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Awkward hands in awkward situation! Awkward hands in awkward situation!

04-20-2017 , 10:28 PM
I have a general question about how to play certain hands.
Very often I find myself in these kind of situations:
3$ 9 players regular: blind 25/50, table is playing looose.
Cutoff (1500) limp:
Button (1500) limp
Hero on SB or BB (1500) with AKo, 77-1010.
The general sentiment is raising to charge limpers a price.
However if the players are loose, raising to 200-250 wont get anyone out, raising bigger is scary if there is one player behind. And if I get called by one, I think those hand AKo or 77-1010 either don't win a big pot or really hard to play postflop.
Any advice please?
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
04-21-2017 , 07:15 AM
Generally you want to be playing aggressively from your blinds as you will be OOP on all future streets and you want to realise your pre-flop fold equity as much as possible. However, when it's early in an SnG and you have loose players who you don't think will fold to your raise, I don't mind limping behind with hands like 77-TT and getting a cheap opportunity to go set-mining. you should also be thinking about the post-flop tendencies of these other players and whether you will have fold equity on later streets/will you get paid off if you do hit your set.

With AKo you have to raise (and you should be pretty pleased if they do call you) you are going to be way ahead of their range and if they do call you can win a huge pot when you hit.
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
04-21-2017 , 08:29 AM
30bb is a tricky stack to play. You need to not get carried away postflop. Your value comes from getting limpers to call their Arag v your AK, flopping an ace and value towning them. Sometimes their TJo out flops you, and you need to be able to lay down your big hands. That doesn't mean your preflop raise was a mistake.
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
04-21-2017 , 09:35 AM
If youre pretty sure your raise wont get anyone out, then dont raise. Playing AKo OOP 4 ways is a very bad situation.

Its just a matter of sizing your raise big enough to get it down to 1 or maybe 2 callers. If you really dont think anyone is folding to your 5x raise, you might just go ahead and jam. Seems bad this deep, but youre likely to get looked up with worse given your reads on them.
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
04-21-2017 , 10:36 AM
If ppl just don't fold and limp large ranges, jamming AKo is likely best. Doubt it for AKs th, but could be.
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
04-24-2017 , 09:38 AM
Thanks alot guys. Will try to incorporate some of these ideas in my game.
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
04-29-2017 , 11:46 AM
It may seem crazy to shove in this spot, this early in, but you're going to get to that spot soon enough anyway. You will be surprised at the bad hands that will call you. And yes you will take a bad beat from time to time, but that's going to happen. It's very unlikely any of the limpers have a better hand than you and you should be well ahead with hands like 77-TT, AKo.

GL
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote
05-01-2017 , 02:18 AM
Agree with what others have said.

In addition, consider trying a slightly larger raise. In my experience against opponents like this 4-5.5b+1bb/limper with 2+ limpers can narrow the field effectively/win you the pot (learning toward the higher end OOP).
Awkward hands in awkward situation! Quote

      
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