Two hands. The first is just a fantasy I have had and I'm telling it because it is funny. The second is the one I am curious about.

1st hand. 1st level 100/100 BB ante 100. We start with 30,000. I have about 28,500 chips. We are 6 handed. Fold fold limp I am on the BTN with T9o so I call, SB and BB check.

Flop is AQJ two diamonds. My T is a diamond. Check check check, I check.
Turn is black K only 1 flush draw out there. SB bets 300, fold, call I make it 1300, fold CO makes it 3900.

This is where the fantasy comes in. My daydream has me shoving here so the other guy with the straight realizes that I not only have the same straight but also a flush draw. And he folds! Reality sets in and CO calls immediately. With AA. Lol. J on the river of course. But what a hand.

I want to buy back in but the new room at the Horseshoe has computer buy in problems and the line that took 20 minutes when I got there early at 9:25am is now triple the size. They did open another window though. I am walking out when I stop and get back on line. Gambling addiction possibly. For some reason things have changed and you can buy in online same day. I try to log into Bravo site on my phone but it won't let me buy in. But! a woman who works there told me you have to do it online not on the phone App. So she helps me go online on my Apple phone. And I buy back in after and get a new seat after only 30 minutes or so. The same seat I was in before. Everyone is happy to see me except maybe the guy who doubled up when I make the point that he got lucky and it won't happen again.

2nd Hand: Anyway. Several table changes later. There are 63 players left (though it could be less because they only update it when they break a table I think) out of 275 or so. Pays 41 and there is a Day 2. It is after the dinner break. Blinds are 3000/5000 BBA 5000. I have about 145,000 chips and the average is about 125,000. Nine handed. I just got to this table so I don't know how anyone plays. Folds to MP who raises to 13,000 with 110,000 chips. Folds to me in the BB and I look down at AKo. Normally deep stacked I would raise to about 52,000. But that would be over 40% effective stack. I don't want to 3-bet smaller with little or no FE and play a large pot OOP. So I jam. My other option (not even in my head at the time) would be to just call and see if the flop had an A or K. Or was QJT or maybe a gutter facing a 10,000 flop cbet.

All comments welcome.

Hand 1. Terrible overplay by villain with AA on AQJK deep. But kind of bad play, you see sometimes. Not sure if push is correct, as villain almost always has a T.

Hand 2. Push seems fine. You could make it 52K and usually shove the flop. You could also make it smaller and shove most flops you miss.

Flat calling seems bad. Obviously, if you defend, you should not just fold to a cbet when you missed.

Your analysis of the AK hand makes me think you might be better playing a little more aggressively and and a little stickier. You can't just fold when you don't have TPTK.

Hand 2 seems like a trivial shove, not sure why you'd take any other line at this depth. (Maybe you could 3-bet to induce, but with AKo I don't really care to induce, and with effective stacks being this short you might be setting yourself up to get flatted OOP with an awkward SPR.)

Yeah, looking at it again, in hand 1, it is probably a reentry, so push seems really good, hoping he will do something stupid like gii with a set.

In hand 2, I don't mind going like 40K with this hand and shoving almost any flop. You don't really have room to raise at all normally with the appearance of fold equity. I might make it like 30K with AA/KK and some bluffs, though. You could just defend, shove, or fold with you entire range though.

I cannot get over how badly villain played AA in hand one. Wow. Limps pre. Doesn't deny equity on the flop on super wet board. Then, once he's clearly worse, calls it off for 300 BBs. Folks like this are keeping poker alive in 2024.

Yea agree with this. At 35bb Vs a 20-25 bb stack, AKo just has to get in. I would probably just rip it in or 3bet 1/3rd of the effective stack and set up a clean psb flop jam (unless we spin an A or K) in which case we can bet small on flop and jam turn.

Idk I wouldn’t flat AK to be sneaky. Hand is just so good as a rip. We might even get called by AJ or AQ. I would just stick your stack in here- we need to win flips. Even if villian has QQ or JJ, we are flipping which we are happy to take at said stack depth. I feel flat would only work if villian was a super aggro player that is going to auto cbet Axx or Kxx flops. I’m not a fan of flatting AKo. I guess you could 3!: I feel villian is going to go with the when if they flat a 3 bet honestly.

Jk pretty much said it. I am only a fan of flatting AKo against a maniac who will 3 barrel at a high frequency. And even then, we have to be prepared to make some calls with ace high, so it's a tricky and high variance play.

I very rarely call with AK in the BB but if I have exposed AK after a 3-bet pre flop from the BB I sometimes will do it. Here I was new to the table.

He had JJ and I ended up getting knocked out soon after.

I can't always be lucky... I just wanted to hear if at this depth in the tourney there were other choices.

So since he had JJ and it held up, flat with AK and fold if you miss the flop?? That is real nit donk play. What are you only shoving KK+?

There shouldn't be. 1/3 of the field needs to get knocked out for you to make the money, so the bubble isn't a concern. (Even if it was, you should jam to maximize your fold equity unless MP is playing the bubble stupidly tight.)

You played the hand correctly and lost, it happens a lot.

(I do have a potentially interesting ICM-impacted AKo hand from a few weeks ago I might post if I remember to.)

H2: I think you have to 3 bet this vs MP (unknown player) OOP. There are going to be a lot of flops without an A or K. You can't just be c/f. I would 3 bet shove or 3 bet and commit myself

H1: Was played horribly by V in every imaginable way ... from the pf limp, to the flop check to the turn call. Just a cooler. If you are going to get sets to call your shove, you should do it all day and night even w/o the flush draw.

H2: Not much to add -- a eff stacks and OOP you either shove or make a pot committing pf raise.