1/2NL

I know I probably played this wrong on many levels. I would like feedback on how others would've played it given my stack size and position.

Hero ($174): Late 30's wearing hoodie. Has been playing TAG. Hasn't been involved in many pots. Been somewhat card dead.

Villain ($400): African-American guy probably in his late 20's or early 30's. Also playing TAG. Any time he raises, it's a large raise (8.5x BB or more). Haven't seen him make any moves.

Hero limps UTG w/ AK, folds to V in MP who raises to 17. BTN calls, blinds fold. Hero shoves for $174. V calls, BTN calls for less.

Flop: JT5
Turn: Q
River: 6

I would just raise AKcc UTG to $12. I wouldn't try to limp/reraise it.

Plus, I would probably top-off some more. Don't like to play with less than $200.

"Re-buy!"

First off, why are we limping? Tell me something about the table that makes this a good play.
Are people opening way too wide? Is there a maiac on your left that is opening 60% of pots so you can limp/jam limp/3bet for value? Are people just going nuts?
Just raise this up pre flop. Don't limp. Limping AKs is not tag. It's just stupid without some weird table dynamic.

After that, what are you trying to accomplish by shoving? Give me a range this guy opens. What part of this range do you think that he is folding when you shove? Do you expect him to lay down 88-JJ with your shove? Does he even open 88/99 or does he just limp behind and set mine?

Do we think that he will call a 3bet with any dominated hands? Would he fold any pocket pairs to a 3bet instead of a shove, acomplishing the same things but risking less money?

Really, I think once you limp the whole hand is just screwed.

Raise pre, maybe 4bet shove. Maybe fold.
But raise pre.

Open for raise, call 3 bet out of position commit half of remaining stack on flop and suck out on the turn. Ship it ez game.

Edit: but seriously why are we trying to get 87 bigs all in before the flop multi way with ak.... Stick to tournaments if that is your style you will be much more successful.

Why you post results

That's probably why this thread was started. But undoubtedly Hero had good equity against the Villain pre-flop. What was Hero supposed to do three-bet to 51 and then fold when no ace or king came, or even worse feel committed because he has Ace/King and a gutshot on the flop with a third of his stack in the middle?

You probably got treated badly at the table after this hand (did one of the Villains flop a set?), and you'll get treated no better here, but going all-in short-stacked with AKs short-stacked is pretty normal.

3 betting to 51, and putting in a third of your stack pre-flop hoping to hit a flop is pretty bad so once you decide to limp then shoving is okay.

87bb is not short stacked.

Raise preflop. In no-limit, raising is always the way to go. that's why you have no idea where you are in the hand. You said you have been card dead for a while, so you should be getting more credit when you come in for a raise, especially in ep. And its totally player dependent whether you play back at a reraise. Considering you haven't played too many hands you should have some solid reads on the players at your table and what cards they are playing. Make your decision from there.

As a general rule: It's pretty bad to put in one-third of your stack and then fold. There's lots of lots of threads where people put worse than AKs in pre-flop with bigger stacks than hero. And we do have some dead money with button calling.

As a general rule limp-calling is much much much worse than limp-raising. 2+2ers seem to routinely limp-call and they are treated a lot better than Hero is being treated.

What reads do you have to say he had good equity. The villain was described as TAG and solid. Are we really shoving $174 to win $34? You really think that he is going to get called by worse? Best case scenario qq calls and your flipping. Like I said before if we are hoping for a flip why not stick to tournaments?

Grunch
If your stack was more like $100, and you were at an aggressive table with lots of players raising and calling raises then I wouldn't mind your play. Though in this situation you're better off opening for an amount that will be called by dominated aces and kings.

This play will cost you in the long run. Too often you fold out what you want to play against and leave yourself with what you dont care to race with.

do as the others have already stated. Just raise on up UTG.

I don't love the shove, but I'm a bit of an uber nit. You only get called by hands that beat you, realistically hands that completely destroy you. We aren't that short, just call and play some poker. AKs into a 3-way hand has decent equity. With V2 being short and most likely dumping dead money in we have a great chance at stringing along V1 when we make a hand. A big part of that strategy is making a hand first, though.