Hero: mid 20s asian recently sat down ($200)
Villain: middle aged white man (covers hero)

Only history we have is I cbet flop and gave up vs him on a later street.

One limper I raise to $12 in EP with AcAx. Five callers. Great.

Flop ($65) Q54cc

Not a bad looking flop for aces. I cbet 40. Folded around to villain who raises another 100 on top so I'm either shoving or folding. Folded around back to me. Since I have the Ac I'm blocking many flush draw combos. Also six handed it's highly likely one of them hit the nine set combos or handful of two pair (mostly 54s) combos out there even if their flatting range is like up to 200 combos each if not more.

I stare him down. He shrugs and gives me a "do what you gotta do look". I tank folded. Thoughts? Heads up I'm sure AA at 1/2 is the nuts for 100bb on these types of flops. Six way I'm not so sure. Perhaps a check/call line would be better? But then how would we proceed on blank turns? Just x/c the rest of our stack and bluff catch?

Good fold.

What's villain's relative position? How many players are still left to make a decision after him?

I think you have to jam this flop.

If I'm in his shoes with AQ or KQ, given your stack size, I probably make this raise. If I have 67c, I might as well. And his most likely hand is a pair and the flush draw. He's ahead of a good chunk of your c-betting range with that hand, he has a lot of pot equity, and he wants to make sure its too expensive for the other four players to draw to a better one pair hand. The shrug also points toward pair and a flush draw. He isn't sure if he's ahead, but he knows he has a ton of outs. If he has a set there, he should be stone silent and praying for a call.

Villain really shouldn't have QQ here if he's even vaguely competent. QQ doesn't want to play against 5 opponents, and most standard players will three-bet it. He definitely could have 55 or 44, but he's often going to just call you with those hands, then jam the turn once you're committed (whether this is a SMART play or not depends on his relative position).

So I think you're ahead far more often than not. You're drawing very slim against two of the hands in his range. You're way ahead of two other hands in his range, and you're a small favorite over the rest of his range. You've got $150 left, there's $245 in the pot already, and villain is pot committed for his last $50. That's about 2-to-1 odds.

Easy call. Nitty fold.

It's 1/2... depending upon the type of players that usually inhabit your 1/2 tables, many will bet/3 bet/jam with no regard for the possibility that you might have an over-pair. It's as if their hands inhabit a universe in which there is never an over-pair. If you are able to suss out whether your competition routinely has blinders on, it makes calling them easier... even when you know the math is already on your side. Heck, even when you have the nuts on the flop, they will still do things that baffle you:


IN a recent hand I raised AA to $15 in the blinds and got multiple callers (ugh)... I was lucky and the flop was rainbow of A 8 7... I made a pot sized bet on the flop... got 3 callers and then one guy 3 bets me (I thought for a second and then put him on two pair). I came back over him and I put him all in. 2 other guys come along for the ride! The pot was right at $700... one of the guys had A8, the other two were drawing to straights (which, thankfully never got there).. so I stacked 3 players who never thought that I might have a set of aces... they'd put me on AK - A10.

you probably don't even have to cbet $40 - I would bet $30 would do the same exact thing. Most players at 1/2 play so fit or fold that a half pot bet usually takes it down.

That is my general experience

I'd fold as well can't really do much here unless you know the guy is a maniac.

Villain was the first caller. He COULD be raising AQ or KQ to protect from the flush draw as many 1/2 players do with top pair. 9 set combos though and only 6 AQ combos (doubt he raises KQ) along with some half-weighted 54s combos should he flat those.

I cbet a little more when I'm value betting. I doubt they're good enough to notice.

I dont know if I can get away here. worst case scenario is we have 2 outs vs sets and he may have a combo draw or Qx... I dont think sets will raise here for we could easily missed that flop or have TT-JJ, AK and firing one bullet.

I'm jamming here.

100BB? I'm shoving, nh if he flopped a set.

Folding isn't the worst option. But I would have cbet smaller if I am capable of b/f in this spot.

We're barely even a dog to 67cc here, if you include the dead money we're doing fine getting it in.

He can overplay all types of hands here at 1/2 and we're only 100bb deep.

I agree with those saying shove. Was the Queen one of the clubs? QcXc is also a very real possibility and constitutes a lot of his possible holdings.

Given his sizing and his speech, I'm fine with folding. Otherwise, I'm rarely folding in this spot readless. A lot of people raise KQ+ here because they "know you don't have it" and they want to push everyone off of draws. Then, of course, there's combo draws, pair + draws, etc.

I can't fold AA on this flop for $200.

Alright so consensus is AA is the nuts 100bb deep at 1/2 even multi way on safe looking flops. Thanks.

Uhhh this. You are basically committed to this hand baring some insane action. Having your cbet raised does not qualify. I would only start to consider a fold if my cbet got shoved on with a flop of 994 r. and a 2nd villain flatted the shove behind.

People who are saying fold are just wrong on so many levels. This is a fist pump all in

I know to not make that mistake again in the future. I'm too used to grinding 50NL full ring zoom on Pokerstars. Also known as nit ring.