Advice on AK in this mtt situation

willis

playin the 2k gtd on ppp tonight and crusing along nicely with 4.5k in chips,blinds 50/100. I get dealt ak in mid pos, utg has 2.7k and raises to 300, 1 caller and now on me.no real read on any of these players as just moved tables,obviously the 300 utg has me thinking. what range of hands should i put him on and whats my move?

Call is bad option imo. Raise?how much and what if he comes over the top?do i raise enough to pot commit myself?
Fold?stay outa trouble or do i need to keep accumultaing?75 players left at this stage.
All advice appreciated

Lafortezza

Call see a flop for 300 with position on the pre-flop raiser? 300 out of your stack of 4.5k isn't a huge amount.
If there are players to act behind you who might raise then the best thing to do might be to get a raise in pre-flop and try to get it heads up.

Getting all-in with AK is never a disaster unless you're against AA/KK, but you might be able to make a surer move after the flop. I'd call or raise to 800.

mewso

Yes call and see the flop. I think it's a mistake to overbet AK this early in a tourney. Of course stack sizes mean something here too. If one of them is short stacked you could put pressure on them with a raise but I prefer to be cautious with AK early on.

ocallagh

1st off, depends on the player. Sometimes it's an automatic raise or fold.

If you have no info, The blinds are sufficiently low compared to your stack for you to call and see what he does on the flop. If the flop brings no joy, you can get out cheaply enough. I don't like re-raising with AK when the blinds are low for a couple of reasons. You give him an easy decision to make, I hate giving away info... I prefer to represent a weaker A when I hold AK. That's just me, some people would automatically re-raise to gather more info.. also, the BB might be tempted to call for an extra 200 with any two which is dangerous.. but if you hit your A or K, you can normally sniff out two pair by a rather large check-raise from the BB (VC/PPP anyway..)

willis

cheers for the replies lads.interesting that you all seem to be edging towards a call, there are 3 or 4 players after me and they might come in if i just call with suitd connectors etc for value. i dont like ak in a multiway pot here,because flop could come A78, or K910 and get me in trouble with 2 pair,open enders etc.id rather save the 300 than just call. However i reraised here to 1100, hoping to get heads up.UTG went all in and i had to call, hed KK. My instincts were telling me to fold but i went against them. I didnt even think about just calling, however i will definitely give it more consideration in future. Any more advice always appreciated, cheers lads

Lafortezza

When you have AK the odds of him having AA or KK are reduced, not this time though

CoD

its not a bad play, alot of the time he'll be on AJ in that tourney and prob do the same move(or call yu at least), that left you with 1.8k, still in the rebuy period, a rebuy would put you back to 3.8k, and enough time to get him back or rebuild a stack.

NickyOD

How much does the caller have?

califano

i always find AK turns out to be useless when there is a raise and a call in front of you, someone has at least a reasonable pair. chances are there might be a call behind you too for 4 in the pot but for 300 theres no harm in seeing a flop.

NickyOD

If this was a table where reraises were respected I would definitely make it 1000 to go knowing full well UTG will fold or push and the caller can't stay in. Given the structure you shouldn't be afraid to race even at an early stage.

However since this tournament is basically a crapshoot its unlikely any pot will be taken down preflop and isolation is also unlikely. AK is a bad hand to have in a multiway pot but I'm definitely not folding here. I think calling is just "ok" but I wouldn't like it and play it very cautiously postflop.

willis

how is this torney a crapshoot nicky?its a $24 freezout with 12min blinds, one of the best mtts on ppp imo. anyways i was just interested in how others would play it and im glad that most of you seem to be in 2 minds as to whether to rasie or call, at least it shows i didnt do too much wrong. Cheers for the replies

NickyOD

willis wrote:

how is this torney a crapshoot nicky?its a $24 freezout with 12min blinds, one of the best mtts on ppp imo. anyways i was just interested in how others would play it and im glad that most of you seem to be in 2 minds as to whether to rasie or call, at least it shows i didnt do too much wrong. Cheers for the replies

12 minutes is still low and the blind structure on tribecca is brutal.

careca

NickyOD wrote:

12 minutes is still low and the blind structure on tribecca is brutal.

I played this last night and came 7th. Usual mix of good and woeful play. Have to agree with Nicky, it did come down to a crapshoot at the final table (maybe even two tables). I think I saw two flops at the final table. It was all in or nothing. Still though it was 1.30 when I finished. Couple of things maybe someone could clarify.

There was definetly a couple of occasions when the tables were not split evenly. For about 5/6 mins we had 8 players and the other table had 6 players. Anyone else notice this or am I missing something ?

Also when it got down to 19 (18 got paid) they played hand for hand, which seems to go on for ages. It didn't look like any time was credited back to this blind round. Is that the norm ?

Iago

Hand for hand is the norm once you're just outside the money, for as long as it takes to get someone out. It's to stop people stalling purposely on one table. They never credit back the time that you lose as a result.

Sometimes they leave tables at different levels. I think on Tribeca they weight the tables by chip totals rather than by players so that might explain it

careca

Iago wrote:

Hand for hand is the norm once you're just outside the money, for as long as it takes to get someone out. It's to stop people stalling purposely on one table. They never credit back the time that you lose as a result.

Sometimes they leave tables at different levels. I think on Tribeca they weight the tables by chip totals rather than by players so that might explain it

I knew about hand for hand, but I thought they might credit back the time, like some live tournaments. This one took almost 1 full level to complete.

This wouldn't answer the question either, I'm afraid, as we had 7 of the top 8 chip leaders at our table. all of us were mad keen to get moved

Iago

I'm not surprised! I've noticed that on Tribeca as well, they do seem to group together players with similar chip stacks towards the end of the tourney...that's fine if you're one of them but no so good when you get moved with your half stack!!

of course there may not be a method to the madness at all. In one tourney last week I was moved 3 times in four hands and each time I was on the BB on the next table. cost me a fortune and drove me insane...why can't their software sort out that mess!! :mad:

ionapaul

Nothing worse than playing hand-for-hand and yet still having a few idiots stalling for all they're worth...no amount of shouting 'STALLING DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE, HAND FOR HAND' makes any difference to them. But it certainly drives me crazy.

Back to the OP's dilemma, I probably would have flat called the raise and made my decision based on the texture of the flop and his opening post-flop move. If you re-raise and he goes all in, I think you are faced with a problematic decision very early in the tournament (since it is a rebuy I suppose the decision isn't so troubling, if you re-raised and he went all in, you gotta call). Obviously you were unlucky in this case where UTG found KK and someone willing to re-raise him If you had flat called and the flop came down K high, I bet you'd see the same eventual outcome, otherwise you might have gotten away from it.

Waylander

Its not a rebuy, its a freezeout. I think a flat call is the best play here. Like Paul says, wait and see if the flop hits you.

Shortstack

Waylander wrote:

Its not a rebuy, its a freezeout. I think a flat call is the best play here. Like Paul says, wait and see if the flop hits you.

On Paddy Power most players play every tournament like it is a re-buy. Good in the long run but has cost me dearly lately. Better stop now there is no bad beat title in this thread!

I would flat call in a freezeout and play the flop as deemed necessary. In a re-buy I am raising the hell out of it.

Re-raising with AK is not advised unless at a crapshoot part of the tournie or if you are only up against one player and you are sure he will lay it down or even better that he will call with AQ or less (make notes on these players, sometimes they will have a monster but in the long run they will call you ****e often enough to make it profitable - of course they will bad beat you often too :eek: ) . On this note it also not a hand you should be calling re-re-raises with (but don't tell anyone on PP they are doing anything wrong - we need to keep some fish in the aquarium).