Seat 1-80
Seat 2-500
Seat 3-280 (Hero)
Seat 4-60
Seat 5-100 (Button)
seat 6-80 (SB)
Seat 7-300 (BB)
Seat 8-200
Seat 9-350 (Villain)
Seat 10-300

The usual 1/2 NL at foxwoods, Just sat down so no real reads on anyone.

Villain in EP raises to 10, Fold around to hero in cutoff who flats with AA. Folds around.

My reason for flatting before the flop was kind of randomization. I flipped a coin in my head and it said to flat.

Flop-Kd 8s 3d

Villain Bets 20. Hero raises to 80. Villain (who virtually snap shoves and manually puts his chips in the pot) shoves. Hero....?


The player was about 30 or so. The standard hope-la-tron kind of dude who plays at 1/2.

Call

I think he does this with AK enough. Maybe sometimes with just a FD?

also the snap call makes me think he's not nutted since he'd likely take some time to think how best to extract value

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you should find a better reason for deciding whether to 3bet or flat pre than flipping a make believe coin in your head.

Gross spot.... We block alot of the AK combos... Players don't get it in with a draw here. Flop 3bets r too strong specially that deep
I don't think I can fold but I expect to be beat more than u think

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Prob a call here ... You show no PF strength by just flatting and then pot raise this Flop. V responds with a pot raise himself to put you all in .. to put 190 into 370.

What could he have?
1) 3 different sets out there .. Crushed .. 3 hands but more likely, weight it to 9 hands?
2) A8d .. this is a flip .. 1 hand
3) AXd .. also basically a flip .. 9 hands
4) 2 pr, not likely ... leave these out
5) AdKx .. possible, shove is only way to price out a flush draw. .. 3 hands
5a) Other AK .. less likely but also possible .. 3 hands
6) AdAx ... Did you have Ad? ... chop

So you have 6 hands you crush .. 9 (weighted) that crush you .. 10 hands you flip with and 1 probable chop. 17/26 is 65% (crush + flip) so you need 1.22 to 1 to call and you are getting basically 2 to 1. So this is a call.

You slow-played these, yes. But I wouldn't really slow play these (AA/KK) early in a session too much since you don't know whats out there and you can show them for an early image builder if it gets folded around.

Your advantage of limping is that your raise to 80 'should' be seen as a go away bet at 1-2 and might bring in a few more draws. But it also will fold out most all KX hands that arent AK. You are pretty much saying you have AA/AK/set/AXd and yet this person is more than willing to shove .. I may be weighting the sets too small in my numbers above.

Take to heart that the hand probably doesn't play much different if you raise to $25/30 and get called PF. GL

"Misplayed Aces...

In my head I decided to randomly take this action"

Is this what the pros do? Don't do this. 3-bet preflop.

I'd fold readless, people just aren't potting then shipping their whole stack with fd's over strength. Can't see someone shipping KQ/AK all that often.

It'd also be useful to know if you hold the Ad.

I also thought that my hand was really under-repped which skewed me more towards calling.

Unfortunately I did not have the Ad.

Secondary question: since I played the hand so slowly I could have taken a completely different line and like check/called. But would I really have wanted to?

results to come

WTF is a standard hope-la-tran?

Preflop is simply bad. From the button if nobody else seem interested in pot flatting occasionally against a known villain is a good diversification play. From your position this should be a raise every time against an unknown one.

As played, I would lean call but wouldn't object to a fold if you read him as strong. This will be AK trying to block flush draws enough that calling with your pot odds is OK but it will be hands that beat you or have draws with decent equity better then half the time.

Calling the flop would be a viable option in some cases if you knew villain's tendencies. Against a LAG prone to bluff off his stack with air or draws or a maniac who will push any pair here, it might be the best option. Against a better player or a passive one it is just burning money. At 1/2 overly passive players are far more common then overly aggressive ones, so it can't be a default line here.

