10bb+ utg push? am i retarded?

[journey075]

PokerStars Game #4163182384: Tournament #20692207, Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2006/03/03 - 17:39:23 (ET)
Table '20692207 1' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: journey075 (1845 in chips)
Seat 5: Hell_Capitan (975 in chips)
Seat 6: billrob46 (1320 in chips)
Seat 7: niceNslow (5175 in chips)
Seat 8: crAAck (4185 in chips)
niceNslow: posts small blind 75
crAAck: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to journey075 [Ah Kh]
journey075: raises 1695 to 1845 and is all-in

[Rockymv]

No you're not retarded. This is +EV. Because it's AK. The question is whether you can get more value out of this by not pushing. If the SB and BB weren't huge stacks, I'd throw out 450 and actually try to play the hand. But here....yeah I think I'd still raise 3xBB. 1650 in chips and I push without thinking twice though. I can't fault you for pushing. It's way easier. I do stuff like this all the time. I think with AQ I'd open push here, but lately I've been trying to get more value out of hands like JJ and AK in spots like these.

[daluchy]

AI is fine. You raise 3x BB here you have 9BB left. You c-bet another 3-4BB you have 5-6BB left. If you get raised AI you are prolly gonna have to move in anyway even if you didn't hit the flop

[vqc]

You could always raise to 3xBB and then open push any flop.

[MAX]

Food for thought: Pushing here often encourages opps. to make the wrong play in response. Someone with A10+ may read you for a pp and look you up, while someone with a pp < JJ may decide to avoid a coinflip with little or nothing commited to the pot. Both are good for you. This is probably a nice spot to expand the 10bb push guideline.

The times I think pushing does not maximize your value are when you scare out a dominated hand that would have hit second best. I don't think this happens enough to counteract the times you are outflopped/go broke to make it worth playing for a raise. The funny thing is, I have played this hand both ways many times and only after thinking about this thread come to this conclusion.

[konahead]

given your chip stack and the other stacks, I think a push was the right move. You're ITM once the two short stacks go out, and you need to maintain at least a blind level stack... nh.

I also would show if everyone folds - so your steals may get more respect for a little while. Pushing and not showing is asking to get looked up when you really are just stealing, so it helps to show your good hands. But I'm sure there are other opinions about that....

[boost]

I prefer pushing preflop, dont know what else youre waiting for... AK is the nuts pf, 5 handed.

[GatorJH]

I also would show if everyone folds - so your steals may get more respect for a little while. Pushing and not showing is asking to get looked up when you really are just stealing, so it helps to show your good hands. But I'm sure there are other opinions about that....

I never show my cards unless I have to. When I see someone make a few moves that look like a steal, then show me one of the 3 or 4 it only confirms that the others were steals.