blonde poker forum

Deep in the ipoker $150k. There are 40 odd players left, blinds are 3000/6000 and I am in the top ten with about 100k.

It's folded to me on the button, I have AKos. sb has 50k. bb just about has me covered. What's the best play here?

For me ideal situation - On the button with a monster hand.  You should be happy to get all the chips in pre flop. I depends on your previous BSB play and your own/opps image, but generally I think a smallish raise here - 15k - 18k and be happy whatever happens.

I would raise

put in whatever your standard button raise is, if they pass you've added 10% to your stack, if they play back at you then it's party time. win/win

I'm worried that a raise here will be seen as a button steal and induce an all in re-steal, forcing me to gamble on a 6/4 shot when I'm in such good shape, or B: He pushes with a small pp and I'm racing.

Do I want to be taking a 6/4 shot here?

I raise and don't fold to any RR, but I don't play to limp into the money. Unless you want to wait for big pairs I can't think of a more ideal isuation TBH, always hurts when u lose of course, but your in this game for the long run right?

I want a raise here to be seen as a button steal

Posted by: RED-DOG

Considering you have a premium hand this is a rather convenient situation to find yourself in.

6/4 is prob the worst case scenario as you could well be up against a smaller ace and be a big fav. What a good opportunity. Being worried about what people could do before they do it is not the best mentality either. You have good chips, you are deep, you have A-K on the button, you are the great RED-DOG. FFS does it get any better than this?

17 BB's is deep?!

Raise-call, your crushing the blinds' re-raising range...

16k, call a shove.

Actually Red, you 'know' this already, suffer a bad beat, or just having a bad spell confidence wise?

You should welcome any 6/4 shot especially with stack this shallow as it happens you are likely to be better off than even 6/4!

Raise to induce a jam so 15/16k should do the trick.

Normally I would agree with you, but this is the one player at the table that can bust me, the rest are on 25-40k and are relatively easy pickings.

So far, I'm cruising toward a big payday final table without having to put all my chips at risk. What I want to do is move all in, take down a 9k pot and go back to bullying the shorties. Don't you think there is some merit in playing it that way?

why is that thought even going through your head when you have a premium hand?

you should be thinking that this is the one player at the table who can double you up

I make it 24k to go and he shoves, is it an auto-call?

Why so much?

If your not planning to call a shove why not make it 16 and save yourself 8k...

You have less than 20BB with 40+ players left, you are not cruising to the final!

Because that was the size of raise I was making when stealing from the shorties. I did intend to call if he pushed. and as it turned out, that's what happened.

I was in great shape, the fact that he sucked out is irrelevant. I just wondered if that was the only way to play it.


I think TheChipPrince was spot on when he said "Actually Red, you 'know' this already, suffer a bad beat, or just having a bad spell confidence wise?"

I'm on about 130 tourneys without a final table and I think I'm a bit gun shy.

Agreed, but the rest of the table was very passive and I was picking up chips easily. I just knew if I did anything other than push or pass my AK in this spot, he would rr me all in.

It's ul mate don't start playing scared on a baron spell, i know its hard but you are good enough to see past this and i am sure you have been on runs like this before.

You played perfectly by inducing a bad mistake from your opponent. This actually means you won at poker. This is good. Also the fact that you still shipped in the midst of a bad patch shows you have heart and big balls. This is good as well.

You played perfectly by inducing a bad mistake from your opponent. This actually means you won at poker.

Much more of this kind of winning and I'll be swapping my lappy for some overalls, but thanks for the ego massage.

Although your oppo made a mistake it would have been far easier for him to make 1 if you made it 15/16k if i was looking to re-shove you i don't do it when you 4x

AK is the absolute nuts Red.

Raise 2.5x then fist pump call.

You've been raising to 4x to steal from the shorties so no reason to change that. Raising less is more likely to get a call and lead to difficult decisions on the flop.

You want it to look like a steal and it did so you got the perfect result.

Played perfectly. UL mate.

Did his opponent make a mistake though ? Irrelevant of what his opponent did actually have(i can't see that red has posted what he had and i'm guessing the other guy had a worse ace due to red being "in great shape") if the oppo had AQ and red has been stealing a lot on the button then surely we are always shoving here and it's just a cooler ? What would be our range of shoving hands on a player who is regurlarly making a move in this position?

He had AJ. I had been stealing a lot, but not from this player.

w less than 20bbs its pretty bad to be raise/folding this stack. So when you pick up AK on the button its jackpot. Their 3bet/range is going to be so much wosre than AK so its pretty much a +EV spot.

Try not to turn down too many +EV spots for the sake of "tournament life", especially itm when your essentially freerolling.

Hope your confidence comes back :)

Just ran some numbers, and you have 51% equity against AQ+, QQ+ so please fistpump snap him off.

Posted by: mondatoo

Sure he did. Red has listed some of the factors that made him wary about even opening with A-K on the button. Such as, he is deep in the game and the table is pretty soft, so he doesn't need to take any big 6/4 gambles on. And the fact that he doesn't need to mess with someone with chips. His oppo is going to see things pretty much the same way, but still re-raises all his chips with A-J anyway. He gambled Red was stealing, and he gambled wrong. His only hope is that his move gives him a massive amount of FE, and his oppo will be forced to release even a genuine hand. We can't allow him to be right about that whatever the eventual result.

definate raise from this position, no need to change what you were doing before as you want him to think your stealing, therefore his 3betting range is much larger than AK.. therefore definate +EV move.

