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all in pre flop with A,K
just got seated to a new table of ten. (20 players left)
Blinds were 800,1600. Was third to act with A,K unsuited and open raised to 4000. Left me with 21,000. Next guy calls then next goes all in. both players had about 60k. It folds around to me and i call.
Was this the right play? Did not have any information on the all in player. Was also the short stack at the table.
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You are early position with short stack, by my opinion AK do not flop good. 4000 is raise not fold to any 3bet/ 4bet and all in. You should be first all in, pick up blinds. Collecting 2400 chips is big addition for your stack.
A couple quick questions that impact things a bit:
How many spots are getting paid? Are you in the money if not, how far off the money are you?
Are there antes?
Really tough when tables break to know what actions of unfamiliar players mean. All-in could be an aggressive player making a move with suited connectors (unlikely but possible), or someone who does this with only AA and KK. So in the absence of this you probably need to assess this from pure math and tournament strategy perspectives.
I think you can assume the caller with about 60K will likely fold as if he did not raise you I doubt he is calling off his entire stack of almost 40 blinds with an all in and a call in front of him. He's folding, or should, most of his holdings. So if we assume he folds, and for the moment I am going to assume 200 chip ante, the pot is about $33,400 ($2,000 antes, $2,400 blinds, $4,000 your raise, $4,000 middle position call, and $21,000 the effective stack all-in) so you are getting a little more than 3:2 to call, so you need a littles less than 40% equity to continue just viewing this in terms of profitability.
So do you have that? If I put your all-in opponent's range in to a calculator (https://www.advancedpokertraining.com/poker/winning-percentage-odds-calculator/) as a very premium range TT through AA, AKo, AKs, and AQs, then you are not in terrible shape about 43%, even if you drop AQs and TT from that you are only down to about 40%. And you have some blockers so some of those hands so that increases your equity a bit.
However, what about the hand that we think folded? What was his range calling? Taking out big pairs and AK which would have most likely raised from MP, you are left with some suited Aces, AQo, KQs, and middle pairs mostly like if the player is fairly competent and we'll assume he is having gotten deep. Suited connectors are likely out as they are not getting the odds with your stack being so small. So problem is many of his holdings likely contain your outs if you are facing a TT-KK. So that lowers your equity a bit.
So I think you are right on the border here in terms of pot odds vs. equity, all things considered. If you are on the pay bubble, well in terms of ICM that means you tilt toward a fold. However, if you are several spots away, or are already in the money, I think you have a very hard time letting go AKo given: 1) you are left with only 13 blinds if you fold; 2) you are the small stack at the table and 3) being new to table you probably don't have a great sense who you can push around with all-in shoves moving forward.
I think in your circumstances your call is the right one. Deeper stacked folding is more justifiable, but not here.
I am curious to hear what happened. It is a little similar to a hand I posted about a few days ago. I was UTG, and I shoved my AKo. It went horribly wrong. However, I was wondering here if you might have been better off to have open shoved.
thanks for all the responses. What happened was the all in raiser had Q,Q so even an all is shove to open would have been called i think. I bricked out and was done in 20th. Only 7 got paid. the guy that folded did show a K,9 so he did take one of my outs, to be honest something i had not considered. pgearan your analysis is much appreciated.
thanks again.