Situations with AK

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goryachev1

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Hello poker players. I have a few questions about playing AK hand from UTG. #1: Mid stage of a tourney, middle -buy-in. My stack is 30bb. 2 opp calls me. Flop A 2 8 rainbow; i cbet 35% POT, getting raised for 155%pot. What should i do?
#2 Early stage of a tourney, middle buy-in, i have AK on HJ. Very aggresive opp opens from UTG 3bb, i do reraise him 9bb, he goes ALL-in, should i call him?:confused:
 
alipalip

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#1 If you rised preflop i think all in is the right choise!
#2 If the guy is "Very aggresive" you should call. (Better if you got some info about he`s range)
 
westside1950

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Number 2 case is a must call ( if you described your opponent as a agressive one), number 1 case is a lot more difficult to decide - you can easily crush into set on such a dry board, depens of an info you have on a player that raised you...
 
AAnonimowi

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#1 If you shown strength pre-flop oop, then you were raised flop, it is sure that you pair is behind, probably against two pairs or a set. It's highly unprofitable to call 155% bet with just a pair.
#2 Call, if your opponent is really loose player.
 
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Alexandru24

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#1 just go with the hands with only 30 blinds as played.

#2 in early stages of the tournament there is no need to be so agressive with hands like AK, just call preflop and play small pots.
 
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haystack

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well in the first on if he has re-raised you he probaly has ace-rag in the second one you can call there if you have some info on his range his chip stack and the like remember it's early so be careful.
 
ribaric

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Hello poker players. I have a few questions about playing AK hand from UTG. #1: Mid stage of a tourney, middle -buy-in. My stack is 30bb. 2 opp calls me. Flop A 2 8 rainbow; i cbet 35% POT, getting raised for 155%pot. What should i do?
#2 Early stage of a tourney, middle buy-in, i have AK on HJ. Very aggresive opp opens from UTG 3bb, i do reraise him 9bb, he goes ALL-in, should i call him?:confused:
1st. you should raise all in cuz there is an A and you have an A and a K kicker. your opponent maybe has AQ or AJ.
2. I dont ussually call much hands in early stage but if your opp is aggressive you could call.
 
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ph_il

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1. a 35% pot sized c-bet is really small and looks really weak. However, we need to look at effective stack sizes.

you have 30BBs and to keep things simple, lets say blinds are 5/10 and your stack is 300.

-You make standard 4x BB raise with AK and get 2 callers. + Blinds, the pot is now 135

-Flop is A 2 8 rainbow and you c-bet 35% or 50 chips (rounded up), which isnt even half the pot. The pot is now 185

-Villain raises 155% the pot or 290 (rounded up). The pot is now: 475

-Your remaining stack is 210. You need to call 210 to win a pot of 475, getting 2.2:1 on your money.

Easy call with your strong hand (TP/TK) and after you've put in 1/3rd of your stack into pot already, you should be looking to get the rest of your money in. If you're against a set, then it's just unlucky and you're paying them off. Against 2 pair like A8, you're at 12% to win by the river and if they have A2, your'e at 24% to win by the river. However, you're in a good position to win if villain has a weaker A or a pair.

The more I think about it, the 35% pot sized bet is perfectly fine if you're looking to get your money all in and you want to look weak. You open the doors for the villain to play hands like 1010 or 89s aggressively to try and push you off. I think c-betting strong might be bad if villain doesn't have an A because it pushes them off the hand. With that stack, you should bet taking the best approach that gets all your money in.

2. Just because they're aggressive doesn't mean you need to risk your tournament life early on, but it would ultimately be up to you. It's still early in tournament and lets say you have a 100BB stack, you're not giving up a lot by raising 9BBs and folding to a shove. If UTG has any pair under AK, you're in a 50/50 situation and if they have any non-paired hand without A or K, like 10J or QJ, you're roughly a 60% favorite to win. So, to make a profitable call, the pot should be laying to to 2:1 or 1.6:1 respectively.

