ITH Poker Forum

[hockeyaces]

Recently in a 26 dollar buy in MTT on Full Tilt I ran into a familiar problem. When the antes begin and players change gears I have a hard time playing AK and medium pairs. With a stack of 14,000 and a M=14 I have AK on the button. My UTG opponent with a stack of 4500 raises to 1200. I push, he calls and wins a AK QQ race. Is it positive EV pushing there knowing his range is likely 88-AA, AQ.

One more orbit I am down to 7300 M=7 UTg+1 with 7's. Is this a playable hand in this situation or a muck. If playable how so?

[MXRider]

Hand 1, easy push w/ AK. Hand 2 is very close. You don't want to shove it first in (blinds look like 200/400) and you don't want to call a shove either. I think you can fold here, but would like to hear others opinions on that.

[IH8Folding]

Your move is good but unluckily your card was beaten.
The best move here if I'm on that situation is call.

[the_hawk]

Hand 1, easy push w/ AK. Hand 2 is very close. You don't want to shove it first in (blinds look like 200/400) and you don't want to call a shove either. I think you can fold here, but would like to hear others opinions on that.

+1 on all of that, assuming for Hand 2 it is 200/400 and hero has 18BBs. 77 is a fold there.

[Taardvark]

Hand 1, easy push w/ AK. Hand 2 is very close. You don't want to shove it first in (blinds look like 200/400) and you don't want to call a shove either. I think you can fold here, but would like to hear others opinions on that.

+2.

AK actually plays better in these spots as you are often getting it all in and not having to play it post flop. Its a hand that plays best to the river and you often don't get that chance early on. Also the range of hands you are up against later on is not nearly as wide as early on so that makes it play better also.

smaller pairs are more difficult since you no longer are able to play them for set value.

[Radford]

Hand 1 i'm pushing this all day long.

Hand 2 is a little trickier. Your stack isn't really short enough to be pushing first in, nor is it big enough to be raise-folding. I think i just fold and not have to deal with either of those problems.

[dauntlessone]

Hand 1 i'm pushing this all day long.

Hand 2 is a little trickier. Your stack isn't really short enough to be pushing first in, nor is it big enough to be raise-folding. I think i just fold and not have to deal with either of those problems.

+1

[chrisjp]

Hand 2 is a fold. In fact I just did it at the WSOP last week, that exact hand ten handed from UTG+1. Sheet's tables confirmed it.

Remember in Hand 1 it's efffective stacks, ie villain's stack size, that controls here. You have him outchipped, by how much is rarely a factor. And H1 is a definite push like the others have already said. Any time you have some FE with AK well a push can almost never be wrong when the Ms aren't huge.

Chris

[McDivitt]

I'd push in both situations.

As far as the 77, with 7M you're very unlikely to get a better hand while you still have a stack big enough to do some damage, so I think you have to go for it.

You need chips, you have a hand, go. That's how I look at it. Yeah, sometimes you'll get knocked out, sometimes you'll just win the blinds, but sometimes you'll get called by 66 and/or AK, and you'll double or triple up.

[redman7027]

With 77 and 18 blinds I limp. You might encourage others to limp and get better odds set mining or pick up dead money if someone squeezes and you can call. If I am raised like 3 blinds from a loose player I push over the top. I would do this especially if I had a tight image. I fold to an all-in raise most of the time unless the dead money is substantial and I think I maybe up vs. over cards. Folding is an option also. Other might disagree but I may play a medium pair this way about 40% of the time. You should have some fold equity. I play AA sometime this way also. This add some variation to your game i think this is variation critial.

[bakedgreen2]

With the pocket sevens, I would limp. Try get a cheap flop. Mabye hit a set or if I get a soft flop like 3 6 6, or 2 4 5 I would shove on it making making my opponents fold.

[leofric]

UTG+1 I'd almost always fold 7s.

I can appreciate the plays the others are mentioning and if the situation is right they could work, but there's no guarantee with that many players behind you there isnt a bigger pair out there.

[chrisjp]

One comment that constantly comes up when favoring a push is that "you are unlikely to get a better hand." While that may be true that is a bit off the mark. The way you survive is by raising and they fold, or by winning when called. When you raise in late position your range widens, which means their calling range widens also. You can have a worse hand in late position, but you can be called by an even worse one.

Everything is relative, and all things considered I'd rather have a raising hand in late position. 77 is a great hand OTB, but it's fairly poor with this size stack UTG.

Chris