I am curious about the different ways to play this hand in this specific position relative to Villians.

Question 1- How do we want this hand to play out?

Question 2- what bet sizes makes the most sense to achieve that.



In real time i had decided the answer to the first question and then guessed at the answer to the second qustion. I am looking for alternative views/plays.

New table opened about 1 hour earlier. Don't know any of the players, but all are MAWG, as is hero.

V1: High raise percentage preflop. Hasn't shown too many hands. No other reads. Has about $150

V2: Also raises frequently preflop. Has $125

Hero: Been tight, had some good hands and has raised preflop every time he opens if no one has yet. Hero believes the table has noticed this because hero has won the blinds in the last couple orbits because it was folded around PF after he raised. Has them covered

OTTH

Hero UTG, dealt AK

Given i have been the most agg person at the table so far and have been raising every opener and getting folded too, I decided to take advantage of the high frequency of raising from V1 in CO and V2 on button and look for a limp-reraise

Hero limps, one limper to V1 in CO, who makes it 15. V2 calls $15 on the button. Blinds fold:


Hero?

STP ratio is 5, you got a raiser with a wide range behind you and a call. PSB here is 63. 60 seems good?

I'm not sure what else you're asking for. This is the scenario you wanted and you got it, right?

I really don't like this play at all. Just raise pre. As played make it like $80 and don't fold.

With AK? The ideal situation is that you raise, get called by a station with KQ and the flop comes KKrag. Practically speaking you raise and get no more then one caller. If you see a flop you bet and take it down on the flop. As for bet size? Depends hugely on table at 1/2, usually $12-$15.

As played, make it $50 and shove any flop you hit or is garbage. If V1 shoves preflop you can find a tight fold, if V2 shoves he usually has enough lower pairs that your priced in.

In general this isn't a good move at low stakes. Your risking too much to win too little. You either take down a small pot preflop or your risking your entire stack.

While I like your thinking (UTG with AK, 2 aggro V's in LP), 75BB is not deep enough to warrant L/RR, IMO. In a vacuum, the reason to L/RR AK (or AQ) UTG is to bluff-balance the times we L/RR with AA/KK, which shouldn't be that often to begin with. This is because L/RR from UTG pretty much telegraphs AA/KK and is mainly advisable either when we're trapping, or when we're so deep that an open-raise will get loose calls that set up an awkward SPR with 1-pair post-flop.

Remember, when we L/RR with AK/AQ we are bluffing and hope that Vs give us credit for AA/KK. When we L/RR and get called, we pretty much have to fire with air on any flop (continuing to represent AA/KK), which means we're likely behind a calling hand's range when we really hold AK/AQ. If we hit an A or K on the flop, there are probably no hands we beat that will continue.

As played, raise to 50-60. If we get called, open shove any flop.

If either V shoves over our L/RR, we pretty much have to fold (we're representing AA/KK and they're shoving over us). It would take a real sick f*** to shove as a bluff over an UTG L/RR.

yes it is. Without posting results yet, I was first wondering whether the line I took made sense or was it a totally donkey play to L/RR.

Thanks for feedback

Remember, when we L/RR with AK/AQ we are bluffing and hope that Vs give us credit for AA/KK. I was considering this...

When we L/RR and get called, we pretty much have to fire with air on any flop (continuing to represent AA/KK). I also was considering this


which means we're likely behind a calling hand's range when we really hold AK/AQ. If we hit an A or K on the flop, there are probably no hands we beat that will continue. I had not considered this....

You're pretty much giving multiple reasons why this is bad. You have a value hand that dominates villain's preflop calling range and yet you decide to turn it into a bluff that only gets called by better. You should be trying to get value with your value hands and bluffing with non-value bluff hands. You can literally rep AA or KK like this with any 2 cards. Why waste AK doing this?

Thanks for the feedback.


Given my tight agg image and their loose raising I chose the hand and relative position to L/RR, figuring I could probably get some raising money in the pot and end the hand preflop with a big raise. Worst case scenario if everyone limped is I would see a small pot on the flop and have a hand that didn't fit my range.

At the time this seemed a better option than raising UTG, getting called by several and having to play OOP; or raising and winning the blinds.

Results: Hero raised to 50. V1 takes a small amount of time before folding. V2 folds.

Since I don't want to be results oriented as i learn I posted this to see other ways to approach the situation.

Thanks

good points. I did stop and consider that they have wide raising ranges and a L/RR would likely end the hand and take their raise money; I didnt stop to thing about their ranges and how it might be more profitable to let them hang themselves post flop with A5o or something similar.

At the time I was probably heavily influenced by the folds to my raises with big hands the few previous orbits, winning just the blinds.

Not saying right or wrong, just dissecting what was going through my head...also knowing myself.

Grunch:

If you've been raising a lot, that's MORE of a reason to raise AK here. You're more likely to get calls from dominated hands, which is exactly what you want, and stacks are small enough that you can pretty much always stack off with TPTK. If they're going to keep folding to your raises, you should be raising MORE often, not less often.

I don't really mind a c/r jam if these Villains have a maniac-level PFR%, but you absolutely hate when it gets limped around. A multi-way high SPR limped pot is not good for AKo. As played, I don't really see the point of doing anything but shoving. If they call any significant raise, you'll have a SPR<1, which means you're never, ever getting them to fold better when you whiff; you're much more likely to make a postflop mistake than they are.

Some players actually will set mine for huge amounts of money and fold when they miss flop, FYI.

^Yeah good point, I realize after reading responses I was focused more on the PFR and ignoring the caller. It sucks when the PFR flats $50 with JJ/QQ and plays near optimally against our hand postflop, but obv if we're getting called by mid pairs that'll fold otf when they miss, this line is way better.

FYI, a few hours after making that post I was playing 2/5 and 3bet to $100 and I player called with $70 behind. Pot was close to $300. Flop K32r. He checked. I shipped. He tank folded.

I sometimes limp/raise with AA and KK when UTG if the game is deep and action but with AK and stacks being what they are I'd rather play standard and open with a raise.