Shaun King, Gives his view on playing AK badly at Monte Carlo Final table

[nirvana]

Peer pressure & all that means they are scared to swim against the tide & make the pretty obvious case.

Yes, we're all scared to swim against the tide and say the AK was played well because of peer pressure.

Wtf Tikay!

Misses the point completely Mr A.

It was a shocking pass, no doubt about it. How does that make him an object of derision, just because he does not play the game so well as you & others?

We don't have to tell him he played it well - he did not - but we don't have to make him out to be some sort of dumbass either. He might be a decent guy, but no, he made a bad play so that's it, case closed, he's an idiot.

Were you always as good as you are now? The geezer made a mistake, 100%, but quite why everyone then has to be so rude about him is another matter. Did you never make a mistake at that stage of your poker journey?

tbf, you make more value judgements about his play here than most did last night

[cambridgealex]

I think there are two camps here and both have equally valid stances. I'm in with the majority - yes I'd be bricking it at 5k, 10k money jumps etc, and I'd obv want to ladder a bit and that would stop me from 6bet shoving T9sooted, but having said all that, I'd be snapping off with AK there even so. I think I'd want a shot at winning 78k rather than going for one more prize jump.

However, this is a, I won't say once in a lifetime, but very rare experience for someone like Shaun. So there's no "longrun" view. If I had a fulltime job and didn't play poker for a living with a family to support, then these money jumps would mean a hell of a lot. Who knows how I'd react. We all like to think we'd play perfect poker on a prestigious final table like this, but I'll reserve judgement until I'm in Shaun's situation. Maybe some of you guys regularly have decisions which have 10k+ riding on them, then fair play to you, but I still don't think it gives anyone the right to ridicule someone like Shaun for playing the way he did.

Congrats on the great cash buddy. Alex

[tikay]

If only I could have assembled & Posted my thoughts on it as well as cambridgealex did. Brilliantly put, every single word.

[Amatay]

i'm with Shaun on this one, Yes he did play it badly but if he thinks he can ladder for a few £1000's more let him fucking ladder end of the day the £1000 buy in has come from his pocket not yours, If you guys  are so great Please write a book i will defo buy it!

I kinda agree with this tbh. From reading the OP the decision making processes seem terrible from a poker pov but ffs let the guy do what he wants

[dik9]

Top Shooting big man, hope you, Charlotte and Holly have a great Christmas

[the sicilian]

With the indicated stack sizes then yes its an insta call... but as stated Mr King is under the bright lights and playing ( for him ) big money.

The only thing to say is congratulations sir and well played.

As for the others.... well glass houses and all that...

[JK]

I had railed you from day 1 Shaun, and it was a pleasure to walk in and see you sat at the final.

I was outside when the AK hand played out, my dad rang me to tell me you were tanking an all in and as I ran back in, I just caught you folding your hand. I told you my feelings in the break following this, and I thought in the spell following that break, you play fantastically. You got your head back and played your game. NOBODY has pointed this out, and I think it should be noted. You made a mistake, you did your best to make up for it and got unlucky in the end.

Great post Alex. Its difficult to know that youll know what to do when the time comes. A 10k descision cant be taken with a clear head unless you do that thing day in day out. At the end of the day, how much does that money mean to someone with a family to care and provide for?

Your a brilliant guy Shaun, and a good friend. Im so pleased you did what you did, just wish it could have been what you wanted.

[EvilPie]

I spoke to loads of people on the rail about the AK hand last night and I said pretty much the same thing to all of them.

He's the one sat there with 20k locked up, not you. He's got there playing his way and every move he's made over the last 3 days be it good or bad is what's put him there and us on the rail.

As Shaun has pointed out Tighty incorrectly reported the hand. I looked at Shaun's chips and he had 40 big blinds left when he folded.

I'm pretty sure there's lot's of players on here who would fold AK for 40 bigs and some of them are the ones who gave Shaun stick. Maybe even Tighty and Tikay fold AK for 40 big blinds? Do you get 16000 in at 200/400 4 hours in to the 300 deepstack? Who knows?........

Personally my chips would've been in the middle before Fraser's but I wasn't there to have the oportunity and Shaun was.

As he said, at the time Ray was much shorter than him which gave a good chance of laddering. With Jack at the table with a big stack he actually had a very good chance of getting heads up albeit with a virtually unassailable chip deficit.

Given Shaun's circumstances I honestly don't mind the fold. The one thing I didn't like was showing it!!!! Shaun...... Why the hell did you show it?!?!?!?!?!?!?

This instantly told the other players that you were laddering and gave them and in particular Fraser a huge advantage over you.

Anyway I've said my bit. In my opinion not a good fold at all but certainly an understandable one given the circumstances.

I'll see you at the bar some time soon for a pint mate. I believe it's your round

Matt

[outragous76]

I think mc makes the point best. Nobody is throwing insults at HIM. they are saying it was a very poorly played hand. Also given kings reasoning for the fold it makes the reshove with JTs absolute folley, whether he is trading an image or not!

I would be really interested to hear what his jamming range was at that time. For example, if he was genuinely laddering then what does he do with JJ or QQ?

Congrats on the score btw, and if I ever meet you at the poker table, I will gladly buy you a drink, if you promise to keep folding ace high bvb to me!

[TightEnd]

Hi shaun. Firstly well done, as I said to you last night. Secondly if I got the stacks wrong, sorry. A function of being a distance away from the table. Couldn't even tell it was ak suited! As to the reporting I felt bad. As I said to jk last night I had to report it but felt bad it wouldl ead to some stick. Could I have reported it better? Maybe. As to the aces comment, well that's just my writing humour. No one thought seriously you were waiting for aces. I did report on hands like the k4 and 10 9 too. Just couldn't understand why you were showing all these to your opponents.

[swinebag22]

Well done for posting up.

Well done for the deep run.

Don't really think the comments were too insulting; just standard fare from a live update thread about a poorly played hand.

[EvilPie]

I think mc makes the point best. Nobody is throwing insults at HIM. they are saying it was a very poorly played hand. Also given kings reasoning for the fold it makes the reshove with JTs absolute folley, whether he is trading an image or not!

I would be really interested to hear what his jamming range was at that time. For example, if he was genuinely laddering then what does he do with JJ or QQ?

Congrats on the score btw, and if I ever meet you at the poker table, I will gladly buy you a drink, if you promise to keep folding ace high bvb to me!

From what I know of Shaun's game he doesn't think in terms of jamming ranges and calling ranges. You or I would probably have a specific set of hands for this exact situation against our perceived image of our opponent but Shaun just doesn't work like that.

He plays poker because he enjoys it not because he wants to study the mathematical side of it and work out the EV of a range of hands against an opponents probable range of hands given stack sizes, playing style and view of his playing style. He won't have even considered "playing off an image".

He goes with his gut and his gut said fold.

As for buying him a drink I'm afraid he only plays at DTD. If you ship me $5 on stars I'll get him a fosters on your behalf.

[LeedsRhodesy]

i would love it if the other guy comes on and says he had AA in that hand

[gatso]

i would love it if the other guy comes on and says he had AA in that hand

we'll see the cards on the tellybox. AA would be incred

[outragous76]

Matt - nh!

Im not gonna bang on about the hand, but his logic is very flawed irrespective of hand strength and gut feel. If you are laddering that's what you should be doing. Been there, done that.