Hi

Was at my local casino last Friday and I ran into a TAG reg with a premium hand but did not extract much from it.

Table Dynamics

Is was late and the table was 7 handed a few large pots had passed in the last hour that I was evolved in with me making lay down folds etc. Their was two drunk fish that were being pounded by the regs, so their was some good action. I had won a pot of around $120 with a pair of 99 with two over-cards on the boards against them so I was viewed as tight but will call against loose players with scare cards. Had played for around 3 hours lots of stealing but very little showdown i folded a number of times on the turn and on the river etc once with half my stack out. The reg had around 2k in chips I had around 450 as I bought in for $200. I had never played against him before, but he is known as a tag reg. I had limped twice that night from UTG with premium hands and everybody folded. The player that I was heads up with folded most times to check raises but he had made a number of K and A high hero calls that payed off as well.

Hand

I raised to $15 UTG with AA and 4 players called including the reg on the BTN and SB.

Flop came A99r giving me the aces full of nines. I checked along with UTG2 (a NIT) and the BTN lead out for $40. SB and UTG1 folded so it was heads up with me OPP. I called, and reg smiled.

Turn a Kd I lead out for $60 and the Reg called.
River 7c I lead out for $120 and reg tanked for 5 mins then folded.

I showed my hand and as he exhaled as he said that he had 3 pair.

Should I have check called all the way to the river and check raise the river and let him build the pot?

Or check raised on the flop straight away.

What way would you play the hand; I don't like slow playing should I have been less aggressive etc.

Any ideas would be great.

With that many villains, you should have bet something on the flop. Pot is around $80, so I would lead this small, say $35. Something that looks c-bet to get calls from all sorts of hands, if your luck and somebody has a 9X hand they are likely to raise you right there and you can start angling for stacks. The problem with your check/call flop and then lead turn line is that it looks very strong here. You hand looks like AA/KK/9X because what else you can call flop and then lead and river with. Leading the flop like a c-bet can get called by all sorts of weaker hands, such as weak aces and middle pairs, that want to see what you do on turn before giving up. What you want is to get two or more callers here so you can lead turn with a smallish bet and still build a big pot.

Once your heads up it is very villain dependent. You have a monster hand but the sort that sucks so much air out of the deck that you have to be careful to get as much money in as possible without villain get suspicious. Given your description, I would check turn and let villain continue leading. Villain mostly either has a strong hand that will bet turn or has very little and won't call a big bet. Depending on how much he bets on turn and how strong he seams, I either check/call turn or raise him there. If he doesn't bet turn, then I lead river for a pot sized or bigger bet. River betting depends on pot size and how we got there, but mostly I would like to shove river even if it is a bit of an over bet. At that point only strong hands are going to play, and those hands are not likely to fold to any bet.

Don't show.

You have to think about what you are saying when you check this flop. Yes, you have kinda sucked all the air out of the deck, but you raised preflop and then checked an A99 flop? What hands would you do this with, aside from AA or 99 or A9? Would you check here with KK or QQ? If you did, would you call a bet after checking? How about AK, AQ, AJ?

Quad is right, checking here and then calling actually narrows your range far more than leading small, even if you call a raise after leading. Lead the flop, then check the turn if you want, this will keep your range much wider, and is likely to induce more calls than c/c OTF.

I would lead for 3 streets of value (1/3 to 1/2 pot). It seems crazy but any 9 will call and repop the river in most cases. Any Ace will call because rarely will anyone bet out with trips. It rarely works but over time, it will make you more BB to do so.

Yea, c/c indicates that you have at least an ace. You would never do this with KK...


Just bet/bet/bet. Youre only getting action from Ax and 9x, both of which are fairly likely to call you down the whole way. Taking a passive line basically guarantees a smaller pot.
The only way a passive line yields a big pot is if villain has 9x, in which case you could have extracted max value with a bet/bet/bet line.