This is a hand from my session earlier today. How could I have played it better?


BTN: 79.4 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 22.92, 3Bet Preflop: 20.00, Hands: 50)
Hero (SB): 205.8 BB
BB: 37.6 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 6.25, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
UTG: 61 BB (VPIP: 42.86, PFR: 28.57, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 9)
CO: 104.8 BB (VPIP: 8.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)

Hero posts SB 0.4 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.4 BB) Hero has A K

UTG raises to 2.8 BB, CO calls 2.8 BB, fold, Hero calls 2.4 BB, fold

Flop: (9.4 BB, 3 players) 2 K 3
Hero checks, UTG bets 7 BB, fold, Hero calls 7 BB

Turn: (23.4 BB, 2 players) A
Hero checks, UTG bets 11.6 BB, Hero calls 11.6 BB

River: (46.6 BB, 2 players) J
Hero bets 23.2 BB, UTG raises to 39.6 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 16.4 BB

Hero shows A K (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
(Pre 64%, Flop 98%, Turn 93%)
UTG shows T Q (Straight, Ace High)
(Pre 36%, Flop 2%, Turn 7%)
UTG wins 119.6 BB

You could 3-bet preflop. That would be a good play. AK is a premium hand.
Flop and turn are fine.
River lead is bad. Why? Just c/c his all-in if he shoves.

3b pre, we crush ranges, don't want to play OOP, and don't want to let two people realize equity cheaply.

Flop and turn seem good, strong hand, tons of SDV vs. range of course, drawing to the nuts, pretty solid. I don't understand what we're trying to accomplish with the river lead, it's not a card that I'd be wanting to deny a checkback for value, I guess we can balance with AhX bluffs but a lot of those want to raise I feel. Don't know, maybe we're not expecting him to really have bluffs when we have Ah in hand and we feel he's going to be checking back most of his pair combos and we want to deny a checkback from those. I'd like to see other opinions on the river lead, I think I can see some merit.

Throw a note down that the UTG player is 1) opening too wide, 3b him with more bluffs, 2) over cbetting and barrelling, float with more value combos and c/r with more bluffs

Thanks man, would you be able to explain hat you mean by river lead? I'm a little lost.

Sure, I apologize I gave you a late-night stream of consciousness that's probably hard to follow.

You're out of position, and on flop and turn you check to the raiser. But on the river, you take the betting lead yourself, and that's called leading out. I used "river lead" to describe that.

Leading tends to be good on turns and rivers in which our opponent is likely to checkback, like a card that slams our range but not his. Leading can also be good to use exploitatively if for example, our opponent rarely ever cbets, well then we may want to lead some flops to get value.

I think the river lead can be okay here as you played it when we have the Ah since it's hard for him to have a flush with Kh on board too, and it's not unlikely that he checks down everything besides a flush on river and we can get value from his worse Kx. I think that's a bit too thin though, I just don't see us getting value from enough worse combos as played to justify it.