Lets say effect stacks are 1000 with 5/10 blinds.

-UTG raises to 30
-You 3bet to 90
-UTG shoves all in.
-Pot is now 90 + 30 + 15 + 970 = 1105
-It's costing you 910 to win a pot of 1105, only giving you 1.2:1 odds. This is much less than the odds of your hand holding up, so it should be a fold. However, like I said, it's up to you if you think you should risk a possible 50/50 or 60/40 situation this early on in a tournament.

Best case scenario is if they have a hand like KQ, AQ, AJ where you're dominating and are an 80% favorite to win and the pot is just barely giving your the right odds to call (slightly under) but you can only really make that call if that's what you think they have. Again, it's risking 100BBs, so even in that situation, I still think a fold is the right play. Worst case is if they have AA or KK.

So, as played, I think it's an easy fold preflop this early in the tournament. You aren't getting the odds to call in what's most likely a 50/50 or 60/40 situation. I think the 3 bet preflop was fine with AK, though. You were just put into a tough situation early on. There is also the option of just calling against an aggressive player, hope to flop strong, and let the aggressive player pay you off.
 
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ph_il

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Slight correction on #1.

Effect stack is 300, so the raise is max 210, not 290. You need to call 210 to win a pot of 395, or 1.8:1 on your money. The rest still applies and I still think it's a call with AK for a good chance to double up.

I don't like folding with TP/TK after putting in a 1/3rd of my stack in, leaving me with 20BBs. Also, if blinds are going up soon, we're easily down to 10BBs and in even worse situation, so I like my chances of doubling up now with this strong of a hand.
 
eidikos

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hi!
in 1st case call,check the turn and try to put all your stack in the pot
in 2nd case call.with lag opponents you snap call hands like this
sometimes you ll loose with a set in 1st case and any 2 in the 2nd but we cant win all the tournaments we play..
 
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ph_il

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in 2nd case call.with lag opponents you snap call hands like this sometimes you ll loose witha set in 1st case and any 2 in the 2nd but we cant win all the tournaments we play..
This is very bad advice. Yes, it's true that we can't win every tournament you play, but what is the point of risking 100 - 250+ BBs (if it's a deep stack tournament) this early in an MTT with a hand like AK?

AK is a strong starting hand, but we're only a

-60% favorite against 2 random cards not containing an A or K (villain wins 4/10 times)

-70% against 2 random cards containing either an A or K (villain wins 3/10 times)

-50% against 22-QQ (villain wins 50% of the time)

-30% underdog against KK (villain wins 7/10 times)

-<10% underdog against AA (villain wins 9/10 times)

So, you're only a big lead if the opponent has a weaker A or K in their hand. If they're shoving a hand like 67s or 10Js, they're not bad off. If they have any pair 22-QQ, they're flipping and is the early stages of an MTT where you really want to be flipping for your full stack?
 
2easy4ninja

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Hello poker players. I have a few questions about playing AK hand from UTG. #1: Mid stage of a tourney, middle -buy-in. My stack is 30bb. 2 opp calls me. Flop A 2 8 rainbow; i cbet 35% POT, getting raised for 155%pot. What should i do?
#2 Early stage of a tourney, middle buy-in, i have AK on HJ. Very aggresive opp opens from UTG 3bb, i do reraise him 9bb, he goes ALL-in, should i call him?:confused:

1) play check?
2) interesting, stacks and blinds =)
 
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You should call him.

You should call him. You flopped the ace. They really shouldn't bet 2's or 8's.
 
BogdanStark

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1. a 35% pot sized c-bet is really small and looks really weak. However, we need to look at effective stack sizes.

you have 30BBs and to keep things simple, lets say blinds are 5/10 and your stack is 300.

-You make standard 4x BB raise with AK and get 2 callers. + Blinds, the pot is now 135

-Flop is A 2 8 rainbow and you c-bet 35% or 50 chips (rounded up), which isnt even half the pot. The pot is now 185

-Villain raises 155% the pot or 290 (rounded up). The pot is now: 475

-Your remaining stack is 210. You need to call 210 to win a pot of 475, getting 2.2:1 on your money.

