$2.20: AK vs limp/push (first post)

[woohoo88]

Hey everyone. I'm a long time daily lurker, first time poster. In an effort to become more than a (barely) break even player I decided to more actively participate in these forums, starting with this hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

MP3 (t23738)
CO (t6885)
Button (t13925)
SB (t4175)
Hero (t8115)
UTG (t12569)
UTG+1 (t3440)
MP1 (t11444)
MP2 (t2685)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">5 folds</font>, CO calls t200, Button calls t200, SB completes, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t1100</font>, CO folds, Button calls t700, <font color="#CC3333">SB raises to t4275</font>, Hero ?

SB just sat down at the table. Button was 33/5/0.2 over ~30 hands, your typical loose passive micro player.

[zoobird]

Welcome to 2+2. And congratulations on using the hand converter on your first post rather than waiting to get flamed by everyone like most people do before they start.

Button's limp/call looks like a small-to-middle pocket pair. SB's late position limp/re-raise is odd. It makes me think he doesn't know what he's doing (probably a safe assumption at this level). The only hand I can think of where it's not an awful move is if he has AK also. Assuming he's a bad player, we can probably add a bunch of other strong hands to his range. I think button is going to fold, so there's probably going to be just enough dead money in the pot to make a call worthwhile.

[Fiksdal]

This guy is just a donk, and frustrated because you raised.

I'll say he NEVER completes with JJ+ in the sb after two limpers, let alone KK+ (which is really the only thing you are afraid of here). Repush over his all-in, and worse case scenario is you'll get a coinflip with dead money in the pot (which is nice).

Welcome to the forum.

[betgo]

Can't say villain never has AA/KK at this level. A good player would never complete here with AA/KK, but some donks love to trap.

However, SB has little credibility, you have pot odds, and AKs is very strong, not in bad shape against pps and 2-1 against KK. So of corse call.

Since you posted this, I assume you called and SB had a big pair, which as I said is possible in a $2 tournament.

[woohoo88]

I actually folded (as did the button). Usually I call, or in this case push, assuming SB has a small-middle pair or weaker ace type range. Having the button in the hand made me think he was't just pushing because he was pissed at my raise or something.

I had a feeling I overthought this. Thanks for the replies.

[Cornell Fiji]

This is a very basic push.

Even if you knew one of them had QQ the dead money in this pot makes it a highly +cEV all in

[Joe7280]

I would actually shove this over the top to ensure isolation of the SB. If you would have just called, you leave the door open for the button to call and be committed to calling your push on the flop/turn/river by pot odds if they end up with a decent draw. Then again, it all depends on your reads of the other players and your table image.