Getting killed by AK

[TylerK]

Hi, I've been reading this forum for a little while, but I haven't signed up an account and posted until now.

My luck seems to have taken a turn south in the past week or so. I just busted out of my 6th tournament of the day (1 MTT and 5 SNG). I've only finished in the money in one of them (I usually at LEAST manage to place in 30-50% of the tourneys I play).

In the MTT, I found myself approaching the first break with a little bit under the average stack, and I was dealt QQ. I made a decent-sized (6x BB or so) raise, and got one caller. Flop came up rags, so I pushed in (my stack was about the size of the pot). Opponent flips over AKs. The turn, of course, was a king.

Immediately afterwards, I played a 2-table SNG. I reached the final table with the second-shortest stack. I was dealt 33 and pushed in, no callers. Next hand I was dealt 88, so I pushed again figuring I'd get a caller with a more marginal hand since it was the second time in a row since the final table started. One caller with AKo. Flop no help, turn no help, river a king.

In the first scenario, I'm fairly certain I made the right play and just got unlucky. In the second, I'm not so sure, but my philosophy is that I am at a severe disadvantage with one of the short stacks, and I'd rather take some calculated risks to put myself in a position to actually play some hands instead of waiting for a hand to push in with. Thoughts?

[Fnord]

AK is a good hand. License to print money it's not...

[TylerK]

AK is a good hand. License to print money it's not...

Right, basically I am just frustrated to get busted out by it in two tournaments in a row, especially in the first scenario where I would be a 4 to 1 favorite after the flop, if my thinking is correct. I seem to be losing a LOT of those kinds of flips lately.

[geeftr]

I understand your annoyment at this situation. I recently posted details of a MTT I was in where I received AK twice in 3 hands only to run into AA both times - don't know what the chances of that are but I'm sure it's not small. Thats just the way it goes sometimes. Just forget about it and continue playing with your strategy and hopefully in the long run it will even itself out.

Soupie summed it up in his post where he states we only remember our bad beats - that is so true. Keep playing and good luck.

[michael1123]

AKs is a monster hand preflop, but a shit hand at the flop if you've missed it. A lot of fish have trouble letting AK go if they miss the flop, when it should be an easy fold if someone is betting into them strongly.

As long as he didn't have a flush draw in that first hand, it was a horrible call, especially when it was obvious that you had an overpair from the way you played it (even preflop it was pretty clear, but his call was fine there). You played it perfectly and got very unlucky, but it happens. Players like that are the type that give you easy chips in MTTs, making you a big stack which allows you to handle the bad beats much better, as you're usually not risking your entire stack.

On the second hand, you're a short stack, its a fine play. The 33 one was very risky though, I'd only be pushing with that in very late position.