Thought flatting villain's raise here was good as it would keep his weaker aces in (i.e. AQ, maybe AJ)...of course it backfired on me...did I play this okay and just get unlucky or did I screw this hand up too?

Merge $10.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $7.33
Hero (UTG+2): $10.24
MP1: $24.92
MP2: $9.54
CO: $20.16
BTN: $10.83
SB: $11.70
BB: $10.00
UTG: $13.34

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero is UTG+2 with K A
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.30, Hero calls $0.30, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.30, 4 folds

Flop: ($1.05) 2 5 A (3 players)
UTG+1 bets $0.60, Hero calls $0.60, MP2 folds

Turn: ($2.25) 3 (2 players)
UTG+1 bets $3.00, Hero calls $3

River: ($8.25) T (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $5.50, UTG+1 calls $3.43 all in

Final Pot: $15.11
UTG+1 shows 2 3
Hero shows K A
UTG+1 wins $14.36
(Rake: $0.75)

[ ] fancy play makes money at uNl

Against a nit flating would be good, but this guy is not full stacked, so it seems he's not a good player. 3bet and go from there. As played flop seems good, OTT shove if you think he is betting AJ-AQ here, or fold when he is passive and not spewy, he could often have here 2pair or a set. Just my opinion.

Very villain dependent. If he only plays vs bets with QQ+, AK then clearly 3betting is bad.

Hero's line is fine. If you knew he was a very loose player and who a) raises super light, b) may call 3bets light though, then 3betting is generally much better.

I don't like hero's line here very much. Preflop fine. Flop also OK. However the reasoning that he's getting more action from AQ/AJ doesn't make sense. Obviously villain was willing to stack off in this hand. That means either that hero was behind, or that villain would have stacked off with AJ/AQ anyway. Therefore, hero either should have folded the turn, or gotten it all in on the turn. Or perhaps raised the flop and then decided from there.

+1

Looks fine to me

I'm flatting pre here almost all the the time if villain is a reg, nit or unknown.
Villain's overbet on the turn is wacky as hell and starts alarm bells ringing. I doubt there is a 4 in his range, but I'm probably checking behind on the river so I can find out wtf he's got without giving him my stack in the process.

Having seen the showdown, you can make useful notes on this player. e.g. He's not positionally aware, raises junk in EP, overbets 2pr+, checks river with the best hand etc.
In future against this player, 3-betting AK would generally be better.

This was played fine. Preflop and flop were perfectly optimal.

Why is everyone advocating for flatting? Op is playing the micros no need for fancy play, he is just giving odds to anyone around him, plus he even has people left to act. If villain wants to play his weak aces then he has to pay.

Ive seen people advocating getting all in with AK because "its the micros, you are ahead of their range!" well, a lot of the time you're not. this isnt 2004 anymore.

That is something completely different. We are value betting , if the guy is an unkown I will fold to his 4 bets ofc but giving him odds to set mine or play garbage hands is ridiculous, esp OP relative to other players.

Elektrik what do you mean with giving odds to anyone around him?

The only thing that might happen is that they call with worse? Maybe they setmine with pairs but I haven't seen people call A3 OTB because there was an UTG raise and UTG+1 call
And even then it would be a GOOD thing having people call with worse

actually I think it's standard to call even AA to UTG raises IIRC because it's kind of extremly obvious what kind of hand you have if you raise UTG+1s FR open as UTG+2

On the hand, I think pre is fine, I think flop is fine

But turn villain is bombing the turn
He is overbetting more than 1.3x Pot

He's totally overdoing it I'd be inclined to fold AK here, what kind of hands do you think he almost 1.5x pot bets here? AT? AQ? Really?
His flop cbet size is a great indicator for what he'll do with his 1pair-ish hands on the turn

+ I think it's better to make a small mistake folding here than getting stacks in and getting shown better most of the time

It's not "fancy", it's standard. 3betting would be fancy because it would be a bluff.