Would any of you played this differently?

Last night I made my first trip to Foxwoods to pop my B&M cherry. Sat down at the $1/$2 NL table with $100, and about 45 minutes into it this hand came up.

I'm on the SB with about $120 in chips. Guy in 2nd position makes it $15 to go and 4 people call before it gets to me. I look down at my cards and see AK suited in clubs. Since there's already a tasty amount in the pot (something like $75) I push all-in over the top, hoping to get everyone to fold, but at least get it heads-up. The original raiser who had less chips than me calls, everyone else folds. He turns over JJ, I hit a whole lot of nothing on the flop, and just like that the dream is over.

I'm not calling this a bad beat or anything, I was just wondering if you guys would make the same play there for all your chips?? ...or is that a situation when I should be folding and waiting for a better spot?

This is one of the toughiest situations for me. You know if you call, you will be first to act= Reason to fold. You could flop tbe best hand if an Ace or King hits= Good implied odds and reason to call.

The all in isn't really bad, im surprised he called with JJ after that many callers.

I would've called hoping for like an AKx flop or flopping a flush draw.

I like AK multiway. It's a drawing hand and your all-in from OOP with a big raiser (smelled alot like 99, TT, JJ) looks weak. It looks like you are trying to steal the pot. Bigger pockets would raise to draw money into the pot, not go all-in. AKs will lose to 22 53% of the time, right?

I would have called it and perhaps gotten multiway action. Now, if multiway, your pot odds to hit A or K on the flop will work for you and if you do hit you can push all-in there. If you don't hit, you drop that hand OOP. Its dead and buried.

Another approach (if you had position) is to raise it PF and represent AA/KK. A tight plr may fold JJ PF to a big raise. Its a semi-bluff. The all-in was your attempt at this but it looked weak.

Your play is fine. Don't expect any AQs to call you but it's fine to push from the SB to negate your positional disadvantage.

-'rilla

you lost a coinflip, it happens, rebuy and take his money if he is going to call AIs with JJ.

Sorry, but I think this was a bad play, at least for a live game.

In live games people play a LOT more loose (this is probably the chief difference between live and online play). This is because people are anxious to see flops being at only one table and limited to how many hands they see per hour. In other words, they get bored and want action.

There's no way here that JJ QQ KK AA lays down their hand to your all in, and with the big raise and 4 callers, Its almost certain someone is sporting one of these hands. Just think of it this way, that JJ was probably the best hand he saw all night. Do you really think he's going to lay it down pre-flop?

You only go all in with AKs (or AKo) if you think everyone is going to fold, as a semi-bluff of sorts, repping AA or KK. You dont go all in for value, because the only callers you get are people with pocket pairs, and they are generally even if not ahead slightly. Here I think it was obvious someone would call and make it a race (a race you were behind slightly, 54-46). Or someone could have KK or AA and you could be way behind (a very likely possiblity).

I would call the raise and wait for A or a K. When you get one of those, move all in, dont worry about the set, theres no easy way to make a lay down here with that short of a stack anyway. If you get a flush draw with overs, just be patient and wait to hit, then strike.

Also, because you're so shallow-stacked and the pre-flop raise was so large, position is not going to matter as much here, so I think you should be OK even being the first to act.