Ace-King Continue

In my last post I brought up a key tournament hand where I was dealt AKos in the BB facing a 4xBB raise and a caller. I thank Jamyhawk and Dillo for providing their feedback on the hand. As promised, I will continue with the conclusion of the hand and my reasoning for my action. Before I do so, let's recap what happened:

Blinds t150 / t300
Hero Chip Stack: t9300
Average Chip Stack: ~t5000
Dealt to Hero: AKos
Hero in the Big Blind

Everyone folded to the luck-box who was in the Cutoff. He raises to t1,200. The Button folds, and my girl who was in the Small Blind calls. There is t2,700 in the pot, t900 for me to call.

What we know: The original raiser has been showing some aggression with weak hands. He has showed down hands as bad as Q2 suited. He’s a gambling player and the only one that can eliminate me. My girl, who just called the raise, would have re-raised with a monster holding and would have folded small pocket pairs. She has a hand like KQ suited, AQ/AJ, or maybe JJ-TT. She’s just calling here because of the raiser’s aggression, hoping to hit the board and take his chips. I have high confidence she’d re-pop him with AK, & AA-QQ so I figure to have the best hand here.

Let's figure this out, there is t2,700 in the pot and I have t9,000 after posting the BB. That means that a little better than 1/3 my stack is on the table. I strongly believe I have the best hand right now. I know if I make a big bet I am sure my girl will fold leaving me heads up with the original re-raiser. There are 9 people left in the tournament and it only cashes the top 3. With the payout structure I feel that this is a good enough chance, if any, to gamble. Here was my reasoning;

If I raise to 3k and get called, I can easy be priced out of the flop. This will leave me with about 6k in chips and even money with most of the field.

If I fold, well... I'm certainly not folding.

If I shove, I have a chance to gain t2,700 in chips which almost ties me for the chip lead in the tournament. If I am called by the original raiser and win, I will have almost t20k in chips, and a massive lead. Of course, if I lose I am out of the tournament.

Being that the tournament only pays down to three I figured it's a good time to give the green light and I shove. As predicted, the original raiser calls my shove after looking at his watch and commenting, "it's late, time to get this over with", and my girl folds.

The luck-box reveals A-2os and your Hero is standing proud with A-K. Before the cards are dealt I give a little show and hide behind the dealer exclaiming, "fade the deuce, fade the deuce". I didn't. The deuce was in the Window and I was sent on the rail with an unimproved Big Slick.

I knew by shoving I was indeed gambling and I did it solely on the payout structures. If the tournament paid down to 5th or more I would have simply raised it to 3k, leaving me 6k behind, and folded to an unfavorable flop. However, I chose my spot and went with my gut that I had the best hand. I was right, but couldn't dodge the poker god's wraith - or shall I say, "the luck-boxes luck". After the end of the tournament my girl came to me and said she had KQ suited and just wanted to get in a hand with him that had potential. I had both opponents read correctly however this time it just didn't matter.

The luck-box went on to finish first in the tournament, my friend Sana ended up finishing second, and my girl bubbled in fourth. All decent runs for them and overall it was a fun night. I'm looking forward to the next charity event MRS hosts, hopefully my story will have a happier ending next time.