There have been numerous topics over the past month or so where, on paper, many posters including myself, have indicated that Ace King is a raising hand, not a calling hand, expecially when calling all-in. Below is yet another occurance where this situation presented itself to me, and I was undecided as to what to do.

$5 SNG.

Full Tilt Poker 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:55:57 ET - 2006/05/02
Seat 3: Big Stack (7,600)
Seat 6: Rocketwadster (2,845)
Seat 7: Villain (3,055)
Big Stack posts the small blind of 100
Rocketwadster posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rocketwadster [Ah Kh]
Villain raises to 3,055, and is all in
merlinrwy folds

Very unusual bet for this opponent. First time they have gone all-in like this before the flop. They have been very aggressive throughout the tournament, and the majority of the showndown hands have been pocket pairs, Ace - x, two face-cards, and suited cards. Wide range, I know, but that is what I have to go with here. When four handed, this opponent raised 2-3 X the BB about 75% of the time when first in, but that was when they were a big stack (just recently lost a bunch of their chips to the Big Stack).

To me, the range of hands that the opponent would go all-in like this is pretty narrow, those being:

1) Pocket pairs lower than 10 (higher pocket pairs I think they would want action on)
2) Ace-x
3) Two face cards

I am a coin flip against 1), and winning against 2) and 3). I kept saying in other posts that I was confident that I could lay it down in these situations, but once again, whenin the heat of battle, I am undecided...

Rocketwadster calls 2,645, and is all in
ednrita shows [5h 5d]
Rocketwadster shows [Ah Kh]
*** FLOP *** [7s Qh 4s]
*** TURN *** [7s Qh 4s] [9s]
Rocketwadster: nh...gg
*** RIVER *** [7s Qh 4s 9s] [Th]

I say call-

I agree with your assessment- you are unlikely to be behind AA or KK, he wouldn't suddenly go all in with those. You are either against a lower pair (race situation) or a weaker Ace, or maybe something worse.

In addition, since the villian is being this aggressive, you are probably not going to be able to whittle your self into the chip lead, you are going to need to win a big pot against him. You are already in the money, you need a double up to try to take the whole thing down. So not only is this the right thing to do against the range of hands, but also becuase you are looking for a spot to get all your chips in with a good chance to double up. I think it is a clear call.

Easy call. Tight play's fine when you're ten-handed with reasonable blinds, but it's just silly when you're down to three players short-handed like this. I'd expect to run into A2 more often than AA here.

I beat him into the pot.
you are ITM, right?

We were in this one, but even if it was a 6-man SNG paying only 2 spots, I'm not sure I could do it with those chip stacks and that opponent's playstyle, despite my previous comments to the contrary...

re: Discussion about AK being a "raising or calling hand." IMO, those sayings can only hurt you; come up with a range for your opponent(s) and act accordingly. When you start adhering to these sketchball philosophies, you get distracted from the important question: how does my hand play in this situation? You've started to break from it (as evidenced by the post) which is a positive sign

qft

Almost no chance he has AA or KK, very likely he has JJ or worse, AK or worse.

In my experience, QQ KK and AA would raise for value, not go all in here with an M of 10.

The assessment of AK as a raising hand (which I agree with) is applied to full table play, more especially in the earlier stages of a tournament.

I have laid down AK more times than I can count.

Three handed...I'm NEVER folding AK in your situation...against two all-ins, probably, but not in your situation.

I'm calling with A9 here....you're up against A8 and lower, and QK often enough.

Though I agree with your range of hands, with something that's so out of character you can't even rule out that he hit the button by accident.

Regardless, I might even be inclined to add suited connectors down to 6 or 7 to his range.