Getting it All-In Pre-Flop in Full Ring Play

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jul 30, 2009 in 100nl | 1 comment

As the month wraps up and I've passed the 10k mark for my new nitty Full Ring experiment, I was faced with a crap-hole trifecta today at the tables during a single session.  I usually play 7 tables of Full Ring play and get in about 450-500 hands per hour.  So during this single session this "trifecta" consisted of KK, QQ and JJ all running into AA pre-flop - in that order!

It was really crazy to have that happen but I was able to make the reads and really minimize the damage.  I was lucky that one guy actually showed the AA to make me feel better, the other guy I **KNOW** had AA and the third time I shoved into the shortstacker (so minimal loss).  It got me thinking about the last 10k hands and hands I've had (and run into) during an all-in pre-flop scenario at Full Ring play.  The rule of thumb is that AKs is the absolute bare minimum and usually isn't even good enough because most everybody won't even get in QQ pre-flop.  Welcome to the new world of nitty 100nl ($0.50-$1 blinds)!  I did a filter in HEM, and here's what it came up with for me ...

- JJ vs AA (shortstacker)
- AKs vs AA (shortstacker)
- KK vs AKs
- AKs vs ATo (shortstacker)
- QQ vs TT (shortstacker)
- AA vs KK
- AK vs QQ vs ATs (2 shortstackers)
- AQo vs A5o (shortstacker)
- QQ vs AA (shortstacker)

Out of the 9 times I've been in an "all in" scenario, a whopping 7 were against shortstackers.  Interesting to look at that and wonder what I'm doing right or wrong.  It's possible I'm laying down hands like QQ or even KK too often (well KK just once this month, and I'll explain why below).  Chances are though I've been making good reads thanks to the HUD and having looked through other villains it looks like I'm on the right track when playing against a fellow deep stacked opponent.

There was a hand, which happened today, where I laid down KK pre-flop.  I can't remember the last time I did that, if ever - of course that'd be a mortal sin in my normal 6max play.  This time around though let's look at the action and villain. 

- I have KK UTG and make it $4 to go.
- UTG+1, a 14/9/2 nit with 3% 3bet stat (note that it's 1% 3bet in EP) 3bets me to $13.
- I 4bet to $30.
- Villain insta-5bets for $110 more
- I tank. I fold.

Although there is no 5bet stats in HEM, I really didn't think I needed to see it.  I had 5k hands on this guy so he's someone I know pretty well and this was just so far out of the realm of normal behavior for him it wasn't even funny.  Given that his probable range was 1% as HEM said it was ... what on Earth could this guy be doing this with?  QQ? Impossible.  KK?  Very unlikely since I have it too.  AK?  Never ever.  JTo?  LOL, who knows.  AA?  That fits the bill perfectly.

I know a lot of players will blindly shove in KK even if the other player is giving off every possible tell they have AA because they beat all the bluffs, are a big favorite over AK (the unlikely possibility) and will suck out 20% of the time against AA.  But in the end, it's still a woefully losing proposition against THIS type of player I faced in the hand.  That's the important thing to note.

That's my 2 cents on the issue.  I'm hoping not to have a big pocket pair run into AA again anytime soon, I definitely had my fill today!