$11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

This hand arose very early into a 9-player sit and go, and I was wondering if my play looks okay. I have no particular reads, other than SB who had gone all the way in a couple of hands with weak hands.

PokerStars Tournament, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed) Converter on pregopoker.com

UTG (t1700)
Hero (t1500)
MP1 (t2240)
MP2 (t1490)
MP3 (t970)
CO (t1420)
Button (t1400)
SB (t760)
BB (t2020)

Preflop: Hero is in UTG+1 with K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
<font color="gray">UTG folds</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to t60</font>, <font color="gray">MP1 folds</font>, <font color="gray">MP2 folds</font>, <font color="gray">MP3 folds</font>, <font color="gray">CO folds</font>, <font color="gray">Button folds</font>, SB calls t50, BB calls t40

Flop: (t180) 8[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, <font color="red">Hero bets t80</font>, <font color="red">SB raises to t320</font>, <font color="gray">BB folds</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to t1440 (All-in)</font>, SB calls t380 (All-in)

Turn: (t2400) 3[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)


River: (t2400) 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)

My particular concern is the size of my preflop raise. Do you think 3BB is too small at this blind level? What do you think of my postflop play?

Thanks,

scorpion_nz

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

With AK a larger raise will do more harm than good. Your flop bet is a little small, I'd make it about t120. With sb's stack this short, you can't get away from it so the rest is fine.

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

I think your play looks fine. Preflop is good. Perhaps bet a bit more on the flop, but it's okay. Given your read on SB and his stack, your reraise to his checkraise is also fine

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

[ QUOTE ]
With AK a larger raise will do more harm than good.

[/ QUOTE ]

could you please elaborate on this?

I think i would have made it 80 PF. Why is that worse that 60? Im just thinking that 60 makes all kinds of crap come along..

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

Hello oyvindgee and KPL,

Thank you both for your very quick replies.

A question for oyvindgee, can you elaborate on why it would "do more harm than good" to raise higher with AK? I'd appreciate your insights.

Thanks again,

scorpion_nz

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

I think some of the reason is that you're building a pot with a drawing hand. Suppose you bet 80, and get two callers from the blinds. Then the pot now is 240. Most of the time you don't hit the flop. Do you know c-bet? If you do, then this will cost you more chips, as the pot is better. Okay, so you make your C-bet, get a caller, and the turn is another blank. The pot is now large. What do you do now, take another stab at it if checked to you? What do you do if the caller makes a small donkbet? Keep the pot small with drawing hands. I think people who call with a preflop bet of 60 also will call if you make it 80

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

Dear KPL,

In general I like to oscillate between 3-4 BB on strong hands like AK (I don't like to have a constant value because it may become predictable). I agree with your comment of the flop bet being a bit small, particularly against two players - I will take this on board.

Thank you for your very clear reply.

scorpion_nz

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

I can see your point about building the pot and I agree with you.

[ QUOTE ]
I think people who call with a preflop bet of 60 also will call if you make it 80

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there is a border somewhere. Maybe its at 60 and maybe its at 100, but thats not my point. Its the border to "I have to have a hand to call"-land. With the blinds being t20 and the buy in being 11$ I would make it 80 PF.

The reason behind this thinking is that I will be able to put my opponenets on a smaller range of hands if they call my PF raise. If I raise to 60 a lot of junk hands will call.

If the flop missed me there is a great chance that it missed my opponents too. This makes room for a c-bet when the flop texture fits the bill..

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

[ QUOTE ]
I think some of the reason is that you're building a pot with a drawing hand. Suppose you bet 80, and get two callers from the blinds. Then the pot now is 240. Most of the time you don't hit the flop. Do you know c-bet? If you do, then this will cost you more chips, as the pot is better. Okay, so you make your C-bet, get a caller, and the turn is another blank. The pot is now large. What do you do now, take another stab at it if checked to you? What do you do if the caller makes a small donkbet? Keep the pot small with drawing hands. I think people who call with a preflop bet of 60 also will call if you make it 80

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, that's what I meant. As fr varying your preflop raises, I wouldn't bother to much with it at the $11s. People don't pay attention so you wont gain enough to make up for not making the optimal play. IMO it's better to just keep your raises the same for all hands at that particular blind level, and that goes for all buy ins. Unless you use some kind of randomizer like your watch or the suit of the cards, different raises actually tend to make you easier to read. Sometimes limping with your strong hands is a more useful variation, but more so when the buy in gets larger.

Re: $11 SnG: A-K UTG
 

I think the size of the preflop raise is not universally standard across all of the SnG games (even at the same buyin). For example, you might find that a table is full of people who will cold-call 3BB with very marginal hands, but not 4BB (or 5BB). I think it's an adjustment you have to make based on how tight/loose the table is.

I'm not really experienced at SnG's yet, but in my limited experience, 3-4 BB seems to be about right at a full table. Although, I have had tables where people were routinely cold-calling 4BB, and others where nobody was calling 3BB.