AKo pf in a weird spot

[jakeduke]

100NL FT 5 handed. Both villains have about 55 and I cover

Folds to laggy button (50/15 over not too many hands) who raises to 3.5 OTB. Unremarkable - slight lag maybe - SB minreraises from the sb. He has raised pf before but his raises have been bigger than minraises, and he hasn't reraised pf before. I have AKo in the BB. My play?

[Chaos_ult]

I call. Raising is bad for obvious reasons.

The button has a wide range - which makes me think that the smallblind might be reraising somewhat light. You're only a huge underdog to aces anyway..

Take a flop and see what happens

[Pokey]

[ QUOTE ]
I call. Raising is bad for obvious reasons.


[/ QUOTE ]

Raising is not a bad choice if the raise is all-in. AKo doesn't fear much, but it DOES like to see five cards rather than three. Pushing preflop gets you to showdown if called, and that gives you the maximum chance to win against an underpair. It also has tremendous folding equity against mediocre hands like 66-99 that actually are favorites against your hand. With 11.5 BBs dead in the pot, you don't mind winning right here, but if you are called by a smaller pocket pair, you've got proper chasing odds. If BOTH call you, things are even better (and this isn't an entirely impossible situation).

Calling and playing post-flop works best if your opponents are:

- Passive postflop
- Calling stations postflop

None of these items has been established by OP, and I don't find them entirely likely. Also, if we call we're not going to be heads-up (Button will surely call this minraise after we call), and we won't have position: both of these facts make calling less compelling.

Finally, if we're up against AK or AQ, we'll likely fold the best hand on the flop if SB c-bets strongly on a blank board (an unpleasant FTOP mistake given our large preflop wager). We're also unlikely to extract much value if we DO hit our ace or king on the flop, and if either villain calls down a huge bet postflop, we've got to worry that we're going to double them up rather than stack them.

All told, pushing this hand preflop would not be a mistake, and it would probably be my default play unless I had a specific read on how my opponents play postflop.

Against one raise, smooth-calling makes more sense, but after two raises you're not hiding your hand strength with a call. So long as you're tipping your hand, you might as well push while you're at it, since postflop play is going to be quite tricky for you in this hand, sandwiched between the raiser and the reraiser and three betting rounds away from a showdown.

[Chaos_ult]

Thank you for clarifying this

[Bukem_]

fold is fine.

[carnivalhobo]

[ QUOTE ]
fold is fine.

[/ QUOTE ]

not in my book.

A button open a sb repop from shortstacks mean they have facecards or a PAIR zomg. I like pokeys push.

[Bukem_]

Oops, didn't see they both have 55. I shove everytime.

Without a read, I will fold with 100bb though.

[carnivalhobo]

[ QUOTE ]
Oops, didn't see they both have 55. I shove everytime.

Without a read, I will fold with 100bb though.

[/ QUOTE ]

i should fold more often in this spot with full stacks.

[kongs]

for pokey's reasons I say raise all-in.

[jakeduke]

Pokey,

Are you pushing if both villains have 100BB stacks?