25NL. AK reraised pot with dry sidepot. I hate shortstacks

[Baintz]

Bit stumped with this situation as I'd never faced it before.

Doing this from memory so numbers are approximate. UTG seems decent, BB is a moron.

Bodog NL25. UTG has $23, BB has $7, I have $25.

Hero is SB with A /images/graemlins/spade.gifK /images/graemlins/heart.gif

UTG raises to 0.85, 2 folds, button calls 0.85, Hero raises to 4, BB raises all-in 7, UTG calls, button folds, Hero calls

I only had the option to call or fold here, I could not raise. I don't understand why that is, is it because BB's raise is too small?

BB is an idiot, he could well have AT or 66 here, but BB really puts me in a bad spot here as now UTG has almost 1/3 his stack in, I put him on JJ+, AK. I'm going to hate any flop without an A or K, as I don't see JJ or QQ folding to a bet on such a flop.

Flop (Pot 21.85)
2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif2 /images/graemlins/club.gif3 /images/graemlins/heart.gif

Hero???

[arsenal905]

Is it so wrong to just call in the small blind? Maybe this is a weakness i have, but i hate playing ace king out of position with multiple opponents. With the way it was played, Id probably just check this flop, and fold to a decent bet. It seems pretty weak, but every other bet seems really spewy.

[Antinome]

[ QUOTE ]
UTG raises to 0.85, 2 folds, button calls 0.85, Hero raises to 4, BB raises all-in 7, UTG calls, button folds, Hero calls

I only had the option to call or fold here, I could not raise. I don't understand why that is, is it because BB's raise is too small?

[/ QUOTE ]

because his raise is less than your bet. It is important in situations like this to look behind you, and if feasible, bet 1/2 of a shortstack's remaining stack or less so that you will be able to push to isolate and collect dead money.

[Antinome]

[ QUOTE ]
Is it so wrong to just call in the small blind? Maybe this is a weakness i have, but i hate playing ace king out of position with multiple opponents. With the way it was played, Id probably just check this flop, and fold to a decent bet. It seems pretty weak, but every other bet seems really spewy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, this is wrong. In position, we can sometimes call because that we sacrifice in preflop equity we gain in positional information, But OOP we want to minimize the number of descisions we have to make out of position, so we should always be raising this when we have a preflop equity advantage +fold equity.

[arsenal905]

But how many decisions do we have if we just call? It seems like a much easier way to play the hand. If you call and miss the flop, you get away from it easily. If you hit you probably play for most of your chips.

[Antinome]

[ QUOTE ]
But how many decisions do we have if we just call? It seems like a much easier way to play the hand. If you call and miss the flop, you get away from it easily. If you hit you probably play for most of your chips.

[/ QUOTE ]

You want to play TPTK for a lot of chips OOP on three streets in an unreraised and probably multiway pot? And that's the best case scenario? No thank you.

[arsenal905]

Id like to play TPTK on the flop for most of my chips, in an unreraised and multi-way pot, on a board like A 9 2. Unless the board was A J 10, or something similar, of couse I like that spot. I dont see what re raising pre accomplishes. When you miss the flop, you have to bet, and any pair is calling. If you hit, you're probably making less money than you would have had you just called, becauase hand likes Ace Jack and King queen are mucking to your re raise. JJ QQ KK AA re raise you pre flop, and probably the only hand that calls that you love is AQ

[Antinome]

[ QUOTE ]
Id like to play TPTK on the flop for most of my chips, in an unreraised and multi-way pot, on a board like A 9 2. Unless the board was A J 10, or something similar, of couse I like that spot. I dont see what re raising pre accomplishes. When you miss the flop, you have to bet, and any pair is calling. If you hit, you're probably making less money than you would have had you just called, becauase hand likes Ace Jack and King queen are mucking to your re raise. JJ QQ KK AA re raise you pre flop, and probably the only hand that calls that you love is AQ

[/ QUOTE ]

people don't play that perfectly, 99-QQ probaly do not 4bet, and are afraid of higher pairs. AJ and KQ make bad calls. you get away from a 4bet preflop from AA, KK. Hit or miss, you don't have to bet, you can also c/f, c/r. And that will be the only desision you have to make in the entire hand OOP. That seems easy enough to me.

Also- What do you do with QQ+? 3bet? that seems really, really predictable to me if that's your entire 3betting range. Even if you could make more money by calling AK OOP, which I doubt, the amount of value you lose on your premium hands because of the lack of shania is going to make 3-betting AQ+ a better long-term play anyway.

[Baintz]

No No No!
AK is probably one of my most profitable hands, precisely because I'm reraising with it virtually 100% of the time, especailly OOP. Then I'm usually making a c-bet 100% of the time on the flop, and sometimes the turn (VERY opponent and flop dependent). Because this is exactly the way I'm playing AA/KK, you can get get folds from pocket pairs that don't flop a set.
Arsenal, you are massively underplaying one of the best starting hands there is. I used to play AK passivley too, and I loathed it. Now I've upped the aggression with it, I love it. Possibly moreso than AA/KK as it's easier to get away from when you miss.
The bad thing in this hand is that I couldn't shove preflop (which I'm also doing with AA/KK) due to BB, hence the post