AK and about to bubble

schellbell21 · AK and about to bubble

Just got finished with a tournament.... I want your feedback...

Previous hand I am dealt AK and double up to AJ. I have 24k chips with the avg somewhere in the 40k area and bb at 1600. Top 30 cash and 38 left. I am in 35th position after doubling up.

I am once again dealt AK back to back hands. I am the 4th person to act. 2nd person to act has 8k in chips. I call his all in for 8k, leaving me with 16k not committed with about 4 people to act.

Immediately after me I get a huge reraise that would put me all in. I sit there and take the full time permitted to ponder what he could have. I was convinced he has low pair and my AK would have a legitimate shot. It's important to know I would call this bigstack a very loose player. He should have lost earlier in the tournament by calling an all in with 33, but somehow lucked out.

I decide to make the call with AK because I think he wants me to make a tough fold. The person who originally pushed in has A5, so I have him beat substantially. The reraiser shows AA and I go down in history in 37th place.

The fact is I could have waited out for top 30 and collect my $21 (entry was 3). But instead I wanted the glory of 1st and the $ 827 prize.

I will sit here all weekend and ponder "what if I would have folded....."

Your feedback will be appreciated... I want to know how many of you would have folded in my situation. Thanks

addam00 · hi

well when its that deep in the tourney.. ya you could of folded but you say he was very loose so i proably would habe called him too i cant fault your play.. we always ponder this or that..

PoolDemon

@ that stage, if your going to play a hand with what chips you had, if it was me, I don't just call the 8K-all in, I push, then if he has aces, so be it, but at least if he had a marginal hand as you thought, he would (or should) have folded it...

UL to run into the AA, but thoses things happen...

HOUSECATS

When you made the call you were pretty much pot commit ed should of pushed all-in to try and get them HU. You just got UL that someone had the AA

harry_lime

agree with Pool here. if you're going to play the hand, you need to raise pre-flop to show strength and try to force a two way heads up situation. all the chips go in anyway at that stage as the A's will naturally be playing.

i might have even let the AK go at that stage depending on the flow of play and my position in relation to the tournament. it's a dodgy mid-position call but still a difficult hand to get away from. it's one third of your stack and even if you are ahead, it's still a gamble - plus there's still the question of the players to come. if you're the SB or BB then i would be raising or calling for sure.

Ramster

Gotta agree with Pool and HC here
Just unlucky you ran into AA

DangerMouse

muratore

we dicussed this hand in chat as it happened, so you already know what i think about it

in a tourney this close to the bubble, you have 2 choices on what feels more comfortable to you,
1) do you rather fold hands and make it in to the money and then start playing from there
2) do you play a bit more loose, ignoring the bubble and try to gain some extra chips when other players play more cautiously

in your hand when 1 player is all in already and it comes to you, i feel you have 2 options, you either fold that hand, or you go over the top allin. i dont really see the call as an option here. you either fold and hope someone else go out before you and keep your stack of 15 bbs and wait for a better situation to get chips. or you push all in and try to isolate the smallstack and avoid a multiway pot with a hand that often need to hit a card to win in multiway action.

i prefer to be the agressor here, if you push - you also have some fold equity and will likely drive out some small-mid pairs acting after you, you might even push out some weaker aces, so be it.. you dont want to play against too many players with that hand anyways..

if you fold, well.. no harm done really, you have the same stack as when you started the hand, and still a good enough stack to make people think twice before calling if you bet big.

if you just call the 8k, you give the initiative to the players acting behind you, players that have position on you. you invite them to come and play with you. if one of them now push, you will have a harder decision on what to do than you would have had if you pushed in the first place. you dont know if they push with a low-mid pair do they push with AA, KK, or are they puhing with a weaker Ace than yours, hands like AQ, AJ, AT or maybe even AK, the same hand that you have..

like i said earlier, i prefer to be the agressor, to leave the hard decisions to the other players.. sometimes someone left to act wakes up with a stronger hand than i have, well.. so be it, i know that more often than not they will have a weaker hand and i will be ahead or at worst have a coin flip in that situation.

in this specific hand, the big stack had AA you lost and semi bubbled, well it happens.. in the long run you will be up against weaker hands than yours and win more than you lose, you were simply unlucky in this tournament!

keep playing good poker and let your opponents do the mistakes - and you will end up on even more final tables in the future