plus the pot is bigger. And you might even
win the pot on the flop, which isnt as bad as you think cause Jacks are
very risky. Hope i helped..