Ace-King Suited: Easy Call for 30 Big Blinds?
Today I want to look at a hand that represents a fairly common spot that comes up in tournaments — having to make a preflop decision whether or not to play for stacks with ace-king.
In this particular tournament, the blinds were 250/500 with a 75 ante, and with close to 14,000 behind I was dealt A♦K♦ under the gun and raised to 1,100.
Three players called — the next player over (UTG+1), the button, and the small blind. Then the big blind reraise-shoved all in for just about the same 14,000 stack with which I started the hand.
The action was back on me, and I had two choices — to fold, or to call the all in for a little less than 30 big blinds.
Take a look at what I chose to do and listen to the reasoning behind my decision:
I wasn't folding A♦K♦ here. But while my call might well have been easy, the real question is whether or not my opponent should have pushed with K♥Q♣. As I discuss, just calling rather than going for the squeeze-shove would've been a better choice.
Jonathan Little is a professional poker player and author with over $6,600,000 in live tournament earnings. He writes a weekly educational blog and hosts a podcast at JonathanLittlePoker.com. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanLittle.
