$1/2 Effective stacks are $200. Villain in question just sat down, this is his second hand and I haven't played with him before. He is a young Asian guy, shuffles his chips properly, buys in for the full amount and looks more or less competent.

Hero is in SB with AK. 4 people limp, I raise to $16 (standard open at this table is $10). Villain UTG Calls.

Flop: AJ9 (pot ~ $40)

Hero leads for $25, V min raises to $50. Hero calls (should have raised? folded?).

Turn: 4 (pot ~ $140)

Hero checks, V bets $50. Hero?

Thanks for your input guys, let me know if I have left out any information.

Fold flop. V taking us to value town with nuts.

Your hand is essentially a good bluffcatcher right now... I might fold since i dont know much about villain, but its really a gut decision at this point.

Yeah as soon as I seen you called the flop raise I shook my head. You gotta fold this flop raise and move on to the next hand

+1 to folding the flop. You're way behind his value hands, and are flipping against most draws that an early position player who limp/called would be holding.

I dont think AK is good often enough there, but i dont think he has a flush either. Im surprised that the responses so far have unanimously been to fold to the min raise.

V's play looks really fishy (chip shuffling abilities should not indicate competency - from my experience - but just that hes not new to the game). Given that he limp-called a raise pf, he can have a bunch of axs with or without x of hearts (im saying this because his turn bet makes it look like an ace). Ive seen enough of llsnl players min raising with less than the nuts that i will say go with your live reads on this one.

Other possible hands in his range: i dont think he will limp call jacks, but maybe 9s. Maybe hes limping j9 and aj. Maaaybe qt, jt. I just dont believe he has a flush here. Kind of inclined to call the turn and reeval river (not a strong inclination however)

Fold flop. He is betsizing perfectly to stack you without any huge bets which may fold you out.

Fold flop, this guy is trying to give you a one way ticket to value town.

your winrate will improve dramatically when you can sniff out danger and fold TPTK. This looks like one of those times.

I think best case scenario for your hand is that you're against AxK or AxQ, but even that seems unlikely b/c villain limped pre. The worst case is that you're drawing dead.

Fold flop is correct, but for many people it is difficult to do. In situations like this, you need to start thinking multiple streets. Your question isn't, "Do I call this bet, " but rather, "Do I call this bet and a much bigger one on the turn or river?" You'll save yourself a fortune by realizing that you aren't going to call again and almost nobody is going to check it down after a raise. Therefore, there's no reason to call the flop and intend to fold the turn if nothing changes.

Now if you think you're ahead, of course you'll call and you've made your decision on the turn.

Yes, that means at times you'll fold what would have been the eventual winner. There are players that have never folded a winner. It is easy to do. They just don't win and to the rest of us they are calling stations.

I would fold flop, classic SA/WB spot OOP

If you call turn you are essentially committing yourself to calling an all in river bet with top pair on a scary board. If you are going to get away from this hand it needs to be on the flop

Yeah, Venice, I don't think it's difficult to understand that someone who min-raises us on flop might put us to the test on later streets.

Don't put updated actions in the OP, add them as a response so if someone grunches the thread you still get good advice.

Preflop is fine. I have being OOP with any hand though. I may raise it closer to $20 with all those limpers in there too depending on the table dynamic.

On the flop leading is OK, but the click back raise screams that we're in potential trouble. I fold now since I don't want to stack off when V shows some pushback and there are no runouts that improve our hand enough to make me want to put more money in.


Turn is exactly what I wanted to avoid. $50 bet into a $150 pot, with about $100 behind after we call (*if* we call).

Are you going to feel good when you check and V bets $100 into $250 on the river?
A lot of players will "Lol I haz pot oddz" and call it off when they're beat here.
This looks a lot like a competent player setting you up to get stacked.


It's hard to just assign that we're beat here ... but limp called SC's are in his range, Ax with a H is in his range, 99 is also a possibility. You might think "Why would a flopped flush raise?" It's because they're trying to prevent you from drawing to a 4th H and beatign their small flush with a rando Qh.


I personally think that we can profit at LLSNL by folding everything but the nuts to aggression from non-maniacal players. Picking spots to selectively call or raise back is of course more profitable, but when otherwise passive players (as most LLSNL V's are) bet and raise you tend to be in trouble.

Results: folded to turn bet, villain showed A.

I agree the flop should have been a fold. I didn't really think about the fact that a min raise was all V needed to do to set up for a shove by the river.

When I called the flop I put him on the AXs/AQ part of his range. I was hoping he would check back the turn, and planned to call a smallish river bet if the board didn't get any worse ie another heart. I think my read was ok especially after he showed A but a fold is better because there are still tons of hands in his range that crush me.

Thanks for your input guys, maybe one day I will win a pot with AK.

And this is why position is so important.

You may have had the best hand, but his position allows him to win the pot.

I just wanted to comment on this line because it belays a LLSNL mindset.

In LLSNL players talk about hands as if the hands are independent entities. Players tend to think of hands as "good" or "bad". One of the most popular hands to talk about is pocket Jacks.

Every time I sit down players expound on why they hate pocket Jacks or AQ or why AK isn't a real hand...

As thinking players we have got to get beyond that and just see the hands in terms of equity vs ranges vs villains tendencies.

AK is a great hand to destroy stations that call raises with Ax or KQ and then pay us off when they hit the board.

JJ is a great hand to abuse rec-fish who put us on AK just because we raised preflop and when the board is a non A or K they stack off.

Every hand has its place in the right circumstance. As thinking players, we need to think beyond seeing a hand as an entity and instead see the hand in the context of our villains' ranges and tendencies vs the board texture...

The problem with this flop is you are unlikely to improve. Vs a min raise we should be getting away from this on the flop. We have to fade several outs if we are even ahead. Fold and what for a better spot.