[jomamma87]

This is a follow up to my last post in the Poker Strategy Threads "AJ 5 Handed," only this situation happened earlier in the same tournament...

With still 2 tables of eight players left in the tourney, the blinds are 500-1000. After winning a nice pot of about 20,000 a few hands earlier, I decided to take a food break as my stack was now up to around 37,000 (still less than my original starting stack of 40,000, but you'll understand why over the next few posts). As I hurried back from my kitchen, I sat down to AK suited in the cutoff. With 1 player having already limped into the pot from early position, I make a raise to 4,000. The button, small blind and big blind all fold over to the limper (who has about 80,000 and is a pretty solid player) who immediately re-raises to 13,000. I nearly choke on my sandwich, then quickly decide to muck my AK, turning it over and showing it to him. That raise to me just wreaked 10s or better. Being a nice guy, he turned over JJ saying good fold.

Semi-joking after the hand was over, he said, "I swear, you always do that! If one or two people limp into a pot in front of you, you always raise it!" Now, I don't ALWAYS do that, but I do it every once in a while if I think I can steal. Obviously that wasn't the case when I had the AK.

The question in all of this is should I have folded here? One option is to call the raise, but then again I would be calling off 1/3 of my stack. The other is to re-raise all in, but I would've hated to put my tournament life up in the air on a possible coin flip so early...but what do you guys think?

[FL70]

Originally Posted by jomamma87

I sat down to AK suited in the cutoff. With 1 player having already limped into the pot from early position, I make a raise to 4,000. The button, small blind and big blind all fold over to the limper (who has about 80,000 and is a pretty solid player) who immediately re-raises to 13,000. I nearly choke on my sandwich, then quickly decide to muck my AK, turning it over and showing it to him. That raise to me just wreaked 10s or better. Being a nice guy, he turned over JJ saying good fold.

The question in all of this is should I have folded here? One option is to call the raise, but then again I would be calling off 1/3 of my stack. The other is to re-raise all in, but I would've hated to put my tournament life up in the air on a possible coin flip so early...but what do you guys think?

Presuming neither of his Jacks are the same suit as your AK, you're just a slight dog here (46% to win).

After his raise there's 18,000 in the pot and you need 9,000 to call - so obviously you're getting 2-to-1 odds. But you're only a 1.2-to-1 underdog, so actually you should either call or push. Calling leaves you with 24,000 which is still 24x the BB (M=16) and certainly playable.

If you push the limper is getting about 2½-to-1 odds to call. Which means he has to put you on AA, KK, or QQ to fold - anything else and he insta-calls.

With position, I'm calling and seeing a flop.

[jmc]

You need about 2.2:1 to call if you think he has TT/JJ/QQ (this is the probability that you flop an A or K and he doesn't flop a set). I'm assuming that if you call and don't hit, he's gonna bet you off the hand on the flop. Also, I'm assuming that if you flop an A or K and he doesn't flop a set, he's gonna get away from the hand fairly cheap.

Unfortunately, some of the time you'll flop an A and he'll flop a set, and you'll lose more money before you figure it out. Also, he might call a small bet on the flop if only the K flops.

Obviously if he has KK or AA, you're in much worse shape

If the blinds go up slow, and you have time to find more good hands, I'd say folding is fine. You're not giving up much if you suspect he has a medium/large pocket pair and he plays well.

[guitarizt]

You have to push here.

[julian]

i agree with shoving

[Hopin2Steal]

I seem to recall Jojo doing an analysis of AK some months back. The basic conclusion? Push. AK is a damn fine hand.

[tmpa2001]

Originally Posted by jomamma87

I nearly choke on my sandwich, then quickly decide to muck my AK, turning it over and showing it to him. That raise to me just wreaked 10s or better. Being a nice guy, he turned over JJ saying good fold.

Actually its a horrible fold.
you are slight less than 50/50 here, but the pot is giving you over 2 to 1 odds! 9000 to call into a pot with 18,500.

Its an easy call, or you could EVEN push.
The great value of AK is the fold equity, If you just call and no ace or king on the flop you fold.

but good fold? no way in hell.

[smoore]

1) anyone who limp/reraises w/JJ is probably a donk.

2) bad fold. You can peel the flop or:

3) pooooooooooooooooooooosh. Put dummy to the test... unless you think he can only LRR w/AA or KK (normal LRR hands)

I'll write it off to just coming back to the table and getting a little confused

[monkeydog]

Why show your cards?
If he knows you are capable of "big laydowns", he will rr more.