Daily Hand Quiz

The dealer raising in this situation could almost represent a steal or with just a mediocre hand. The BB in this case would reraise with any hand ranging from A9-AK.

When it comes around to you, as the big stack, I would call/reraise here and not hesitate to call an all in. If one of them has a big pair, then unlucky you. But there is no way you can fold AK knowing you limp for the chance to reraise. If you fold AK, then you shouldnt be playing in the tournament in the first place.

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If we call / shove we are hoping that the big blind doesn’t have aces or kings. The thing is his raise and stack size suggests that’s exactly what he has (who re-raises light for 40% of their stack?!). AK would shove for max FE and QQ would want to pick up the 20% stack gain there and then. We limped for action but got too much, I fold my one blind put in.

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Calling is a horribly weak play, there’s way too much money in the pot for you to try catch the flop. All-in here is very effective because you will move both players off a lot of medium pairs, the fact is you’re only going to make this move with AK and QQ+ which makes the point about the BB’s pot odds largely irrelevant. That your opponents are on the button and in the big blind works even more to your advantage.

Also, consider this: Why did only reraise 3x and not simply move all in? If it was heads up between him and the button, this could be viewed as a transparent attempt to represent a bigger hand than he has, since he his clearly pot committed against the button, but with you in the hand, it is also possible that he held back specifically because of the latent trapping threat you represent as an early position limper. In other words, he could be primed for a big laydown with a hand as good as 99, TT, or maybe even JJ. This spot is tailor made for a four-bet all in.

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I voted fold, calling is awful as we hit flop 1 in 3 times. Reraise or fold here? I can understand a reraise all in but id feel I could wait for a better spot to get all my chips in, I have hardly anything invested, probably getting called by bb if we shipped, probably racing JJ or summit. Id pass with these levels

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While the button 3-bet may be a steal attempt, the BB commitment of ~35% of their stack oop against the hero’s solid image tells me to fold. BB is left with an M<8, so may be pot-committed. 7-4 pot odds with AK is not enough to go any further. Maintain the solid image and look for a spot to vary play later.

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Raise or fold. It’s cheap to fold…

Can you put up some more cash game hands? I’ve been reading the archives, but I’d like to see some new non-tourney hands.

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Shove it. This is exactly what we were looking for. Button puts in a standard steal raise while the table is looking weak. BB picks up some sort of real hand (but doesnt need to be that good) and reraises to take it down knowing full well the buttons range is wide open. Now we shove and unless theyve got JJ+ or AK, theyre not calling. Our play looks incredibly strong after seeing the action, and limp/shoving. We would have to be REALLY unlucky to be behind and/or lose this hand. We’re only looking to avoid the top 2 hands in poker here and nothing I see suggests that they necessarily have it.

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Shoving is a hugely high-variance play. Our EV mainly comes from our fold equity, which is small. I doubt both of them will fold, although that’s clearly what we’re hoping for. If not, then if we’re not flipping it’s probably even money whether we’re dominating or dominated.

I voted for the safe, nitty play: fold. We’ve got a really nice stack right now. We have nothing invested in this pot. Let them duke it out. There are easier ways to chip up.

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I don’t like the limp to begin with because of this exact lack of definition when we “get what we want.”

As others have said, the button’s range is wide, and while the BB has a hand of some kind, there’s no reason to narrow it down to AA or KK.

Isn’t this exactly what we wanted if we’re going to play AK this way? Shove and live with the results. Gotta win some flips to win a tournament anyway, and you may have both players dominated.

The worst case besides AA or KK is that you have one player dominated which is taking away outs against the other’s pocket pair.

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@The Online Sports Bettor

Good side topic; more cash games, less tourney. However, does this situation make a difference if we’re playing cash? I think yes. And I think cash makes a shove, because you can rebuy. I think tourney is a fold; you have little invested, and no idea where you stand. You’re putting your entire stack on the line for a best-case coin flip.

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This is a very rare situation – most of the time it will be just a single iso when we “get what we want” or, even better, an iso and a call.

Limping obviously isn’t the standard but it is a good weapon to have in your arsenal, especially on an aggro table where you’ve been limping a lot.

Shove now.

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stick on online sports betting guy,

If anything the play in a tourney here is a shove and the play in a cash game is fold and wait for a better situation.

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Every one says BB gotta have something. I don’t completely agree on that one. Hero is solid and how many times have dealer made SA’s? If he’s done it enough BB might just be putting he’s foot down. Look at all the vote 43% would fold AK in this spot. What has he got to loose? if BB is actually stealing and 43% is folding to BB’s raise.
if dealer is stealing the odds based on the vote are as follows:
Wins on fold 43%
get’s called by AK 17% of the time wins 3 out of 8 ~ 7% extra
Gets called by over pair 40% wins 1 of 6 for another 7%. All in if dealer is stealing BB is winning 57% of the time in this spot. That’s a broad range of hands.

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I cannot fathom how anyone can suggest fold, you are in a perfect spot for AK preflop

Shove is the safest play, will fold out many medium pairs, and if you are called you’re flipping which is fine.

More daring (and probably worse play) is call hoping to spike A or K and then getting all in – idea being that button calls and there’s potential for a truely huge pot which you can win if you spike an A or K

though personally i’d just shove it

Side note: Why do people always assume villian has AA or KK? Button usually has dog turd here and BB is usually behind you – you really want to get it all!!

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Well calling just wont fit the limp in so raise/fold what 2 do? I think re-raising all in gives 2 ways 2 win n u might have the best hand let alone if thay both call u get the right odds 2 hit cross your fingers n go.

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If we (correctly) assume that BB is pot committed against the button if we fold as getting well over 2 to 1 on a shove, i.e if BB is willing to commit a further 5394 chips to cover the button, do we really think that if we shoved he wouldn’t want to commit a further 2736 and that we actually have some fold equity here?

The raise or fold comes down to whether we have any fold equity to tip it in favour of the AK. I don’t think BB is making that move with anything that is currently behind us (i.e AQ) and wouldn’t be priced in to call our shove. We are behind to a pair and I think it’s more AA-KK than QQ-JJ.

If this were a cash game we would only have 33bbs so of course it’s a 4bet shove.

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Call,Fold,Shove…To call is the worst decision, now your talking a real coin flip and the other players are holding the coin…To fold is a reasonable option, you only lost your blind and there is no risk of losing anymore..BUT your playing poker, if your a good poker player you understand that there is risk involved in getting involved in any hand and with you holding AK pre flop the risk is far less then other situation…grow some balls and shove…if you don’t do this now then you have no chance at being a good player and certainly not winning this tourny.
ALL-IN

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serves me right for limping. Weve all tried to get cute and it doesnt work out. I do think its a position steal which will be passed by the reraise. The BB could have anything from nothing to AA. I fold my pathetic limp.

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If I remember correctly, I think AK is slightly better then 40% to win against a pocket pair 10+ If that’s the case I’m not sure how you can consider shoving. The button is almost certainly folding, but you’re giving the big blind about 2 to 1 on the call. While he could have something like AQ-A10, I think 1010-AA is more likely. Also, there’s the outside chance the button could have woken up with a real hand and he could call your re-raise all in, giving the BB 3 to 1 on a call. Should have raised with AK out of position, now take the easy fold since you have nothing invested.

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