Always calling reraise all in as his range is so large compared to what he puts your range on.

oppo had AJ that's just a cooler.

christ, this cannot be real! must be having confidence issues. imo raise less to generate more fold equity in 50k blinds eyes, u raise to 25k he is never pushing as a bluff.

It's not a cooler

so what was AJ's mistake? not knowing that the button had a big hand? maybe he shoulda got in his time machine, gone forward a day, read blonde, and seen that the button had AK, but then if he did that, he might have folded, and given that he won the hand, that would have been a terrible mistake. Results orientated thinking works both ways!

AK is just so strong in tournaments.

I'm raising it pre and I'm going with it if any resistance occurs preflop.

You played it spot on from the sounds of it....

Relax about the mistake comment totalise. No need to go crazy with the futuristic travel stories to make the point you support the A-J push. I don't get why he needs to read Blonde to find out the result though? This is the guy who's there right? Anyway, he's cruising in the top 10 at a soft table, so pushing into a hand and a big stack could be seen as a mistake. Which it was.

lol please stop

are you serious? blinds are 3k/6k and button opens and you have AJ. wow we really need a spirit level smilie.

standard hand by both players, difficult to get ur money in any better just ul.

tom you are not deep stacked or cruising to any final, i would be in "moving zone" looking to 3bet jam any LP raiser with a wide range of hands, looking to raise/call AJ 77+ from any position, AK on the button here is an absolute dream,

remember were playing against $150 players which should indicate a certain amount of awareness how to play. Your main objective in the hand is to get one of the blinds to push. I realy hate your 4x open here. Its just a scared raise and you may aswell push because nobody who is re-shoving on your 4x s passing to your shove anyway. Make it 16k and such a wide range shoves on you, you are dominating a lot of this range. When you 4x however AJ is at the top of the reshove range, as villains fold equity is smaller than if u make it 16k preflop.

As for mantis. This is a cooler no two ways about it. And Tom playing this way your absolutely spewing equity.

Posted by: AlexMartin

Posted by: action man

Deffo, this is something that needs to be considered. You're in a comfortable position at a soft table in what looks like a good tournament. If I'm pushing here I need more than 'guy raises on button' to think that's a good idea. If Tom has passed his button the last 3 hands and has always fist-pump shoved 3-betters with premium from this position then I would say pushing with A-J is a mistake. On the other hand if Tom has been loose from this position then pushing is standard. A-J man knows he isn't getting called by worse so he's essentially turning his hand into a bluff. So the focus on pushing because it's A-J isn't all that solid anyway because you could push with atc and hope for the same result. What's a mistake for sure is saying A-J is an auto-push when you know nothing other than the fact you have A-J. If e.g. Tom has been a rock then it isn't a cooler, it's just some a donk pushing because he has an A and a J.

Tom would have to be such a bad player for his button raising range not to be behind AJ! Especially when he has 4x! Scared raise AJ is crushing that range.

why is this? if im button, im raise calling any ace im opening KQs and any pair,
he is NOT turning the AJ into a bluff here, thats just nonsense

Getting 100k in with any Ace here is leaky if not spewy action man.

i like u mantis, sometimes u have decent and interesting slants on problems and always approach them in a novel way.

however, the above is utterly disgusting advice. this is end-game tournament shallow stack poker, not live deepstack ppl and stacks. we are not in a comfortable position ffs! we are in pushbot shortstack mode and AJ in the blinds should soooooooooooooooooooooooooo rarely be passed to a button open its ridiculous, fold equity or not. Your hand is so strong even a tight even if a tight button opens its a shove ALL DAY LONG. 

I like u too Alex. But please let me point out I'm not offering specific advice about pushing or not pushing with A-J, I just want to contend the fact that A-J is a 'cooler'. My posts are merely intended to clarify the situation before you act. All I have said is that it is something that needs to be considered. For example, a number of people have said that Tom's 4x raise is a 'scared raise' and so it makes the pushing with A-J so much easier. While Tom does reveal he is wary about being played back at, his scared raise is not indicative of weakness. So anyone who has said his bigger raise should be a trigger to push would have mis-read the situation. So let's not just see A-J and push. Let's get properly acquainted with all the facts before we push. We are in a more comfortable position than 75% of the field by the way. And if you feel you have little FE here then you should be glad to snap-call all-in with this hand if the button pushes. I would find that a tough call really, pushbot ss mode or not. And the point is that even if you consider your options for a moment then it means the hand isn’t a cooler. Which it isn’t.

Maybe not shoving with AJ here is why you lose online?

Maybe. Or maybe because I look to consider the situation before spaz-shoving it is the reason I win online.

It's 17BBs. So it's not a leak.

This hand is so unbelievably standard

All he wanted was a confidence booster so GOOD JOB YOU RULE

I really wish people wouldnt say stuff like you got 100k in? 100k is 17bbs and fistpump jam with AK please