AKo and AKs are easily the most misplayed hands in MTTs.
I say this because even though I constantly see people donk off their stack with KQ, AQ, and AJ they are still getting close to max value for their hand - I'll talk about that some other time.
The point is that I see people constantly shove huge amounts of big blinds over a standard open when they hold AKo and AKs and you're killing the value of the hand when you do this, especially when you have position on the original raiser.
Most of the value of AKo and AKs comes in getting weaker Ace hands or even KQ to push over you.
Any other situation where you hold AK is either a flip or a cooler where you're crushed. By jamming too many big blinds pre-flop you're giving your opponent more of a chance to fold AQ, AJ, AT, and KQ. I'm mentioning the last two hands since you will definitely see people shove with them in lower buy-in tournaments.
By jamming AK you also make it easier for people to know how you play the hand and you fail to balance your 3-Betting range.
This is an advanced concept crucial for MTT success and I'll devote an entirely separate post to it, my faithful reading audience of zero.
I digress. Here's a quick example of how I will play AK late in an MTT.
1500/3000/150 (I'm guessing at the antes but it's probably close)
You: Late Position with 35 big blinds
Villain: Mid-Position with 26.5 big blinds
Villain raises to 7,500.
You ???
Time and time again I see people just jam with AK here and either get a fold or get into a flipping situation for most of their chips.
What I will do here is raise to something like 16,999 or a similar total. This accomplishes a couple things.
1. It makes my hand look like a monster and hands like 22-TT may fold, thinking they are dominated.
2. It balances my 3-betting range since I will make a similar raise with hands such as 46s, 89s, 9Ts, AA, KK, QQ, and sometimes ATC in the right spots (very read dependent obv.)
3. It may induce bad players to push bad hands. By taking the lead here and having position you're putting a lot of pressure on a weak player to make the correct decision which they rarely do. The majority of the time I will get flatted and take it down with a c-bet (or hit my A or K and stack them) or they will shove over me with something like 77+ and KQ+ in which case I'm not in bad shape at all with all the money already in the middle.
There are other tactics you can use to disguise your hand if you've been with the same opponents for a long time. Varying your 3-bet size is definitely one of them and I'm UTG+1 or UTG+2 facing a race I will consider flatting if there are several aggressive players left to act behind.
Just remember that the biggest value of AK comes from inducing weaker hands, not flipping coins. Keep experimenting with ways to induce shoves and you will probably see an improvement to your results.
9 comments:
Good advice, there.
I think that often times people shove AK, because they are afraid of getting sucked out.
So they fiugre, they are better off winning a small pot here and now, than seeing three low cards on the Flop and not knowing what the heck to do. Or if push comes to shove, suck out on the River.
/j.
I agree. Overplaying AK is the worst way to play it. This article will get me thinking the next time I have AK and am facing a raise. I think I underplay it now, and might try some of the tips you've discussed.
I like your rational for the 3 bet with AK, especially about it getting ranges like 22-TT to fold and inducing bad players to push with with dominated and weaker hands.
Only critique I would offer is that this does make us vulnerable to the stop and go. In the example given, 3 betting to 5.6 BB and having the villain call would bring the pot size to approx 13 BB.
If our opponent open shoves for approx 21BB on a flop that does not contain a A or K, we're in a tough spot.
Also, our cbet on the flop would need to be on the higher end of 2/3rd of the pot, otherwise we don't have the odds (roughly 3-1) to call if they shove over the top of our cbet and they are holding or flopped a pair and we missed.
While I think that you are absolutely correct that too many people rush to shove all their chips in preflop with AK without thinking enough about their opponents' ranges, one advantage of shoving pre with AK is that it gets its full value by seeing all 5 cards.
The stop and go is definitely the one caveat here and a good opponent may do this with a wide range so that is where things start to become read dependent.
I think often enough, especially at the lower stakes, we're seeing a fold or re-shove often enough where we don't need to worry about the stop and go play too much.
A lot of players auto-check to the original raiser from what I've been seeing on PokerStars and if someone donk bets into me and I get to see their cards it's mostly been some type of drawing hand.
Very nice comment. Thank you for stopping by.
Fk,
Thanks for the comments on my blog. I linked you up. Question what were you referring to here?
"If you must play these, the $3r is probably the way to go. I know it's a small sample size but...."
$3 rebuy?
-bag
Fk,
I'm a little confused with your application of Nash theory to 180 SNG turbos. I thought the Push/Fold charts could only be applied to HEADS-UP situations where only TWO players are involved.
For example, if 30 people are left in a tournament and the action folds to you in the small blind, you would NOT be able to apply here? Since there were other players involved. Please correct me if I am misunderstanding. Perhaps you were referring to a situation where you navigate through the entire field and there is just you and one opponent left.
-bag
I still apply it to a 9 handed table if it folds around to me in the blinds or on the button. I look at my opponents stacks and put them on a calling range based on their remaining BB's.
Maybe 'Nash Equilibrium' was a wrong or misleading term to use since it's just push/fold ranges against 1 or 2 opponents in certain situations.
Fk,
You are still correct to apply when it folds around to 1 or 2 opponents. I researched and understand how it can be applied to most situations. Sorry for the confusion. By the way do you have an email I could contact you?
-bag
Sure - tm8979@gmail.com
I was also going to create an AIM account to chat with a few folks about poker so once that's done I'll pass it along.
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