AA in a huge pot: Tough spot
Player immediately to my left is a maniac before the flop and on the flop but has a tendency to slow down once the turn comes out. Player 2 seats to my left has raised a couple draws on the flop and shown down the busted draw. Rest of the table is more or less SSHE standard.
I'm in the HJ with AA. 2 limps and I raise. Maniac 3-bets. Button, BB and limpers coldcall. I 4-bet, everyone calls.
Flop is 699r. 6 players. 12BB in the pot.
Checks around to me, I bet, the maniac raises, BTN re-raises, folds around to me.
There are 13.5BB in the pot now. Best-case scenario I coldcall and only have to call one bet on the turn and river which means I have to put in another 3BB to win about a 18BB pot.
The problem is the maniac is silly enough to bet the turn with a wide range, so I may be forced with calling 2 big bets to see a river. The maniac is also crazy enough to cap the flop with a wide range, so it could easily cost me 4 or 5BB to see a showdown. It also sucks that we're out of position to both villains. Lastly, just because I've seen the button raise a couple draws doesn't mean that 78 is exactly what he has here or that he's crazy enough to 3-bet a draw on a paired flop.
I'm honestly not sure what the correct decision is. I don't think this is a slam-dunk fur coat dilemma spot, this is a hard one.
Thoughts?
3 Replies
This is a hand that haunts me to this day. I folded to the button's re-raise on the flop because I wasn't properly rolled to be playing casino poker (even 4/8 LHE) back then, and because I was absolutely sure he had a 9. I could easily have needed to put in $40 to $48 to show down my aces.
The maniac had K5o and spiked a king on the turn. I never found out what BTN had but it didn't beat the maniac's 2 pair. 3 bets each went in on the turn, 2 on the river. Had I stayed in and called down that would have been a 33-big-bet pot (to which I'd have contributed 9 big bets, so a 24-big-bet profit on one hand).
This gutpunch is probably, mentally, why it was so hard for me to fold a 2 pair that was so obviously beaten in a recent thread.
But in all seriousness, so that I don't let results-oriented thinking cloud my judgement, let's say I called the flop, the maniac capped, and the BTN and I call.
I check the turn expecting the maniac to bet and BTN to raise which is exactly what happens. Now there I'm facing 2 big bets cold with about 18BB in the pot with the possibility that the maniac 3-bets and the button caps. Can I really call there? Let's say I do call, the maniac does 3-bet and the button does cap. Now it's 2 bets to me and there are 24BB in the pot. If I expect the turn and the river to get capped, for all practical purposes I have to call 6BB for a chance to win a 38BB pot.
If any of my math is wrong I apologize, I'm typing this in a hurry. I've just been second-guessing myself on this for 2+ years and would love to finally put it out of my head and just start playing better poker.
Big pots play themselves. You have top 2p with redraws being ping ponged by questionable players.
About a year ago 2 guys like this got me to fold a set of Jacks on a soaking wet board. Never again.
Player immediately to my left is a maniac before the flop and on the flop but has a tendency to slow down once the turn comes out. Player 2 seats to my left has raised a couple draws on the flop and shown down the busted draw. Rest of the table is more or less SSHE standard.
I'm in the HJ with AA. 2 limps and I raise. Maniac 3-bets. Button, BB and limpers coldcall. I 4-bet, everyone calls.
Flop is 699r. 6 players. 12BB in the pot.
Checks around to me, I bet, the maniac raises, BTN re-raises
Cap. Most people aren't capable of fast playing trips, they get way too tricky/trappy. I mean which is exactly why you should fastplay trips at least some of the time, but still. Capping just makes the rest of the hand way easier to play and the pot is so big you don't really care if they get scared and fold.
