The donkey, Ace-King, and the insta-shove...

[kingsnthahole]

So, so so sooooooo many times i see it in tournaments. People just snap shoving all in with AK...i don't get it? I understand if your short stacked, but BIG STACKS, risking their tournament life to another big stack with big slick. I've created a new nickname for this hand...BIG WHOOP...your drawing, always will be drawing preflop...think about this the next time you play a decent buy in tournament and are thinking about shoving all of your chips in with AK...

your playing a 20+2 MTT on carbon poker, you have 5000 in chips roughly and the blinds are 50/100...you get AK offsuit in middle position. You decide to snap shove, knowing that there are 5 other players at your table with stacks about your size...think about this...
ANY POCKET PAIR YOU GO UP AGAINST, YOUR IN A COINFLIP SITUATION!!!
EVEN 22...the ONLY premium hand you can say your legitimately WAY ahead or dominating is AQ...Even if your opponent has JT, your only about a 60-40 favorite...60-40 is not dominating...this what separates the fish from the solid poker players, us rocks know that we dont have to risk our tournament life on a hand like AK, sh!t, i've folded AK countless times preflop because it would have been for my whole stack...why race for your tournament life Pre-flop, when you can see a flop and possibly get triple the amount of your stack if there are more people in the hand...

winning coinflips in tournaments is not what tournament play is all about, it's about having built your stack up winning small pots and being able to throw 1/5 of your stack to call an all in with AK, NOT SNAP SHOVING PREFLOP...honestly, if you win more than 5-6 coinflips in a tournament, then you most likely have the tournament locked down and should cruise to the final table with ease...HOW OFTEN DOES THIS HAPPEN...i think it's happened to me once, and 5 out of those 7 coinflips i was involved in, i had the best of it preflop. By the best i mean, i wasnt the one drawing with AK or AQ, etc...the other 2 or so flips, i had a rediculous amount of chips to call an allin with a semi decent hand like AT or KQ, etc...

please keep in mind i'm not talking about short stack play, if you've only got 15-20 or less BB left, by all means, shove away because for me, with AK and that stack, i'm looking for a caller to double or triple up my stack....theres not much you can do with a short stack but sit back and wait to pick your last bomb to drop and hope it hits...

till next time...call like a fish, bet like a pro, but re-raise like a donkey
gl on the felt

[freeringo]

Shyly raising my hand.

I never said I was a Pro.
Living the Pro life must suq anyway, the ultimate roller coaster
ride of life. Look at Mike Myserack, he has more highs and lows
that a heart can take. I'm a hobby player, and you all just wait for my all-in
Ak hand and call me. I'll take my chances everytime.

[thenutzaa1]

AK suited is not to bad.......

i like to play post flop poker!!!!! people shove and i fold my medicore hands b/c i dont like to get my self in coin flip sititiuons......I will call your all in with AA and your ak is at o% hahaha. people just love to shove and love the action of being in a race.......people love to gamble and you have to know who they are.......
I have also won big pots with AK b.c AK is a lot better than AQ.....

its all about feeling with tourneys!!!!! who is shoving with what and etc.
Sometimes you got to protect and call with 88 or 99 agianst AK......

[taylovesthebeatles]

I swear I should change my screen name to something about always being careful with AK or something. But I won't cuz I like mine just fine. Still, the point stands. Be careful with that hand! And that's not to say you won't win with it if you're careful, because sometimes being careful can get you even more chips when you win with it in the end.

[eejit101]

Without being weird, but to win tourneys you need to win the races.

Ive won now 4 tourneys, well, biggish ones. Won some smaller ones but they dont count.

In all 4 i was involved in races.

However in the $65k one i was involved in only 1 race, first hand @ the final table, 88 vs AK, and i won.

That being said, the guy with AK limped from UTG+1, there were 5 other limpers, i squeezed pushing all in for like 20x more. Easy 1/4 of my stack if they fold. He called with AK and the rest we all know.

Ill more than happily call shortstack all ins with AK, and do some agressive reraising myself with it, but i wont go up against a bigger stack with it unless im in the situation where i kinda need to get moving.

[kingsnthahole]

agreed 100% eej, but you dont win tourneys by racing for 3/4 of your stack or more...

[eejit101]

Ya def not, unless the situation calls for it