$1100 buy in with 848 entries. First place is $155,000.

There are 17 players remaining, the blind level is 15,000/30,000, the average stack is 1,680,000.


We have 1,500,000 and are dealt AKo on the button.

UTG opens to 75,000 off 2,500,000.

Cutoff calls off 1,700,000.

We raise to 275,000.

UTG jams.

Cutoff folds.

Hero?

17th pays $8,000
15th pays $9,800

I think the question in this spot is whether we believe:

1, Does our opponent ever have a non all-in 4-bet size? Do they ever have a size that contains maybe their absolute strongest hands, like AA-KK or AKs?

2. Does our opponent ever have bluff jams? Does our opponent

For #1, if we believe our opponent ever has a non all-in 4-bet size, that would mean that some of his strongest hands (like maybe AA, some AKs or KK) wouldn't be taking this line.

For #2, if we believe our opponent ever bluff jams worse (like A5), that would mean that we do have some hands in his range that we dominate.

In theory, even with ICM, this would likely just be a call. In practice, I can argue fold if we believe UTG would never 4-bet non all-in (which makes his jam range stronger) or has no bluffs in his 4-bet jam range. It's probably really close one way or the other and if you wanted to fold AKo and only call JJ+, AKs it might be fine.

Yikes this is a gross spot. I think it would depend on image of villian. If it’s an older tight guy, I think fold is easy. If a young aggro guy think it’s a call as I feel AK/AQ show up enough. We block aa and kk and might flip against qq or jj. Wanna say I would lean sigh fold here as it’s not a good spot and we started hand with 50bb. Do we really wanna flip against jj or qq or even be potentially dominated by a very oddly played aa or kk? The shove makes me say I highly doubt they have aa or kk but some folks will just shove to make a hand look weaker than it is. Rough spot. Think I would sigh call and expect Ak. If we flip against 10-10 through qq it’s not the end of the world. Not ideal though.

Probably lean fold bc 50bb is a lot to dust off in spot like this. It’s gross if we run into a better hand. Raising over an open and flat also looks like a steal attempt somewhat as your 3b is gold if it gets through utg opener. In spots like this, it can be super profitable to 3 bet wide if utg is opening loose enough- the flatter behind typically will have a trash hand that will need to fold as they will play post oop.

If we're going to 3-bet fold this combo facing this action I think we should reconsider our 3-bet range. Would you jam vs a small 4-bet from UTG? Would you call a backjam from CO? If no and no then we're not really accomplishing much by 3-betting our AKo here and would be better off taking the flop in position.

AQo makes a nicer 3-bet bluff since it plays slightly worse postflop in a single-raise pot and has similar blocking properties. A5s is another decent one with slightly worse blockers but good playability should your 3-bet get flatted.

If we 3-bet AKo here it should be to stack off happily. Otherwise flat, imo.

im bad but i think v may 4b shove you wider based on you being on button-have you been 3 betting wide?

i feel like kk aa just flats you ngl

I don't completely agree with that. I think there's a lot of value to 3-bet/folding AKo in lineups where people are going to overfold and/or flat your 3-bets too wide but are going to have a very tight, linear 4-bet range. Which is a lot of the pool in most $1100 tournaments, to be honest.

You could argue for a call with AKo sometimes against a UTG open (but probably not often from the button tbh) but once it goes UTG open and CO call, this is a mandatory squeeze spot. If we have AKs and JJ+ in our range, letting AKo go as an exploit isn't bad. As I noted in my previous comment, in theory this hand just happily stacks off, but a lot of the population either doesn't have a small 4-bet non all-in range or has no bluffs in their 4-bet range.

EDIT: The other thing to keep in mind here is that we're the final two tables of a tournament, so ICM is a big factor here. In these ICM spots, our ranges are pretty narrow and polar, and we're probably incentivized to do less flatting in general and more 3-betting. The button is an interesting spot because we get to flat more from there than from earlier positions, but facing multiple players I don't think we do much flatting at all.

Gross spot. Any reads on the UTG player?

Hard for me to imagine they are showing up with anything other than JJ+ and AK. I probably fold my AKo and sometimes call AKs.

I probably fold here. I think UTG range is likely QQ+ with some AK mostly AKs (which would mean we are about 50% chance of flipping or chopping). Even if JJ is in UTG's range it will be less frequent than QQ and I think KK and AA are most frequent. There is no legit size 4 bet that isn't all in. OOP it should be 4x 275,000 which would be over 70% of effective stack.

A JJ shove by UTG gets called by QQ all the time so I don't think that would necessarily be done much.

But if its a young GTO guy who has been 4-betting a bit then its an easy call.

I typically haven't been 3-betting AK a lot against UTG opens unless UTG is GTO or wide EP raiser.

The other thing I consider in these spots is if I think I am not one of the better players left then I will insta call and hope its a QQ flip.

More context:

We have no real reads against villain, his table broke and we haven't played together yet.

Hero probably has a tight sticky image.





Thanks for all the responses. I think this is just a sigh call, too high up in our range and too many bbs in the middle. If we're flipping and we win this spot we're basically a lock for FT barring any punting or coolers.

ICM is stupid anyways more gamble more future.

This is a fold you ****ing donkey