Easy call with your strong hand (TP/TK) and after you've put in 1/3rd of your stack into pot already, you should be looking to get the rest of your money in. If you're against a set, then it's just unlucky and you're paying them off. Against 2 pair like A8, you're at 12% to win by the river and if they have A2, your'e at 24% to win by the river. However, you're in a good position to win if villain has a weaker A or a pair.

The more I think about it, the 35% pot sized bet is perfectly fine if you're looking to get your money all in and you want to look weak. You open the doors for the villain to play hands like 1010 or 89s aggressively to try and push you off. I think c-betting strong might be bad if villain doesn't have an A because it pushes them off the hand. With that stack, you should bet taking the best approach that gets all your money in.

2. Just because they're aggressive doesn't mean you need to risk your tournament life early on, but it would ultimately be up to you. It's still early in tournament and lets say you have a 100BB stack, you're not giving up a lot by raising 9BBs and folding to a shove. If UTG has any pair under AK, you're in a 50/50 situation and if they have any non-paired hand without A or K, like 10J or QJ, you're roughly a 60% favorite to win. So, to make a profitable call, the pot should be laying to to 2:1 or 1.6:1 respectively.

Lets say effect stacks are 1000 with 5/10 blinds.

-UTG raises to 30
-You 3bet to 90
-UTG shoves all in.
-Pot is now 90 + 30 + 15 + 970 = 1105
-It's costing you 910 to win a pot of 1105, only giving you 1.2:1 odds. This is much less than the odds of your hand holding up, so it should be a fold. However, like I said, it's up to you if you think you should risk a possible 50/50 or 60/40 situation this early on in a tournament.

Best case scenario is if they have a hand like KQ, AQ, AJ where you're dominating and are an 80% favorite to win and the pot is just barely giving your the right odds to call (slightly under) but you can only really make that call if that's what you think they have. Again, it's risking 100BBs, so even in that situation, I still think a fold is the right play. Worst case is if they have AA or KK.

So, as played, I think it's an easy fold preflop this early in the tournament. You aren't getting the odds to call in what's most likely a 50/50 or 60/40 situation. I think the 3 bet preflop was fine with AK, though. You were just put into a tough situation early on. There is also the option of just calling against an aggressive player, hope to flop strong, and let the aggressive player pay you off.


You know, I respect you! Better cant print anyone! A agree with all your formulate.
I would like to add that as for me, AKo is not enough strong hand on preflop when you play vs tight players. But on a flop, if you get Ace or King, this is differ case!
 
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ph_il

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You know, I respect you! Better cant print anyone! A agree with all your formulate.
I would like to add that as for me, AKo is not enough strong hand on preflop when you play vs tight players. But on a flop, if you get Ace or King, this is differ case!
Thanks, I appreciate that! However, I am realizing that I type a lot when I reply. LOL. Oh, well, as long as it's helping someone.
 
el_magiciann

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1st hand: Your Cbet is really small enough to be re raised with tons of hands and i would call by the way the hand is played!

2nd hand: Deffo a fold, you have only AK and you don't have to put all ur chips in with only AK pre flop when its early stages in MTT!~
 
Viera56

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how much u raise Pre-flop? 35% of the is to weak bet for me (probaly they read weakness of you with a Ace on board, they put you on pairs like KK, QQ, JJ, TT). in my opnion insta re-raise, he probality can have AQ under
 
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walleye

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#1 Be happy you are better.
#2 Probably have to call.
 
Elmanchy

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#1 Opp have 3OFK
#2 If his are agressive you can easy call
 
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joe777

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AK vs 22 preflop=22 has the possibility of 51% winning.
 
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botbol1980

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I hate AK!!!! I have definitly no chance with this hand
 
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szolinskij

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AK preflop raise flop small cards fold or allin
 
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