$2 SnG - Playing AK

[carpeamentum]

Stacks:
* UTG with 2510
* MP1 with 4595
* MP2 with 2065
* CO with 620
* BTN with 1035
* SB with 1280
* BB with 1395

Blinds:
Site: full tilt poker
* * Dealt to UTG:A♥ K♠
* * Sklansky group 2
Preflop:
* * Hero raises to 480
* * 1 players fold.
* * MP2 raises to 2,065, and is all in
* * 4 players fold.
* * Hero calls [1,585]
* * MP2 shows :
* * 10♦ 10♥ Hero shows :
* * A♥ K♠
* * Total folds this street: 5
* * Potsize: 4370
Flop:
* * Q♠ 9♣ 9♥
* * Potsize: 4370
Turn:
* * 6♣
* * Potsize: 4370
River:
* * 2♣
* * MP2 shows two pair, Tens and Nines
* * Hero shows a pair of Nines
* * MP2 wins the pot (4,370) with two pair, Tens and Nines

Poker Hand Converter By Cardschat.com Poker Forum


Is it a bad strategy play to play AK like this?

 

[ph_il]

What were blinds at? They look like they were pretty low, so you could've easily folded this and still had a 2K+ stack to work with.

 

[pantin007]

^ the blinds look like 80-160 but i think that if ur looking to win the sng, u have to make those kinds of calls, ur never really dominated and A-J/A-Q also make that push in which case ull be a huge favourite
and if ur up against a pair, ur flipping

 

[ph_il]

it could be:
30/60 * 8
40/80 * 6
60/120 * 4
80/160 * 3

Of course, Im probably being a bit extreme with the 6-8x BB UTG BB raise.

 

[dsvw56]

blinds are 80/160

And folding is a pretty large mistake unless this guy is never shoving AQ/AJ. Given that it's a $2 SnG, that is almost never the case so it's pretty much a fistpump.

 

[carpeamentum]

Yes, my raise was a 3*BB raise. I personally felt that these guys could be pushing with any pocket pair or any A 10+.

Just mainly looking to see if anyone would have folded the hand expecting a moderate likelihood (60%) of a coin-flip situation.

 

[dj11]

We are missing some critical info, but in general the pf raise was good, the call was rather iffy. Not bad, but not great either. In a case like that you are likely in a race. AJ might not make that move, this is where reads come in handy. AQ shoving there would most likely be position dependant. Most probable is some pocket pair below K's as kings might tend to play for value rather than shock effect. QQ's might play for value also. JJ ,TT, 99 are candidates for the overbet. Against any pp its a race, and races are to be avoided whenever possible. You made your play at the pot, and laying AK down here is sane. But then so is calling.

Pot is 2795, and it costs you 1585 to call to get that 2795 (if you win) odds are 1.76 - 1 and you want 2-1 to break even in a race. From that POV it was unwise to call. Oddly, if you come in as the short stack and can double up then it would be correct to call.

Info we would have liked, SnG or MTT? Blinds, reads, stuff that helps us, and you, understand more precisely just what the situation is.


Edit, ok, saw the title had the game $2 SnG.

 

[OzExorcist]

Specific reads are important for this one, but the average $2 player will shove just about any pair, AJ+, sometimes even KQ/KJ/QJ. So snapcall, fo shizzle.

There are some players who won't re-raise you without KK+/AK - if this is one of those players then maybe consider a fold. I'm guessing villain isn't one of those since they showed down TT.

Long story short, we're usually ahead of villain's range here, expect to be dominating some of the time, dominated a very small number of times, and coinflipping the rest.

 

[CfPoker]

Pot is 2795, and it costs you 1585 to call to get that 2795 (if you win) Odds are 1.76 - 1 and you want 2-1 to break even in a race. From that POV it was unwise to call. Oddly, if you come in as the short stack and can double up then it would be correct to call.

Huh? Why do we want 2-1 here? If my opponent showed me TT in this case with those pot odds I'm calling in an instant.

If the blinds were smaller then the call is iffy, but at this point there's simply too much in the pot to fold.