Joined: Apr '08
Location: Sweden
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 188
It should be noted that this was touney play, and that depends a lot on which stage of the tourney you are in. For example in a late stage where the blinds are somewhere around 400-800 or something like that you are oftenly pretty short stacked, with maybe only 10-40 BB tops, in that case you can't really make standard raises with hands like AJ+ or low to middle pocket pairs only to fold on semi scary flop. Someone even said you should fold aces on a paired flop with 20 BB, in that case you cant really fold regardless of how the flop looks, and shouldn't easy shove. Please realise the difference between playing cash games where you can wait for the right hand and a tourney where that makes you so short stacked even if you catch the right hand eventually you can double and still be under the medium stack. In those cases AK really is a premium hand, and one I would shove with a lot of the time, since a lot of the hands you will get called by, any ace or king, you have dominated and very few hands, only aces or kings have you dominated it makes it a pretty safe hand to go for in a tourney.
Joined: Oct '08
Location: Germany
Age: 41 (F)
Posts: 113
Posted by ImAllInAA: Keep in mind to play more than just your hand. Dont over play AK...this is really not that great when it does not connect. You might as well have 6-5 if you do not at least pair you hole cards. Do not go around shoving preflop with this hand. Definately raise preflop but only to 2.5x-3.0x and keep in mind position is everything. Be aware of your image (have you been playing a lot of hands or only a few) as well as everyone elses. Do not just think that this is a game of luck, there is a lot of skill involved and you need to capitalize on your ability if you are a thinking player. Plus Pokerstars low limit tournaments are basically a free-roll. I would suggest sticking to the cash games as there is a lot more money to be made on the ring tables than on these low buy in tournaments on the major sites (ie pokerstars, full tilt, etc.)
