1/2 scared Aces
Β£1/Β£2 8 handed. Table hasn't been giving a lot of action, whoever shows more aggression usually wins the pot without showing cards. Preflop raises usually not very respected. Hero image is tight but mixing between aggressive and passive. V on HJ sat in short stacked and took a few questionable lines, plays more loose than his stack depth would suggest, had a 40bb stack at some point, and hardly seems to bluff or make moves.
I'm also a bit concerned I have been playing AA too passively. This is the third hand of the session where I received Aces and I got into multiway wet flops. I cbet all of them (perhaps a leak?) but couldn't progress when faced with resistance - and as I show weakness OTT they usually lead turn or river and I am lost.
Hero sees AA on MP
Preflop
UTG limps, Hero raises to Β£10, HJ calls, BTN calls, UTG calls
Flop (Β£43) Kc Jd 5c
UTG checks, Hero bets Β£25, HJ calls, BTN and UTG fold
Turn (Β£93) Ts
Hero checks, HJ checks
River (Β£93) 6h
Hero checks, HJ bets Β£45, Hero?
10 Replies
I think you played it fine, perhaps slightly more pre (but it's table dependent); board is scary by the turn, so I like check. 6h is obviously a blank. I think it feels a pretty trivial call here, and I don't think we get called by worse if we raise.
As played, the river is literally a snap-call when you have an overpair on a board where your opponent likely has no better than one pair, and now you're facing a 1/2 psb when your opponent thinks you're scared of the K.
Although I first said, "well played, " I do think after the villain checks back the turn we need to bet the river, since all but the tightest nits are going to bet that turn with 2-pair or better.
Easiest snap call ever. Unless you can narrow his range to marginal hands only then you can some crazy river check/raises. Lots of passive players just slowplay especially ip live.
His range is either marginal hands kx, jx, missed draws, or slowplayed hands like tj tk, aq, 9q, maybe even 55
I probably like bet bet bet until I know villain has aggro tendencies.
I'd probably turn bet about 1/2. River bet like 1/3~1/2.
Given your described table dynamic, just go way bigger pre with premiums. Itβs live
poker. People have a high size threshold to play. And when one player calls a standard raise there is a domino effect. People at 1/2 arenβt paying attention for preflop sizing tells. Just go as big as you need to in order to get value from just one or two callers.
AP, flop and turn are fine. B/f river.
You induced a river bet, now call it.
I think this is an easy call. Its about half pot on the river. Its not like your calling a checkraise on the turn with more action to go on the river. Raising the river could cost you money. Opponent could have checked back the nuts or he may have two pair he will call with. Call River.
I agree with everyone saying raise bigger pre. I'm new to live 1-2 poker. And it took me some time to learn that standard size raises don't work here. You have to go bigger to thin the field.
The turn card is scary. The straight gets there, there are two pair possibilities, but there are pair and straight draw possibilities that you are ahead of that you need to get value from (like KQ, JQ, QT, AT). Hell players at these stakes will even Play K7 or K6. You also know that V will not try to make a move like a semibluff straight draw raise. This makes the hand easier in that if V does raise he normally has it. You claim V was short stacked. This also makes the hand easier to play. My experience is that most short stacks are also weak handed. If they are strong you will lose small.
I think dangomango had it right
I probably like bet bet bet until I know villain has aggro tendencies.
I'd probably turn bet about 1/2. River bet like 1/3~1/2.
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You should fold if V raises big.
I definitely go bigger pre, especially since they aren't respecting raises. Flop and turn are fine; river is a call. I bet river if I don't plan to call a bet from him.
Thanks all for the replies and apologies for taking so long to post results. Re the preflop raise - table standard was mostly Β£6 to Β£10 and in the very few cases someone raised to like Β£15 it was met with folds all over so I believe people did notice when someone opened bigger. However I guess if I have a premium hand I do want to narrow the field to 1-2 callers and so a bigger raise might be justified. Would I be happy to open to Β£15 with like T9s in LP with one or two limpers? Probably not as much?
Results:
Spoiler
Hero calls and Villain shows KJ. I muck and an Asian kid on my left whispers "AK yeah?" to which I just nod.
Admittedly after leaving the table I questioned myself why did I not lead river as V checked turn. Seems that should have been the correct play as V is hardly raising me on a blank river and he might put me on trips scared against AQ/Q9.
I think check/call was fine because he could easily have bet w/ KQ, etc., but he's never folding better than your hand -- definitely not folding what he had.
I think we would do better to check flop multi-way, when there are more players behind us than in front of us. It's likely HJ or BTN will stab at this, possibly telegraphing their hand strength with their bet sizing, helping to inform our response.
If HJ stabs and the other two fold, we can call. The turn will go check-check, and we can lead the river.
We'll still lose, probably the same amount either way. Just a bad run-out for our hand. Not much we can do.