Approx. 1/3 of the way into a 100-person tournament. You are among the chip leaders at this stage. UTG to your immediate right goes all-in for about 4x the BB. You look down at AK suited...

first question...do you A. smooth call and hope others come along or B. raise to try and ensure you get to play this heads up and see all five cards.

...I opted for option B and doubled his bet. Everyone folds around to the small blind who moves all-in for roughly 1/4 of your total chips. This brings us to the second question...

A. call, B. fold.

UGGG.. this is a situatin that you are damned if you do and damned if you dont.

You cant fold to the first all-in, so you gotta at least call, and AK plays best HU, so you gotta raise. Problem is now... hes got AK or QQ+. It really comes down to odds... if his all-in is HUGE compared tot he pot at this time, Bail, no need to risk your stack, but if its <5x the pot, I'd call, maybe, if hes normal. If hes been a nut, then I'm calling just about anything.

Originally Posted by Marm

but if its <5x the pot, I'd call, maybe, if hes normal. If hes been a nut, then I'm calling just about anything.

I think his all-in was for about 4x the pot at that point, but to be honest I can't really remember how much extra I was being forced to put in...just that when I counted it out and set it aside it was about 1/4 of my chip total at that point. As for whether he was a nut...can't say. This was like the third hand we'd played since I'd been moved to the table.

Your post followed my thinking almost to the letter Marm. I raised wanting to see all five cards and figuring it would shut everyone else out. When he came back over the top I put him on a pair, probably a very high one. AA and KK I was screwed...anything else and I'm in a race and I'm assuming one of my cards are sitting in the hand of the person to my right. So I mucked and was feeling pretty good about the play...until the guy who came back over the top of me turns up AQ offsuit. @#$!!

Which got me to thinking if maybe I set myself up for that play by going over the top of the all-in player to begin with and putting extra chips in the center of the table.

I'm still pretty certain the laydown is the right play...and it actualy saved me money here because if I had called him in this spot he would've taken the pot by spiking a queen on the flop. (UTG held K3 suited...guess it looked good with the blinds coming)

Yeah I forgot to say that, the UTG could have just about anything, with the blinds coming up, Id put him, ON AVERAGE, on JTs. Basically, given the odds hes getting (implied counted since he guranteed to get some callers) He might as well push with 72s.

Well I hop you did learn from this, that the other guy is a loose cannon and can risk his entiore tourny, with pretty much crap, against a player who has already spoken that he wants to play this hand by moving to isolate.

from what i know i would push pf, but you didnt give enough. i dno how deep the stacks are

Because this isn't a very deep stacked tournament, I'm re-raising all in. You're gonna have to win coin flip in a small stack tournament. Avoiding them, you'll be blinded away.

Originally Posted by blissking

AK is a pretty good hand...its better then AA or KK cause thats only 1 pair..but with AK u can make 2 pairs.

I cannot believe what you just said.

You can make 2 pair with AA and KK as well. To make 2 pair with AK, you need and A or a K and the board to pair or and A and a K. With AA or KK, all you need is the board to pair... NOT TO MENTION THAT YOU HAVE THE ONE OF THE HIGHEST TWO PAIR!!! YOU DON'T NEED TWO PAIR!!! YOU'RE OPPONENT NEEDS AT LEAST TWO PAIR TO BEAT YOUR AA.

I'm gonna go hit something now.

Alex was he serious...?

Anyways I'm re-raising and likely all in.. If someone in the back wakes up with AA or KK so be it.

BECAUSE YOU CAN HIT TWO PAIR, HE'D RATHER HAVE AK THAN AA OR KK?!!!

So, for the same reasoning, would you rather 23 than AA, KK, or AK because you can make one more straight and have the same 2 pair odds? Or do you just think you would say something wrong, have a bad explanation and call yourself clever before you light the next pipe?