PS 4/180 early FT hand, yet another ugly flop for AKo

[HorridSludgyBits]

Very early in FT, no read on villian, except that I'd just called his minraise from BTN from the BB the hand before, called his c bet, and he folded when I donked the turn (with 2nd pair). So, his impression of me might be that I'm FOS, so he may be inclined to be belligerent here.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1600 (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

CO (t40608)
Button (t42414)
Hero (t42970)
BB (t16138)
UTG (t48869)
UTG+1 (t7553)
MP1 (t17300)
MP2 (t54148)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">CO raises to t3200</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to t8000</font>, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, CO calls t4800.

Flop: (t16450) 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero ????

If you bet, then how much?

[PantsOnFire]

All-in

[Sherman]

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All-in

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What? I'd make a standard c-bet of 8K here. Fold if you meet resistance. There is a pretty good chance you pick this pot of here IMO.

[thesilkworm]

Is 8k not a little on the small side? Maybe 10k?

I don't like the all-in either.

And I don't like the small re-raise preflop. Make it 12k and give him a chance to fold preflop.

[black666]

I would have pushed preflop. The pot is big enough (a bit over 6.000) and you don't want to see a flop out of position.

As played I would just shove the flop. Any reasonable c-bet will leave you pot-committed. Also, the standard $4,40 SNG player wants to climb the pay ladder and folds a lot of hands under pressure - especially with 3 short stacks sitting at the FT.

[Sherman]

He has 34K on the flop. If he bets 8K, most of time he wins. If not, he check/folds U/I, leaving him w/26K. Still more than 10BBs and in okay position (not pot committed). Most of the time I think 8K takes it down here.

Betting A/I on the flop is awful. 34K into a 16K pot?

All in PF. Meh...I'd rate that as just slightly better than okay given that we are OOP.

[Mclane665]

10k or 8k would still gain the same info so why bet more than needed. A bet of 6-7k may also get the job done because of the stack sizes. I would make it between 6-8k. His bets seem to represent either AQ-AK or a middle/high pair which means he has a set or an overpair which he probably wont fold, or he has A high and will likely fold.

The problem is you wont make a better hand fold unless he has played a small pair badly and you wont make a worse hand calllike AQ-AJ. You still need to bet though to head off his possible bluff and define your hand. If you check and he will 90% of the time will bet big you wont know if its a bluff or not. If you lead out he will have you on a possible big pair and is less likely to try a bluff.

[Fiksdal]

Bet t10000, and give up if you don't win the pot right there, or get a pair on the turn.

[PantsOnFire]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
All-in

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What? I'd make a standard c-bet of 8K here. Fold if you meet resistance. There is a pretty good chance you pick this pot of here IMO.

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You bet 8K and now villain is looking at a pot of 24.5K with 32K behind. I think with deep stacks, this play works a lot more often than in this case. I don't think he even folds A high. And then on the turn, you have an extremely difficult decision. You'll have a 32.5K pot with 24K behind.

If you are beat, you want a check/fold line. If you are ahead, you want all the chips in right now. I don't see a cbet as useful here.

[PantsOnFire]

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Most of the time I think 8K takes it down here.

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If I'm villain here I call that 8K bet with a pretty wide range. Earlier with deep stacks, I'll fold but here, but this pot is very significant.

As villain, I would expect any overpair to shove this flop. A cbet really represents a big A. And if it's checked to me on the turn assuming no high card, I auto-shove. Being out of position here is a real problem for Hero.