$1+.10 UB, near bubble with AKs

[OrigamiSensei]

For anyone recommending a pre-flop shove: I'm in early position and don't particularly care to bubble out on a coin flip unless I have to. I never seriously considered pushbotting that hand.

Villain was somewhat loose-passive and that did affect my play - sorry for not noting it in the OP.

I chose to bet t1800 as a semi-slowplay to get more chips in the pot. Because of the dry board I used a little smaller bet to make it appear more like a c-bet than a display of power. If he folded the size of the bet didn't matter. If he came over the top I was pretty much committed to this hand anyway. In the actual hand he called which led me to hope he was on a non-matching pocket pair or an ace with a non-matching lower kicker, and that was exactly the result I wanted.

When a safe-looking 4 fell on the turn I shoved. Insta-call and villain turned over A4. No king, jack or nine fell on the river and I was gone. But forget the "bad beat" aspect, I wanted to know if I played the flop right - in a way that was designed to get the most possible chips in the middle or if I should have made the "safer" play and gone all-in immediately on the flop. I'm glad to see some indications that I might not be a complete idiot since I'm pretty new to tournament strategy.

[SuperUberBob]

Moving in immediately on the flop would be the best move IMO.

However, the results would have been the same. Villain calls, hits 3 outer and you smash your monitor.

[Fiksdal]

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Moving in immediately on the flop would be the best move IMO.


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LOL... you are saying this now that you know that villain hit the turn?

OP: This is just a bad beat. Absolutely nothing you could have done about this.

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For anyone recommending a pre-flop shove: I'm in early position and don't particularly care to bubble out on a coin flip unless I have to.


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The reason pushing preflop is non optimal is not because you might get in a coinflip, but because you might scare away weaker aces and lose value.

[nath]

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With an M around 8, I probably would have pushed pre-flop.

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8? It's more like 6. And I probably would have pushed preflop too.

[zoobird]

Oops...my brain is calibrated for Pokerstars. I did the math as if the antes were 25 since its the 200/400 level. With his M actually at 6, this becomes a really easy push for me.

OP - You might be able to get more money in some other way, but taking down the blinds is going to be a big boost to your stack, and if you don't push your really good hands, nobody is going to respect your pushes when they're not so good.

[Fiksdal]

I didn't consider the antes either... sorry. Pushing is certainly allright here. A standard raise is also good though.

[OrigamiSensei]

Zoo, I believe I understand your point about people respecting my pushes. If you raise really good hands and push marginal ones people are going to catch on. A thinking player would be suspicious when a player with an M of 6 simply makes a standard raise under the gun. However, you'll note my opponent was not a thinking player and frankly at this level of play very few are.