3/5 - hero's first time playing casino poker after six month hiatus. Nevertheless, I recognize every face at the table, which is scary considering that I have only played this venue maybe 8 times before.

Everyone is a regular, is playing tight, and knows everyone else except me. Almost no limping from anyone. $15 - $20 are the standard raises and most of the $20 raises haven't been called. I know I should switch tables, but I don't plan on sticking around that long.

Hero ($250) - UTG+1 - Been there 40 minutes. I have open raised $20 four times and been called once. Limped once and won medium sized pot on turn w/o SD. In different hand, I was caught taking a small stab on the turn after villain binked TPTK. I am playing very tight but no tighter than anyone else. Please no comments on buying in bigger as I am operating under the assumption that I am the weakest player at this table.

Villain (covers) - BB - bald, late 30ish white guy. A little more willing to look people up than the others but is definitely playing tight. I've played with him before. He's a strong player and probably doesn't remember me.


The Hand: UTG folds. Hero open-raises to $15 w/ AA. Folds around to BB who calls.

Flop: Q:9:3 rainbow

My read is that my chance of getting three streets of value from worse is exactly zero. My preflop raise should look quite strong despite sizing.

Villain checks. Hero?

bet 20

Lets start with this... 40 hands per hour * .6 of an hour, means you have played approx. 24 hands..

You have opened 4 times (17%). That is a lot of opens for a new guy at a table full of regs.

I would imagine that you your perception of you is different than their perception of you. They very well could see you as loose!

Bet the flop.. Bet the turn..

A huge percentage of your w/r comes from getting dealt AA. Go for 3 streets of value.

I had been at the table for more than a dozen orbits, perhaps a bit more than 40 mins. (Sorry.) The majority of hands were folding around to a raise or chopping. Almost no multi-way. Hands were going much, much faster than normal. I'd say I was opening maybe 5%-6%. Trust me that no one sees me (or anyone at table for that matter) as anything but tight.

Bet 20. Check turn on a blank if you think he is really not interested and try to get value on river. but I think most times just betting 3 streets until V changes his tune.

With a stack of 50BB you should be trying to double up here some of the time. However, if villains are tight going for two streets of value is fine also.

I would bet flop for $20/$25 here 100% of the time. Board is not super dry and it's a good board for c-betting. Against a tight player OOP a hand that won't call this flop won't put any money in later unless they draw out on you. Turn will depend on villain's action, my read on villain and the turn card but in abstract I would be aiming to bet around 2/3 of the time.

You need to realize that a table like this is exploitable and start working to exploit it.

With AA on a Q high mostly dry flop, you should be planning for three streets always. (Obviously with the exception of bad runouts).