$11r - AK in unopened pot with 15BB

[Steelerman]

PartyPoker $11 Regular Tournament, Big Blind is t100 (6 handed) Converter on pregopoker.com

UTG (t3890)
UTG+1 (t3668)
Hero (t1570)
Button (t2440)
SB (t2124)
BB (t6308)

Preflop: Hero is in CO with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
<font color="gray">UTG folds</font>, <font color="gray">UTG+1 folds</font>, Hero?

Normally I don't get out of line with 15BB's and would just play this straight with a raise to 300. BB is donkastic and just doesn't know how to fold. He's called down to river with 2nd pair a few times &amp; has built stack by some lucky hits.

Given this read...how do you play it?

[Jay Riall]

Push given your read. Readless I'll bump this up to 250

[KPL]

Think a push sounds good.

[baltostar]

I'm not sure I see a push here.

With Hero's stack falling significantly behind, might be the time to start inducing large calls and taking AK to the flop. Villain is the money man.

Given Villain is loose, need to strike a balance between forcing out button, sb small/low-medium pairs and draws and making sure Villian can call with marginal. 2x-3x ... hard to say without having played every hand. Sounds like 3x to me.

[Dan.]

[ QUOTE ]
start inducing large calls and taking AK to the flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is never a good idea. You don't want to make a large pot with AK that doesn't involve your being all-in. Are you going to fold a wiffed flop when your opponent bets out? You've already invested a sizable portion of your stack.

I'd just open-push.

[ger664]

There is a difference between calling PF,Flop,turn and river bets and calling a PF shove. If you say him call a PF Shove previously with a marginal hand then I would shove, but I think you get better value by standard raising him and letting him chase or build a pot here when you hit an Ace or King on the flop.

[Dan.]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you get better value by standard raising him and letting him chase or build a pot here if you hit an Ace or King on the flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

I don't think 15BB is the time to start messing around. It's difficult playing at these stack sizes, and I'd err on the side of only picking up 150 from the blinds than possibly losing 1/3 of my stack trying to raise and c-bet, etc.

[ger664]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think you get better value by standard raising him and letting him chase or build a pot here if you hit an Ace or King on the flop.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

I don't think 15BB is the time to start messing around. It's difficult playing at these stack sizes, and I'd err on the side of only picking up 150 from the blinds than possibly losing 1/3 of my stack trying to raise and c-bet, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would not c-bet behind here give OP read unless I hit the flop and villian is most likely going to call a rasie and fold to a push.
I agree this is the most diffcult time of a tourney, and if you are not shoving here you have to be very careful with your Post Flop play as you can get Pot-commited with a marginal hand quite easily.

So in this situation a push might be right. However this might cause him to loosen his calling range when the blinds get bigger and you might get an unexpected spite call later on when you have a more marginal hand.

Personally I do not like shoving more then 10BB unless there is ~20% of my stack already in the middle.

[baltostar]

[ QUOTE ]
This is never a good idea. You don't want to make a large pot with AK that doesn't involve your being all-in. Are you going to fold a wiffed flop when your opponent bets out? You've already invested a sizable portion of your stack.


[/ QUOTE ]

7x BB seeing the flop not really a large pot ... but is 4.67 x blinds.

Villain over the top, all-in works, even 55/45 is good double-up with high stack's money worth 25% your own.

If not willing at this point to take AK to flop, then how do you play a monster ? With stack/BB = 15.7 , you need more value out of your hands than just picking up blinds. Villain is a godsend.