AK in a turbo, high blinds, should I call?

[rong]

Titan Poker "TURBO" $10 +$1, blinds300/600, hand converted by the iPoker Converter at Talking-Poker

Button fkcIt (1640)
SB DanAronG (4320)
BB flatrate (1270)
UTG Neleap21 (4580)
UTG+1 casperdollock (3190)

Preflop: DanAronG is in the SB with A K
Neleap21 raises to 1800, 2 folds, DanAronG???

Villain is a marginally winnging player, reasonably aggressive and my image is tight, so I estimate his range as 55+ & AJ+, although this is debatable.

Should I judt drop it or shove? I can't see any point in calling as it's nearly half my stack. What do you think?

[GatorJH]

Suprisingly I could not put a model into SNGwiz that makes a call here +ev. The widest calling range I could get to was JJ+, AKs and that was if villain was "Very Loose" and BB was "Very Tight".

[Nakamura]

I've imagined the villain has pushed here, since I don't see the villain put 1/2 his stack into the middle and folding. SNGEGT says pushing here is a big mistake. The reason is because you already have a load of the tourney equity. For this reason, I think (given your range) only QQ+ can call profitably here.

[rong]

Interesting stuff. It seems in general I am far too loose when I have a big stack. If we jknew bigblind was folding. lets say he is disconnected or something. Or alternatively, lets say I'm the big blind, so we know it's definitely only 2 way, would it ever be +ve to call or raise here?

[rong]

Also. how would it change things if we just removed AA & KK from villains range, assuming he would have been more subtle with those cards, how would that change things?

[RightMeow]

i personally would be pushing with AK at this moment... you gotta remember it is a turbo, and although you are seeing more cards your also seeing a lot more terrible hands. Get it in when you have the better hand and if they fold you atleast take down nice blinds. One of the better hands your gonna see in a turbo.

[surviva316]

is there any potential explanation for why the poker programs don't like playing here? if i get AKo w <10BB i'm shoving 95% of the time at least. are we wary of pushing because of villain's range or because of villain's bet? (ie because it smells like a trap)

[Nakamura]

is there any potential explanation for why the poker programs don't like playing here? if i get AKo w <10BB i'm shoving 95% of the time at least. are we wary of pushing because of villain's range or because of villain's bet? (ie because it smells like a trap)

Yes! You have a large proportion of the equity (around 30%) already. Clashing with the other big stack and losing puts you out (i.e. 0% equity), while doubling up doesn't guarantee placing 1st (or ITM, for that matter), or double your equity. I strongly suggest reading up on ICM in the stickies digest.

Forget about opponent's bet size, it's irrelevant here. He simply isn't putting 1/2 his stack into the middle and folding, plus I don't think you can read all that much into his bet-size anyway (unless you can soul-read).

[surviva316]

thanks, nakamora. i'm a converted ring game player so even though i'm aware that chips do not equal money in tournaments, i'm still having some growing pains actually applying that to implied odds and such. i'll be sure to do more reading up on it before i clutter any more threads.

[Nakamura]

thanks, nakamora. i'm a converted ring game player so even though i'm aware that chips do not equal money in tournaments, i'm still having some growing pains actually applying that to implied odds and such. i'll be sure to do more reading up on it before i clutter any more threads.

ICM only applies to calling or pushing your entire stack, thus there are no implied odds to cloud the issue. Once you understand ICM, you can practice using SNGWIZ or SNGEGT. Both have excellent quiz modes and teach you when to fold, call or push. Learning ICM play will definitely improve your results