Last Saturday I was playing in the 1/2 game at Hollywood Casino in STL and was dealt AA in the SB. The button put a $5 straddle on so I was first to act. Since I had just won a decent sized pot and was at a pretty loose table I decided just to limp. The BB and 2 others call. The flop is J 3 2 rainbow. I bet $10, the BB calls and the Hijack makes it $35. I think I am ahead and want to see where I am at so raise to $100, the BB folds and the Hijack goes all in for $391. The Hijack had been pretty conservative up until that point. I have about $700 behind. I ask him if he will show if he folds and he says "yea I will show if you fold. I will also show if you call." After about 3 minutes I fold AA face up. So I ask you, how badly did I play my hand? What would you of done differently?

Thanks

WTF.

First of don't raise his $35 - just call it. Your limp pre is borderline but fine if most pots pre are getting raised.

Your lead of $10 is also too small - you are leading $10 into a $20 pot? I would of gone $15 - $20.

Folding to the jam is meh - he is reping 22 or 33 but player dependent I fold this sometimes too. Maybe he has KJ?? I would think he would raise any of his good jacks pre - so 22 or 33 is a very reasonable holding. I am very surprised he would jam it - as I would of just called your $100 raise if I had any of those holdings.

your major mistake was going $100 vs a conservative player. Don't do that. Call and see a turn.

In the midwest, this is a J far too often.

1. Don't limp AA pf unless you are 100% positive someone will raise.
2. Don't raise on the flop "to see where you are at."
3. Don't ask if you can see the villain's hand when you have a tough decision.
4. Don't show your hand if you fold.

I think that's enough to get started with. The bet sizing on the flop is only a minor mistake.

Pretty sure it's ok to limp AA if you're 95% sure it will get raised.

I always find AA's/KK's sometimes tricky to bet size right and not make it obvious of what you have pre or on flop.

Normally though I wouldn't limp with AA in SB. Make a bet of more than half or pot sized bet so players who may have 22's/33's should then fold as any overcards pretty much beat them on the flop.

I would say he could be repping KJ/QJ even JT or in rarer cases AJ.. wouldn't put them on 22's often unless you know how they play with low pairs. Or maybe they did play 22/33 and got lucky on the flop but sure they had KJ or AJ as a jam on top pair from a re-raise is likely. IMO

I don't like the limp pre unless you're sure you can exploit other players who are raising too wide which isn't the norm for llsnl. The lead on the flop is too small, I'm potting this all day every day. I'd expect V to show up with 22/33 here a lot as well as JJ potentially if he's very weak passive and whilst you're definitely disguised here you're not even at the top of your range, if you're limping AA here then I presume you're over limping so will have 22/33 in your range. I would expect V to potentially over limp 54s pre but I doubt he takes this line post flop so the question remains whether he does this with enough Jx which seems unlikely as you block TPTK pretty hard.

I feel like gobbledygeek saying this by you had an SPR of ~20 postflop and put yourself in a position to get one pair in on a dry board, I wouldn't expect you to be good much of the time here.

On the plus side though you only need 36.7% equity to break even here so if you think there's enough combos of Jx here then call. Fwiw I think KK is a better call here as you don't block TPTK and he's much more likely to 4b gii otf with AJ than KJ.

Also major +1 to not showing your big folds and raising to see where you're at.

Limping is fine from this position imo and part of my general strategy vs button straddles. Your only mistake was reraising the $35 bet. You can call down pretty comfortably if you don't 3 bet the flop.

In the SB you absolutely have to raise here. You are at position disadvantage on every street and need to narrow ranges down. The flop bet is a little small. Raising to "see where you're at" is quite bad. Folding is a little weak unless your table reads point to a hand stronger than Jx. You block AJ, but stupid hands that shouldn't be here like J3, J2, and 23 are still here because it is a limped pot at a loose table (this is why we raise pre). There are also set-miners with 22 or 33 in play. JJ should have raised pre, but then again, so should have AA. Same goes for QQ and KK.

Most of the time villain shows up with a set here. If we had raised pre, this hand would be much simpler. I wouldn't be surprised if villain showed 22, 33, or 45. TPGK wouldn't be shocking either, based on how underrepped our hand is.

Don't show your cards. Don't ask to show. Hand is a bit of a mess to be honest.

Why do we care about this? What's wrong with soliciting V to give us some free info?

Don't limp I did the same thing this weekend and got nothing back. Raise

Big pairs OOP when deepstacked have a lot of ROI. With a button straddle, you are in the worst position both pre and post-flop. In these situations (Deepstacked, OOP, early to act pf), the most important thing is to not get too attached to your hand.

I do not believe that there is a great way to play this pre-flop.
1) Limping invites multiple opponents, so you are effectively just set mining. Limp re-raising to 10-15 BB or so often narrows your range to AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQs.
2) Unless you are on the loose side, an early pf raise significantly narrows your range, bloats the pot, and often still gives deep opponents odds to call with speculative hands. Of all situations, this may be the most dangerous, playing with SPRs 10-20.
3) A Large pf raise, i.e. to $100 or so will get your SPR to 3 or so, and be fairly easy to play post-flop, but you will only get called by KK (maybe QQ), so you will only win the BB and straddle.

Of all the above options, I hate #1 the least, especially if you plan on a large limp-RR, i.e. 25-50 BB, or even a re-raise all-in.

If you choose #1, you want to keep the pot small, unless you hit your set or are drawing to the nut flush, as you are against huge ranges. For most board, I find myself c/c most streets. If there is significant action suggesting more than a 1-pair hand, I would fold.

As played, with the large re-raise from villain, I would fold. The only reasonable hand that you beat given that board is AJ, which there are only 6 combinations. There are 9 combos of 23, 3 combos of 22, and 3 combos of 33, all of which are way ahead of you.

Finally, NEVER SHOW YOUR HAND. Poker is a game of incomplete information. Showing your hand helps your opponent narrow your ranges and play better against you on future hands. Now, your opponent knows that he can get you raise for information, allowing him to 3-bet you in the future light.