4 left in FT $55k, can I call with whiffed AK here?

smittyuiop · #1 07-10-2007, 03:16 AM

4 left in the FT $55k. Prizes are something like $13800, $8900, $6700, $4400. Villain (vetiver) has been playing aggressive and playing well, and also running good as hell. He perceives that I'm scared to play with him (partly true) and has been running over me (and everyone else) a lot. His preflop raise was standard and this was the first time I'd really played back.

Full Tilt Poker (4 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG 113,100
BTN 193,100
SB 486,436
HERO 322,515

2500/5000 blinds, 600 ante
Preflop: Hero is BB with K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img].
2 folds, SB raises 17400, Hero raises 50000, SB calls 32600.

Flop: 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)(102,400)
SB checks, Hero bets 75000, SB raises 435836 (All-In), Hero ??

Ugh, before I even bet I felt like he would CRAI. He called my reraise pretty quicky and shoved the flop very quickly. What can he have that beats me? 88-QQ probably shove preflop, I doubt lower pairs shove here, most stuff with a 9 maybe folds preflop, and wouldn't he hesitate with top pair against my potential overpair? He does play draws very fast, and could be pushign me around with AJ, KQ, KJ. I could see him playing AA, KK this way I guess. Also any comments on preflop and flop bets welcome, maybe raise more preflop though I wanted to somewhat represent a big pair, maybe bet less on flop.

kenny7 · #2 07-10-2007, 05:26 AM

Ok,I'd raise way more pre here,although you can make arguments for your raise as well as just calling to disguise your hand,and maybe win big with the right flop.It's just that he's not going to fold to this kind of rr,if you made it 80 or 90,and he called,you could be pretty certain he has a good hand,right now he can pretty much have any two.Also,a big rr makes post flop a lot easier for you.90k raise puts 200k in the pot,which means that I assume you shove the flop no matter what.

As played,I'm not a big fan personally of calling in these situations,he could have a lot of hands that not only has us beat but drawing virtually dead.Here though,it sure seems like he is on a draw.I agree with you that he could have AA/KK.That however is unlikely since you have AK.

Also,this is big money.How important is it for you to move up one or two spots? If you fold,you are still 2nd in chips I think,big diff between 2nd and 4th place money.

smittyuiop · #3 07-10-2007, 10:32 AM

Thanks Kenny. Looking back I would def. take the line you suggested and raise to 85k or so and shove this flop (assuming he doens't open shove). It was probably one of those situations where the first one to stick it in wins. To answer your question it was big money for me and I leaned towards folding so that I could move up to 3rd or 2nd, and still had legitimate chance at 1st. I would definitely bet $10 that my hand was good and my instinct was that I was ahead of his range, but I wasn't willing to risk a chance to move up to 6 or 8k on it. Maybe that was suboptimal, idk.

Collin Moshman · #4 07-10-2007, 07:27 PM

Hi smittyuiop,

I agree with you and kenny7 that a larger pre-flop raise would be better here as a reraise to 50k makes post-flop play awkward if you miss due to the stack sizes. Something like 90k works well, as you guys suggest.

But you could also just call pre-flop. With his raise and the antes, you would still be playing a sizeable pot of around 37k with your premium hand. Also, you have position against an aggressive opponent with a hand that plays well post-flop.

In this case, if you hit the flop, you can probably win a lot of chips since you have position against a really aggressive opponent who probably won't put you on a premium hand since you didn't reraise pre-flop. And if the flop comes as it does, then you can make an easy fold to a large check-raise without forfeiting a significant fraction of your stack. So the smooth-call simplifies post-flop decision-making just like the larger pre-flop reraise does.

Personally, I would probably take this line of smooth-calling with position, and make the big raise OOP ... e.g., he raises 17k from the button and you are SB with AKs and make a big reraise to take it before the flop and nullify the positional disadvantage.

Regardless, congrats on a nice score.

Best Regards,
Collin

smittyuiop · #5 07-12-2007, 03:19 AM

Thanks for the thoughts Collin. Very helpful. I folded obv and ended up getting 3rd. fwiw I caught up with him on the tables later and he said he had A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].