$Freeroll NLHE MTT Deep Stacked: Pre-flop: AKu vs [KK and 88]

[Polytarp]

Situation:
RedKings 15k euro final football freeroll
Running 2.5 hours with 375/5300 remaining in game.
I have AKu with 11k chips last to act, KK has 17k chips first to act and 88 has 10k chips, second to act. Both players went all-in and I folded.

The person with the KK played tight so I knew he had a made hand and I knew it had to be a good one and the fellow with the 88 all-in was what I had expected. If I didn't fold I would probably have made the final table because my Ace paired.

Is it worth the gamble to go all-in at that stage or is it better to keep trying to outplay everyone?
I made it to 154th and picked up 9 euros..first place was about 5000 euros.

The flop came up A, 2, 4, 9, 3

 

[FloppyNutzs]

I'd consider it a good fold.
I wonder what an ICM quiz would say (I don't get all of those right).

Risking your entire stack in a later stage of the game against 2 opponents all in doesn't seem like a good options. If you can correctly put just one opponent something like KK, and the other on mid pair even worse for you Ax...well you are going to lose 70-80% of the time vs those two all ins. You should be able to find better spots to get your money in good.

If you always fold in this situation it should be the correct play more often than not, and that should result in running deeper more often.

It is always disappointing to fold winning hands.
Try to forget about them quickly and remind yourself that you made a good play.
It is just always about the chips you win.
It also about the chips you don't lose.

 

[Gohaku94]

It is a good fold if the blinds are low and you are deep but you missed that information.
300+ is so far away from final table that if you have AK with less than 20bb and you fold it's a bad move since you want to acumulate a big stack to go all the way.

 

[Polytarp]

Sorry about the missing blind information. The blinds were about 6-7% of my stack with 10 minutes per round and had to be considered. I consider it a good fold since I was almost certainly up against a made hand and even though I made another 1.5 euros. Regarding equity, I think it was a bad fold because of the difference in prize value in reaching the final table.
Thank you very much for the input!

I won about 14 sub-satellite entries to play for a Sunday Million seat, these were $11 & $22 entries and though I cashed here and there I did not win a seat. Perhaps playing the odds is not always a good strategy and you must gamble to win.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Blinds are 6-7% of your stack? So you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 16bb? I don't think I'm ever getting away. People aren't playing as tight as I think you are thinking, particularly in a freeroll format like this, and AK does VERY well against any reasonable range.

 

[Don K3yKon6g]

I also prefer folding. All in against more than 1 player, with this hand, greatly decrease your chances of winning.

 

[Bozovicdj]

Blinds are 6-7% of your stack? So you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 16bb? I don't think I'm ever getting away. People aren't playing as tight as I think you are thinking, particularly in a freeroll format like this, and AK does VERY well against any reasonable range.

But even if hero has less then 20BB here, how can you realistically call. Let's say that first to act has a wide range and can shove with Ax or Kx, then second to act has to have a tighter calling range like AK and pocket pairs?

If that is correct, then at least one opponent has at least one of the outs hero needs, and the other opponent is hero flipping against. I am saying that this is the most probable way the hand plays out, add the possibility that one of them holds a monster hand and our hero is dominated hard..

Despite this being a freeroll, once people are ITM, they tend to start playing a more normal poker, where less variance can be expected..

 

[Matt Vaughan]

But even if hero has less then 20BB here, how can you realistically call. Let's say that first to act has a wide range and can shove with Ax or Kx, then second to act has to have a tighter calling range like AK and pocket pairs?

If that is correct, then at least one opponent has at least one of the outs hero needs, and the other opponent is hero flipping against. I am saying that this is the most probable way the hand plays out, add the possibility that one of them holds a monster hand and our hero is dominated hard..

Despite this being a freeroll, once people are ITM, they tend to start playing a more normal poker, where less variance can be expected..

You really can't narrow the second player's range to AK and pocket pairs - they should also show up with AQ, AJs, maybe KQs, and sometimes even worse here. (Not EVERY player will play all those hands, but most will, and some will be far wider.) Plus against 2 pockets pairs (which we'll be up against sometimes), we aren't even performing that poorly from an equity standpoint.

If you still feel really bad about this spot, I'd encourage plugging a few ranges into an equity calculator 3 ways and see how AK performs once you widen the villains' ranges beyond just super premiums.

 

[Ryan Laplante]

Sorry about the missing blind information. The blinds were about 6-7% of my stack with 10 minutes per round and had to be considered. I consider it a good fold since I was almost certainly up against a made hand and even though I made another 1.5 euros. Regarding equity, I think it was a bad fold because of the difference in prize value in reaching the final table.
Thank you very much for the input!

I won about 14 sub-satellite entries to play for a Sunday Million seat, these were $11 & $22 entries and though I cashed here and there I did not win a seat. Perhaps playing the odds is not always a good strategy and you must gamble to win.

AK and 20bb or less, Easy rule of thumb: Never fold!

Obviously there are times where you should, but they are very very very rare. This is not 1 of them!

 

[Polytarp]

AK and 20bb or less, Easy rule of thumb: Never fold!

Obviously there are times where you should, but they are very very very rare. This is not 1 of them!

Just re-reading some of my posts because I think I've been playing too conservatively. Thank you for your post Protential and especially your emphasis on when someone should fold and when not.
I've tried to keep tabs informally on how often I have folded a winning hand [never mind the ones I just folded without trying a bluff] and I would say about 10% of my hands were golden. I'm going to burrow into my PT4 records and SNG Wiz. to better understand what you stated.

On another note, I've played against "gettingpwned" on Stars (I make notes on certain players if there is something in their play that interests me). Have you ever played against this person? My reason for asking is because, like Jaws, I would like to track them to where the money is and learn how to play in those arenas.