Max value for AA?

[David L]

Hey guys, I just read the tournament topic “How do you open AA OR KK…” and there was some great advice there. But I was seeking some more input on a hand I just played tonight in a $150K gaurantee.

Blinds
500, 1500-3000

Players remaining 82/440 (43 paid, 21 advancing to day 2)

UTG +1 makes it $8500 (approx 65,000 behind)
Folds to Me UTG +4 with aces ($65000 behind)
I shove
He folds AQ off facing up.

Button says after the hand he was considering shoving had I not made the move. Did I miss value here? My thoughts were not having a multi-way flop. Also the big stack at the table (easily $300,000) was to my left (talk about bad table draw). I just can’t help but think a moderate 3 bet may have been better here. I did win the pot and was happy to have the blinds/antes plus the raise, but wondered what you guys thought.

[Chuck M]

Yeah, you have 22.5 bbs.
I guess you can either shove, or 3bet to 20-25k
that would be a third of your stack, if you get one call, you’re left with a psb for a flop shove.

but maybe villains are aware that if you 3bet a third of your stack, you won’t fold, so it’s pretty much the same… but maybe they’re not aware of that, or, they’re ready to peal a flop with Ax for 20-25k, but not for 65.

[Ian McClellan]

Agree with Chuck here. You have 22 BB at this stage in the tourney – it’s a shove. Original raiser committed 15% of his stack to the pot already, and you had the big stack to your left that might have seen a chance to 2-birds-with-1-stone had he looked down at a decent holding. Had anyone else come along, you might have picked up a MUCH larger pot as the UTG+1 would basically HAVE TO call with a chance to triple up.

As it stood, you picked up 500*9 + 3000 + 1500 + 8500 without seeing a flop. So you increased your stack by 25% (17.5k) without seeing a flop! I call that a WIN. Could you have gotten more value, sure. Could the flop have come Q-Q-10 or 10-K-J or some other buzzkill? Sure. Ship it!

[John S]

That’s the right play in a tournament when you’re that short. I guess it depends on your image, but I’m surprised that AQ off didn’t call. You could be doing that with a lot of hands he’s dominating (like AT suited, KQ suited, etc), or flipping with (42% equity against jacks or lower), so I think a lot of times there you get stacks in and double up. I would have had a hard time folding that there with his chip stack.

[Author]

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