tournament mistakes i make, how to play?

I don't know why but every time I am doing well in a 1.1$ tourney (4k guaranteed) I will end up mid way just making the money. However, I can never go beyond to make it to the last 20 or so. Obviously a lot of luck is involved, but I was curious whether its the way I play which is wrong.

For example,

last night blinds were at 400/800 and I had a 20K stack, guy on BB had 8K, and guy in mid position had around 40K. So anyway, I get AK on the button, initially guy with 40K limps, I raise to 2800, BB goes all in with 8K. and guy with 40K goes all in. There is me thinking he is trying to isolate the BB and just make it a heads up. So I call, risking my tourney life. Anyway BB had AQ, and mid position had JJ, and he took the pot ending my tourney. So here is the question, was it wrong for me to go all-in, in such a position risking my tourney life, or should I have waited for an opportunity where I was up against a smaller stack, to get to the later stages of the tourney.

Probably simpler than I think, but I always end up going all in pre flop against a person with a higher stack, and lose my entire stack. Thanks

And any tips for middle stages of tourney would be nice as well.

you should virtually never fold AK with 25 bb. this spot certainly isn't one of them.

AK is the nuts there, especially in a micro tourny.
If this is the only spot you have questions about we are the ones who should ask you for advice.

Ya I run into the same sort of instances where I definitely am way +++ ev in terms of chips however I still have a pretty solid chance of going broke on a hand. I feel like folding is inexcusable and I am not very nitty so I don't want to fold anyway, but at the same time I feel as though if I just let it go I will have plenty of opportunities to outplay people later. Still, anyone I ask says get it in so there you have it.

got loads more Q's lol, this was just a recent one. Thanks for the knowledge, do appreciate it

there is a big misconception that some people have, it is the delusional belief that they have an enormous edge over others which they can exploit no matter what. This leads to crazy things like not flipping having PP vs AK with 20 BBs because "you will find a better spot". Do not do this kind of things.

When you have 20-30 BBs left you're not supposed to see many flops, and if you see one you just have no maneuvering space, like you cannot comfortably float someone because it will take a huge chunk of your stack. So even if you have edge it largely evaporates because your strategy space postflop is so much more limited than if you had 200 BBs.

Sometimes it's worthwhile to remember that even if you're the favorite on a three way hand, you're still not going to win the pot even half of the time. Ideally you want to be the one shoving, but you pretty much have to call here.

follow your read and your notes...if utg has made this play before and showed you should have notes on him. you should also have notes on how he has been playing, what kind of stupid/good plays he has made.

if utg has made this play and has showed only QQ+ then this is probbably a fold for me

if you have no read then its up to you....im prolly folding cuz by the looks of it your M>10 (which means you have a ton of chips).....make a note on what the two guys had and get them next time

no don't fold and take them next time, you have AK and that is nuts. 25BBs is not a ton of chips with antes, nor is M=10 or 11. If you don't have 400 hands on the utg guy saying he is playing 4/3/N/A this is a clear ship.

if you are not sure about stacking off with AK here i think i can deduce from that whats wrong with your game---->

you are not throwing your stack in there light enough when the blinds are high

Yeah its a call for me always with that amount of bb left

If you had won the AK vs AQ vs JJ hand and chip up to 48k, would you have made this thread?

i wont say anything fresh but you cant play like you were on deepstack when you dont even have 25 bbs. and definitely you shouldnt hesitate for a second to call here

On August 16 2010 20:28 sTrAtO wrote: If you had won the AK vs AQ vs JJ hand and chip up to 48k, would you have made this thread?

Stratooooo

25 beebs....AK....fold?

does not compute.