Late tourney play with AKs

[Scott_Fischman]

I know I made a fatal error with AK and just need some input as to what the best option would be. Full tilt 10k guaranteed started with 450 and there were 102 at the time. I had 12,000 chips and had been playing extremely strong. At this table I was pushing the table pretty good the last 2 rounds with weak holdings. I raised to $2700 with the blinds $400/$800 from 3rd position with AK diamonds. Folded around to the button who flat called. Flop was 7-8-9 rainbow. I had a brain cramp and pushed all in and was called by pocket queens. After discussing the hand later I realized there was no value in that bet. Now looking back I should have made a probe bet of about $2k and folded to any resistance. I could have left myself about $7k in chips which was below average, but with my strong play that night I would have had a chance. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul

 

[aliengenius]

Why not raise to 2.5 instead of 3.5 x the bb? You will be out of position (most likely) if called, so you don't really want to play a big hand. Raise to around $2k, and you will have $10k left. Assuming one caller you can now continuation bet for less ($2.5-$3K) to find out where you stand and keep the lead in the hand.

As an alternative, since stacks are not really that deep (10M), and you have been bullying the table, you might just shove and hope to get called by A9s or some other holding looking to "make a stand" against your aggressive image. This is one of those spots where you opponents will sometimes confuse your normal raise with your all in raise. In other words, they are so tired of folding to your aggression that they don't distinguish between this and any other raise.

As a side note, the way it was played, if you were to bet $2k instead of shove on the flop you will look very very weak. I would make a play at you to take the pot with any two cards since you bet less on the flop than you did pre-flop. Same thing with a turn bet that is less than the flop bet -- it just screams "weak".

Also, you might consider a check/fold line on the flop. Since you are playing nice and aggressive, you should be able to steal back the one raise you are losing here.

 

[eyetrace]

You kind of have it. If you were pushing the table all night though, that means that these people were just waiting you out. This guy with the QQ was just waiting to bust you, and once he had a hand on you he just needed to give you enough rope to hang your self and do his job him. The only thing I don't get, if you were playing LAG why did you push all in with someone with a deeper stack than you?

 

[joeeagles]

Hindsight is 20/20, but really with a 12k stack and being OOP you shouldn't raise 2700, as suggested by AG a 2k raise is better because when you're going to raise a pot with so many players left to act you need to think ahead and have a good idea of how you're going to play this hand if you get called and you miss the flop. Look at size of the pot. You got a caller so now between raise + call + blinds + antes pot is almost 7k. A good size c-bet is almost going to pot commit you, but a small one (2k in a 7k pot) shows weakness and carries the risk of getting played back at with almost ATC like AG pointed out.

When M's are this low it really is about thinking ahead, and you need to do it much more now than before because I'm seeing more and more players cold call PF raises late in tournies when in position with all sorts of speculative hands as low as T9s. They will go busto more often than not, but at times they give you trouble. Thinking ahead is important.

Now, as posted by AG, the 2.5 BB raise is the way to go when M's are low. It allows you enough room to c-bet 1/2 the pot after the flop if you miss and have FE.

 

[Effexor]

Never bet more than what it takes to accomplish what you are attempting to do. Thats why I think the PF bet was a little large, I'd have led out with a 2k to 2.4k size bet.

After the flop, I'd check / call / fold. Even if you put in a cbet of 1/2 the pot, now you've got half your stack invested on what is essentially a busted draw. Basically you took a shot with the PF raise, met some resistance and totally missed the flop. Get out while you can.

 

[stormswa]

Never bet more than what it takes to accomplish what you are attempting to do. Thats why I think the PF bet was a little large, I'd have led out with a 2k to 2.4k size bet.

After the flop, I'd check / call / fold. Even if you put in a cbet of 1/2 the pot, now you've got half your stack invested on what is essentially a busted draw. Basically you took a shot with the PF raise, met some resistance and totally missed the flop. Get out while you can.

nice, nice, nice.

I was going to basicly say this same thing right here, bravo bravo sir.

like this user said there is no reason late in a tourney to raise that much. 2.5 accomplishes the exact same thing and lets you get away from the hand if you dont feel you are ahead here with minimal loss.

 

[Scott_Fischman]

Great input all. I put this guy on too limited a range of hands. I figured since he called and didn't raise pre-flop he probably had a weaker ace and would call my all in thinking I was just trying to bully him. Under this situation there was no way of getting him off the hand I just could have saved alot of chips and still been playing on.

 

[titans4ever]

I wrote this awhile ago but you might find it interesting. I know I did when I first read about it. This might help you in your thinking and planning when you play a hand.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/cash-games-11/setting-goal-hand-85367/

 

[young hova]

I wouldve checked the flop, especially if you think he had a limited range of hands being that you raised more than 3 times bb your most likely only going to get called by premium hands.

You've got overcards on a straight flop, if you bet its a good chance he can call or raise here. If he calls its going to be hard to figure out where your at in the hand, and if he raises your pretty much forced to fold. On a scary flop like this I check and hope for a check behind me because this flop should scare him at least somewhat and plus if he bets here you can get away from the hand easy.

Also if you check here, theres always the chance to check raise if you think he's just trying to steal the pot from you, and he'll fold virtually any marginal hand when you do that. Deceptive play that makes your hand look stronger, but that wouldn't work in this situation, but it would have help you realize you defintely were beat at a cheaper cost than your tournament. You could also check call if you don't buy what he's selling, but this way you can maintain some pot control at a price you can afford.