AKo facing a min-raise - low M's

[madmisha]

Remember that AA and KK are 50% less likely when you hold AK.
Your good player range is quite narrow. It is unlikely that he has three hands in that narrow of range in a short period of time. Good players don't mini-raise three times in early position typically.

[Rocco]

[ QUOTE ]
The other thing to remember is that, at this stage, a 2x bb raise takes the blinds almost as often as the standard 3-4x steal.

[/ QUOTE ]

This, I agree with very much about (I don't disagree with your other points either, just trying to make things clearer). I see the 2xBB raise late in tournies a lot, but most often from players with bigger stacks. The main thing for me is not the 2xBB raise, it's why he makes the small raise committing 1/4 of his stack? A bad player could certainly do this with a wider range, but what if we knew this player was good? Is it a clear fold then? What range could we put a good player on in this situation?

[Dave D]

[ QUOTE ]
5 tables left (soon down to 4) in a Party $5-rebuy. Avg stack is around 80k and my tables only have two stacks above average. Blinds are 4k/8k...

I have ~65k and see AKo in late position. EP+1 open with a min raise to 16k (he has ~70k). I've seen him do this two times before, unfortuantely without showdown. Is it too weak-tight to fold this?

What's his range? He would be a fool if he min-raised for 1/4 of his stack with AQ, AJ and AT for example? Or is he a fool looking for a cheap way to get away if being re-raised? It could be a medium pocket pair against which it'd be a coinflip. Wouldn't be too surprised if he showed high pockets here looking to price in desperate shortstacks... What would you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

You have 8 blinds and the 3rd best hand in poker. If you fold this, you didn't deserve to get that far in that tournament.

[hencole]

Good players rarely min raise. It is the biggest tell online of a player who doesn't think about the odds they are laying their opponents. It means I have some kind of a raising hand (and even then not neccesarily). It means I'm too scared to put anymore chips in, and I can get away from a reraise as a result. Not always, but I've lost count of the number of players I see min-raising in EP and then folding to a raise.

[registrar]

That's impossible to say for me to say, I'm afraid. I might be considered a reasonably good player, or at least not a bad player, at this level so if you're asking me what I might min-raise with 1/4 my stack with from EP, very little, and certainly nothing three times in a short time.

I might min-raise bullets to clear out the really crap hands but to keep moderate holdings in, and to induce a reraise. But probably not, because I've tried it and it doesn't work. Moderate holdings still fold. JJ-KK go over the top but they call a push anyway.

I might min-raise KK-AA if I suspected an aggressive big-stack would make a move.

Or, I might min-raise because I've got away with it twice already and I'm holding 99 - can't let it go, dangerous to flat call, don't fancy putting my tournie on the line for it.

In a given situation, good players might do anything but I would be surprised if good players min-raise here at all. If you're trying to get action with a monster, you flat call or go 3x so it looks less suspicious.

[registrar]

[ QUOTE ]
Good players rarely min raise. It is the biggest tell online of a player who doesn't think about the odds they are laying their opponents. It means I have some kind of a raising hand (and even then not neccesarily). It means I'm too scared to put anymore chips in, and I can get away from a reraise as a result. Not always, but I've lost count of the number of players I see min-raising in EP and then folding to a raise.

[/ QUOTE ]

A player really freaked everyone out by doing it all the time in a 300+ £50 MTT last night. I couldn't work it out at all. They made the money too. Once she (probably wasn't a she but was called Rose) did it with AA and then checked flop, called turn and value bet river. Another time, she stacked the BB from the SB with JJ when he had 10-10.
It was very annoying, very confusing, and no one knew how to deal with it.

[Rocco]

I re-raised all-in. Villain showed KK and I flopped an A for survival. What got me thinking about this was that I, a few hands later at a new table, saw a similar situation. Player A put in a min-raise that was about 1/3 of his stack. He got re-raised by Player B (a bigger stack). Player A won with AA over QQ.

Thanks for the answers. Most of you seem to favor the push here since we might not get a better hand, and I guess I will continue doing that. I will, however, keep an extra eye open when shortstacks do these moves...