Post your difficult AK situations

[BarryLyndon]

3,000, 80/160, you're utg+1, unknown sits down at utg and bets 320 on first hand. Chip average = 6000, huge tourney.

I want to get my chips in, I'm still at M=13, I get confused as to proper raise amount or just smooth call. fwiw, table has been super loose / passive.

[kurtkatt]

u wanna get it in pf?

if not id probably make it around 600 and go from there, halfpotting lots of flops, delaying some, pushing some.

[Jack-in-a-box]

close your eyes and shove, let the villian make all thinking for you

[chrismystero]

if i wanna make a normal raise/get it in preflop in this situation, i tend to shove over their raise if i have 10x or less of what they have committed. (ie: his raise to t320, you have <t~3200, therefore p00sh). i insta shove here

[mxp2004]

I don't know if you would consider this a difficult situation or not. There were 19 players left in a Stars 4/180. As you know, 18 spots pay.

The blinds were 300/600 + 75. I had about 7,000 chips on the button. There were several smaller stacks.

At a 6-handed table, a player with about 7,500 chips opened the pot from UTG for 1,800. I pushed, and he flipped over pocket 9s. He then proceeded to flop a set, making the ace that hit on the river meaningless.

I think that I made the right decision -- pushing instead of just calling -- despite the bubble. If anyone thinks this was stupid, I'm sure you'll let me know!

[Shocker101]

I push with AK too often sometimes you just want to get them to call u and put if all in on any flop. Either situation works but you may just want to make is like 900 and all in on the flop when u are short like you are.

[comfortably_numb]

To OP: I'd shove here to try and take the pot down uncontested. Your stack is still big enough to scare players behind you - taking a side that s.o. behind you wakes up with a monster.
Re-Raising I think you have to make it upto 1K which is third of your stack - gets you close to pot-comitted.

[Sherman]

You (22 BBs) raise 3xBB from EP. A short stack (8 BBs) shoves from MP. The button (31 BBs) shoves. You...?

Why I think this is a difficult spot:

I have a general rule about never ever folding AK PF. While this rule has certainly made me much more money than it has cost me, it certainly can't always be right.

If we run some ranges:

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

30,825,842 games 44.515 secs 692,482 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 34.274% 29.10% 05.57% 8969179 1717177.50 { AKs, AKo }
Hand 1: 24.568% 23.05% 01.80% 7105282 554835.50 { 22+, A2s+, KQs, A2o+ }
Hand 2: 41.158% 37.01% 04.62% 11407110 1425481.00 { 77+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }


---

30,473,075 games 43.469 secs 701,030 games/sec

Board:
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 35.120% 30.12% 05.62% 9179095 1712254.50 { AKs, AKo }
Hand 1: 24.291% 23.16% 01.56% 7057079 476069.50 { 22+, A2s+, KTs+, QTs+, JTs, A2o+, KJo+, QJo }
Hand 2: 40.589% 36.47% 04.84% 11113570 1473982.00 { 77+, AJs+, KQs, AQo+ }


Against some of the loosest (IMO) ranges we are getting right around 34-35% equity. Meaning that it is likely that it is +EV to get it in...but it is a very tiny edge. Like 1-2% at the most. Also, notice that the button gains on us and the short stack. We only gain on the short stack.

While we are getting the equity to call, it is a [censored] spot.

Edit: BTW, notice that we don't even triple up if we win because we have the short-stack covered. So we are 34-35% equity for the main pot (25.5 BBs) and 48.5% equity for the side pot (28 BBs). Thus, in the main pot we gain .7975 BBs and in the side pot we lose .42 BBs. Adding these together, our total expected gain in this spot is .3775 BBs. So yeah...this is one of those rare times where your edge may not be worth risking your (ZOMG) tournament life.

[sapsuckah]

totally standard no-brainer push, mxp -- bubble or no bubble. You make money from the 4/180s not by getting 17th and raking in your $8.60 or whatever, but by getting to the final three.

[MJBuddy]

I played my first 180 last night; the thing I loved about it was no [censored] pandering about at final two tables. The low equal payout until FT promoted *correct* play rather than weak play until it dropped down to about 11 people, where people tightened up again. I spent more time from 10-14 than I did from 180-50.

Clocked in 8th from a lost race; not bad for my first showing, especially when I was just taking a shot above my BR.

And I would be jamming my AK along the way. You get called down by so many hands that in the long run, closing your eyes and pushing AK everytime you get it is +EV. But convicinging people to play along with you is the fun part.