Not having the Ad makes this weighted more towards a call

I see this all the time from bad players who are afraid to play post flop, and "good" players who are running bad and want to reduce their variance.

It is especially true when Villain physically (manually, w/e) moves all his chips to the middle in a fake attempt to look super strong.

IMO, this Villain almost never has a set here. Most likely range is [AX, 8X, QJ, QQ, JJ, etc.].

Since Villain cannot have KX, I'm think it is even more likely he has a draw or weak PP.

As played, Hero turns AA into 22 here. Terrible.

I definitely call with AA.

I think the bottom of my calling range would be something like [PP, 8x, K2s].

Stop looking for reasons to play badly. Especially, stop looking for reasons/ways to play AA badly.

If you're going to slow play your AA preflop, your best bet is to play them fast post flop.

Instead of sometimes playing AA like a weaker hand, you should sometimes play weaker hands like they're AA. This gives you the randomization you're looking for, plus fold equity.

This is to my mind one of the problems with so underplaying our hand. With such an under-repped hand we have a much harder time with our postflop play. Which is ironically where the decisions matter much more. Now you're stuck with making a decision for the rest of your stack that should have been much simpler if you had just 3-bet pre.

As played I probably call here. You are getting 2:1 on your money essentially and he could well be blowing you off with AK, remote chance of AA chop and off course could also have you crushed. Call and expect to lose as often as win.

+1, this is well put.

This range is laughable.

Insanely well worded. Everybody knows you are supposed to bluff sometimes right? I personally try to do exactly this with my weakest holdings in good spots, J4o, K2o, etc. if I feel the spot is ripe for it, I just tell myself I have AA, and how would I play the hand if I did have AA. Both preflop and on the flop. Don't do this with your hands that have real value, KQs, 77, 89s, etc etc.

+1

Good point

As played, I called....

Not a cooler, just ran into the top of his range. I think the call was good here but seriously you need to 3b preflop and the sizing/ranges would have fell into place for an easier decision.

you can't really get away because you don't know the villain - knowing whether he gets all in here with AK or worse here is just a guess. If the only hands he can have here are sets, then of course you can get away. But we can't know that.

Here's another reason not to slowplay - villain has KK. What if you flat and flop top set? Or the board comes monotone of a color he doesn't have? You get no money. Usually, AA vs. KK gets all-in preflop and you get his stack 4 out of 5 times.

Yes, for sure you misplayed your AA in this spot. The most profitable way to play AA is to put as much money in the pot pre-flop. In this situation I would have raised him for sure. There's no way I would just call pre-flop with AA against a single opponent. You got to get the most value and to accomplish that you got to raise as much as you figure he will call. But make sure you understand the relationship between the effective stacks and the pre-flop bet when you got AA. That's very important. For example: If only 5% of effective stacks goes in pre-flop then you only play for about 33% of stacks at the most. You cannot let the dude invest 5% of stacks but give him the opportunity to play for stacks if he feels good about after the flop. Do you understand what I'm talking about?

Here it is (AA pre-flop and on the flop): If somehow you can manage to convince him to invest in the pot pre-flop like 50% of effective stacks then you can bet blind the rest of the stack even before the dealer opens the flop. You still have the edge. But if you guys put only 5% of stacks preflop and you do the same play like betting blind you will be losing in the long run. You got to understand why. That's extremely important.

A

If you aren't 3b AA 100% of the time, then you aren't 3b your other hands enough. If your 3b range is only QQ+/AK then you're doing it wrong.

Just curious, why do you have an A at the end of every one of your posts?

I think at 1/2 vs a "hope-la-tron" as you put it, this was definitely miss played. Badly. You're not looking to fancy play at 1/2. You stated you just sat down at the table and have no dynamics with any of the players. 3b pre for value, and when a player that you think is a donk 3b's you on a dry flop. Fold.

Get brain surgery to remove that coin.

3-bet your AA.