AK in a $300 tourney

[Yoda]

This was hand was posted in another forum by a friend, but I thought it might be neat to see what people would do here. My friend is a tight player and has a similiar style to my own. Remember,,this is a $300 tourney live. Id appreciate everyones feedback. Ill post actual hand results later on

Yoda



Here’s a hand I played recently. I’d like your comments.

Situation: early in a $300 deep stack "live" tourny. 9 handed. Blinds are 100/200. My stack is $8000. Hero’s stack is $10000.

Table image: I am probably viewed as tight aggressive. We’ve been playing for about 2 hours and I’ve only played a few hands and when I come into a hand I’ve been betting aggressively. Hero is clearly loose aggressive. In fact, when he sat down at the table, several players were jokingly offering an over/under bet on how long he would last. He’s played several hands and won with junk.

The hand: I’ve got the button and hero is in the cutoff. Everyone folds to Hero who makes a standard raise of $700. There’s now $1000 in the pot. I look down at AK off and re-raise to $2000. I raised this amount because I wanted to weed out trash hands in the blinds and I also wanted to test the strength of Hero’s hand. Besides, there’s always the possibility that an aggressive re-raise will cause everyone to fold and I’ll take down the pot right then and there.

Action: Both blinds fold. Hero insta calls. We’re heads up. $4300 in the pot. Flop comes 4 – A – 4 rainbow. Hero is first to act and he instantly shoves all in. He’s got me covered. If I call I’m all in.

Analysis: Before I reveal what happened, I would really like to hear how you would have played this hand. Would you call or fold in this situation? Why?

I would especially like to hear comments from: Yoda / Pete A. / Ed / Gobar / Jason L. / Art / Rook / Getty / Pete M. / Shannon / blackjack / king rex / Dee / Toma/ Jake / Blues Eyes / Jon Fitz.

[Adaon]

Raise preflop is awful. A smooth call puts much more deception to the AK. As for weeding out trash hands, that's the exact opposite of what you should want! I want people to make mistakes, one of the blinds calling in to this hand with QJ or JT is money in the bank. $1,300 was risked here to learn nothing at all. He likes his hand enough to raise preflop and to bet it with an Ace on the flop, nothing more was learned when he called the reraise.

Let's say AK just smooth calls and there is $2,000 in the pot 3 handed. Now he puts out a raise, the AK can happily call picking up the same amount or more as the preflop reraise. Or the Hero shoves in and you could fold the AK loosing only 700, and wait to trap him with 2 pair or a set on another hand, risk/reward is much better.

Now that aside, if you are going to play the hand like this: you hit your card and if you aren't calling here don't play it this way. That's exactly the flop and situation you were hoping for. Still I suspect you go broke half the time or more often.

[PokerRef]

I would fold. Its not worth a possible KO at that point in the tourney. Being a loose player he could very well be playing A4 suited and hit a set. You can recover from the loss of 3k chips in a deep stack. He may very well be bluffing but its too much of a risk to call IMO.

[Holdem Freak]

I would fold. Its not worth a possible KO at that point in the tourney. Being a loose player he could very well be playing A4 suited and hit a set. You can recover from the loss of 3k chips in a deep stack. He may very well be bluffing but its too much of a risk to call IMO.

I am with Ref on this one but if he is holding A4 means he has hit a boat and your friend only hay 3 possible outs left (unknown what all the suits are to accurately give outs). Like it was mentioned this guy will play just about anything and is loose aggressive. I know that style too well (right Adaon) and that is a very dangerous style to play against. So like I say fold fold fold.

[VirtualXtrem]

Personally I agree with Adaon. I think a straight call of the $700 would have been the correct thing to do.

If Hero then pushes you only lost less than 10% of your chip stack. If Hero slow plays it will give you a chance to get another card. Pair aces is nice, but when you have a person that is Loose aggressive player, he very well could have been playing pocket 4's or ace/4 or even a 5/4 so I would be real careful against a loose aggressive player.

VX

[Yoda]

got the results today....... hero turned over 74 off.

[Holdem Freak]

There you have it. That is the problem with loose aggressive players you never know what you may be up against. I just can not figure why he called a raise like that. So did your friend call or not?

[VirtualXtrem]

I would like to know what hero had pre-flop. turn river Yoda's friend has 3-4's and 2-aces, but if Hero has AA he still wins pot. I still stand by my original statement. Flat call, and even though you may fold the best hand, be a little more careful. I admit, I tend to have a problem going from my tight passive mode to tight aggresive mode later on in the tourney. So Obvisously I am NOT a real professional player.

VX

[Yoda]

There you have it. That is the problem with loose aggressive players you never know what you may be up against. I just can not figure why he called a raise like that. So did your friend call or not?

yes he called,,,,,I actually think its the right thing to do versus this player. He could have easily have made same move without the 4 imo. I think its actually what your looking for versus this type of player. Id hate it but its a huge opprtunity to double up and to me, what your looking for versus this type of player

[StarlightCoast]

Call was correct as a true LAG will make those moves with a variety of holdings.

[Kat]

Just saw this... it's not the cards you need to think about so much as position and stacks. Flatting with AK isn't horrible, but raising to 2000 and then calling the flop shove is way better.

[PoorScouser]

Obviously it's easier for me now I have seen the result to pass judgement but I will try and be results orientated as little as possible.

First of all I think I would have called whilst hating life in the hand discussed given how it played out. Afterward in the cold light of day my thinking goes like this: A good LAG player has to know there are a lot of aces in your 3bet range versus him, so how likely is he to shove an ace high flop unless he beats the aces himself? (hindsight is wonderful isnt it :) )

To avoid getting in that spot, and given both of you have over 40bb, I prefer a call pre with AK for deceptive purposes. If I was around the 20bb mark I think I would seriously consider getting it in here but 40bb with only a 3.5x in front is way too much to do that with. Given the opponent, any raise is gonna put you in a shitty spot the 2 out of 3 times you miss the flop (on avg). I would much rather try and play smallball by calling the LAG to avoid having 25% of my 40bb stack in on a flop i'll probably miss.

All that said I actually like the raise if it will help to define my opponents hand, and allow me to pick up the pot with a bet on the flop most of the time, but given the image of the opponent and the hand he called the 3 bet with this does not apply here I feel.

[xxlurchxx]

Against a LAG I think calling pre is a good play. By raising your are pretty much committing to calling if you hit anything on the flop.
This is what makes Lags so dangerous, bets and raises do not define their hands. I don't like just top pair against a LAG. You don't have to worry about folding because they are not folding when you do hit the nuts.