2/5 NL - Casino game.

Hero know V in this hand is a bad, loosing recreational player, but not enough history to establish any specific reads.

In this hands a few people limp, including V in the SB. Hero decides to raise to $40 with AKo. A few loose players call, and SB raises to $265 with about $400 behind. Hero and V start with basically the same stack size.

I am pretty confident he does not have AA or KK. The most common limp re raise scenario is from a UTG or EP player. I have never seen this done from the SB. His large bet sizing also tells me he doesn't want action, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a strong hand. I think it is more because he is not confident in navigating post-flop.

Given my assumption is accurate, if I shove and get called I am getting about 2-1 on my money. It is obviously a high variance play. I was totally confused about this play. Bad players do weird things and I sometimes get owned with this kind of stuff.

Questions: Is shoving here spewing? Why or why not? And is there any way to play this hand better? Is just checking the BB ok here. Does raising to 40 have merit even if we get called in multiple spots?

Basically, this was a very weird unexpected line the V took and I didn't know how to respond.

Im thinking jj-1010 possibly ak as well. Id shove.

There's an AC degen that always used to do this with random junk, and this V is probably capped at TT here. I'm jamming most of my bb raising range (77+, AJ+, KJ+) and I'm expecting folds all around.

Based on his new SPR, he has a nut type hand. I'd just bail; it's probably not a smaller ace. Never tell anyone that you fold AK PF.

Something tells me that's not right.

^^^^^ T H l S ^^^^^

Yeah rip it n chop w AK/TT-QQ

Raise pre to get value from worse and lower the spr for when we hit TPTK+. It also gives us initiative. If everyone folds, wining all the dead money is a fine result.

Even if villain has a tight range (99+, AK, AQ), we have to shove given the price. Against an average or loose range, folding here would be a disaster.

Cram it in.

Conisder: are you giving off any 'raise tells'? Did you look at your hand before action got to you? Did you grab chips before your turn? Could he have seen your hand when you looked at your cards? If yes, then this could be a fold.
If no, then GII. I too think his range is capped at JJ, AK, AQ.

Your question: is it ever ok to check AK from the BB in a limped pot? Yes. Most folks here will advocate raising AK in this spot. That aggressive line might be the right play if your opponents have a fold button. If they are sticky or tricky, raising AK from the blind can increase your variance. It's probably theoretically correct, but given that you'll be OOP for the hand, it's not always my favorite play unless I have a pretty good handle on my table. I will knuckle sometimes and take a free flop here, and hope to flop an ace and get value from a worse ace.

On second thought, he probably has ATs+ in his range. Even so, smaller aces are not a big part of his range here.

It could be a bluff with KQs, hoping you have a weak ace at best.

I know of people who absolutely love to do this with 22 and then show them.

Please don't go back to a poker table until you figure out that you're probably not being laid 2:1.

$265 eh. Hm.

I think your analysis is basically correct, a limp/rr UTG can be AA, in later position it's more likely a mid-pp, where the fish started out with the intent of set-mining and then gets all excited when he sees all that dead money in the pot.

Sometimes though these guys will complete the SB with AA or KK hoping to trap OTF, usually with some kind of goofy check-raise, against an aggressive player in LP.

265.

So, the hypothesis is, this guy knows what a blind squeeze is, and thinks you have reason to believe all these goofballs will fold to a $40 bet, and you're doing it with some trash that you'll have to fold to a strong enough bet. So this fish is going to re-squeeze you basically. And now he thinks all those other goofballs, who have already invested $40 in this pot are also going to fold. But not to a $260 bet.

How did he make this bet? Did he grab a double handful of chips and throw them in, leaving it to the dealer to count them up? Or did he sit there and count out $260, and while the whole table is staring at him with their mouths hanging open, think about it, and then add one more red chip to the stack before sliding it across the line?

Me, I'd be thinking, not only does that greedy **** want my stack, he wants me to buy him a Big Mac too.

I smell a rat, but it's not spew by any means. I don't buy that he has Ax and the possibility he is bluffing with trash is irrelevant. Let's just say in general, against your typical limp/rr range these days, shoving AK is a winner as long as there's some dead money in the pot.

Doubt it. If you raise pre, villains' calling ranges will be at least somewhat enriched with flush draws and Ax, dominated broadways like KJ. Fish love those things, and those are the hands you will attack. If you limp in, you dilute out the hands that pay you off, which can be a problem if these goofballs are willing to float with some crappy pair they spiked OTF. It's not that you want to fold out worse, it's that you don't want to get into a pair-drawing contest against a bunch of fish. I think that's what people mean when they say, don't go broke in a limped pot. To be clear, if you double-barrel intelligently you can still make hay against these guys; the guy who called with 72o on a J74 board will probably fold to a turn bet no matter what. On a 7-high flop, not so much. But if you raise pre, your 2/5-sized turn bets will make them pee their pants, it can only help.


Yeah although be careful, if you bet too much you will induce optimal play, meaning you will scare away the weak hands and only get called by premiums. The threshold is different for every table. This table is kinda nuts, yeah go ahead and bet it strong. You're deep stacked, play it like a 2/5 game. Show em who's boss.

He tanked for maybe 20 seconds and then but it two black and the rest in red - if that makes a difference.

Snap rip it in. gg if he l/rr'd kk+ in the sb but even against an unknown I would expect it to be anything else about 50 times as often.

Getting called by five people with AK is not a bad thing. Just have to accept that you will lose the pot most of the time. Doesn't mean you're not profiting from the minority.

Yeah - seems like clear shove.

Grunch- ship; sucks to burn off a couple buy-ins when u see badly played AA,KK (learn to run good) but it's +EV in the long run To ship, IF everyone was 500+BB deep I could see V limping a premium for set-value, but ur not and IMO you see a mid PP, high-Ax here a lot so GII and put pressure on V.