Pre-Flop thought

Pre-Flop strategy: Let’s say there are 6 people left, fairly late in a single 10 person tournament. Blinds are at 100-200 and the avg chip stack is 2500 and you have 2900. I know it’s hard to talk strategy without knowing who you’re playing with but I do have a thought. You hold AKs (UTG) so you raise 3 times the BB (600) and you get a raise from the button - which happens to be the chip leader (has 5000 in chips) raise of 1800 total (1200 raise on top of yours). What is your strategy- call or all in? My first reaction has always been all-in but the more I’m seeing these situations I’d rather call....

1) Most likely with the money he has invested in the pot he is going to call your all in pre flop.
2) If you do call and he is holding small to mid pair and he sees over cards on the flop he might fold if you go all in.

Example: You have AKs to chip leader’s 99. Flop comes up Q 2 10 rainbow... Now here is your chance to move all in and he might think you have hit one of the over cards. If you have gone all in pre-flop you wouldn’t have had the chance to go all in on the flop in this situation.

I hope I have described what I meant by this thought... Reading it again has confused me so I hate to see how you guys interpret it

I understand what you mean, hoping to get him to fold by going all in with that flop, him holding 99 and so he thinks you hit, and folds.

yeah sometimes going all in pre flop to a big raise can be a mistake i would rather wait for the flop to make him think i have something like a 10 or Q then he wouldent be so quick to call..MAKE him think a lil bit...ide sit there a lil bit and make him think im debating on whether to bet or check...that will defiantly worry him..lol mind games

I understand what you mean as well. The only problem I see with this certain situation is that if you call the 1800 preflop, that leaves you with only 1100 left. Now if you move in after the flop and the guy has any kind of hand your probably going to get called anyway. The play your talking about works much better if you have more chips than that or the preflop action is not a large. I think that even with the 99 you might be likely to get a call.

I think that if your going to commit that much preflop and be left with only 5 times the big blind you may as well put it all in.

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theprofessor@texasholdemforums.com

in my opinion i think in this situation you should just fold it up. you've only lost 600 (leaves you w/ 2100) and you can fight another battle. even though you figure it is a coinflip situation, if you call and miss the flop you've invested half your chips and your way behind in the hand. it would of been best if he would of just called so you can see the flop for a cheap price. then if you miss the flop it would be easy to fold it up.

agree/dissagree?

I don't understand your thought here Texas...your afraid to go all-in pre-flop fearing that he has pockets...yet you are the first bettor and are willing to sell a queen in your pocket by going all-in...your opponents pockets could be 22, TT or in fact QQ, also being the big chip stack he might have been pushing his weight around with AQ, AT or KQ...In my opinion you are no better off than the pre-flop risk...I agree with s13 look for another battle, or be prepaired for a quick exit.

Here is the perfect article about this same exact topic with mathmatical analysis.


http://www.tightpoker.com/poker/0604...mit_poker.html

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Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.

I don't know. In this situation I'd rather just push or fold. At this point in the tourney I might just fold, especially if I had confidence in my ability to rebuild my stack with small pots. Unless your opponent is insanely aggresive, it's hard to imagine him having a hand worse that pocket tens. So you're looking at TT, JJ, QQ, KK, AA, or maybe another AK. AQs, maybe, but only if he's very aggresive. So you're probably either a slight dog, or a big dog. If it was an MTT I'd probably gamble, praying for a coinflip, but since it's a sit and go and all that matters is finishing top 3, I'd lay it down.

Here's my thoughts - Assuming you're first to act, this might be a good idea. Clearly this hand is going to end up either All-in or bust, so keep that in mind. You make the call. If the flop comes high cards and you connect, check through the turn and hope to induce a bet from him. If the flop comes high cards and you DON'T connect, push all in and maybe he'd be stupid enough to fold.

It's actually more likely than you might think (him folding), him putting in that extra 900 would be the difference between 3200 and 2300 in chips.

The only hole in this particular strategy, is what if all low cards flop? My strategy would be move all-in, with hopes that he had high cards as well, maybe A with a K-10. The fact of the matter is unless you plan on laying down AK (late in the tournament mind you), you're pot commited.