1/2 NL. Table in question has been ridiculously splashy. Typical preflop raises are $15ish, and a raise of this size sees 5 or 6 players to the flop. Somewhat unusual for this room.

Hero has an image somewhere between nitty and weak-tight, due to being card dead and V1 (a few seats to left of H) raising (often blind) $10-15 preflop every third hand or so ("or so" meaning 50% of hands is the low end). An orbit or so earlier, H raised in EP to $15 with AQos, folded around.


V2 is in BB, older Asian gent, hasn't been splashing around much. May be more of a slots player visiting the poker room; when swiped in, his card had a lanyard attached. V2 has been quiet, only hand of note was a preflop raise to ~$25, then reasonably sized bet postflop followed by a turn barrel on a board that screamed he held QQ. Otherwise passive.

Eff stacks ~$250

The hand:
Hero has AA UTG. Because of nitty image, H raises to $10.
Five callers. Yay?

V1 range: Two napkins, will fold to flop bet almost certainly.
V2: range capped at TT, suited broadway, unlikely small pocket pairs. V2 has not been set mining tonight.
Others (non-V2): playing generally fit or fold postflop.

Flop (pot $60)
K78

V2 bets $5.
H bets $50.
Folds back around to V, who thinks for a bit before calling. I'm feeling very strongly V has a K here.

Turn: ($160)
K783

Hero?

What did v do on turn? V was first to act right?

fixed.

I would definitely attempt a limp raise pre flop based on this table description and facts given

I think I check here. You have the nfd, and a bet here could induce a c/r and put you in a bad spot. You don't want to have to call a huge c/r to see that last card.


Just my thoughts

What bad spot? Villain basically has a potsized bet behind, so there isn't a huge check-raise in play.

These type villains overplay TP, and I agree with OPs read that his range is heavily weighted to Kx. We don't want to blow him out by shoving. Bet $95 or so, so hopefully you can get a "what the heck" call on the river for the rest of his stack.

Checking here isn't horrible but I think we miss a lot of value from a Kx hand that will call a turn bet especially if the flush comes in on the river. He will check fold to any river bet with 4 clubs unless he has KQ or KJ with the Q or J of clubs.

My play here with $190 left is bet/call $80. A check raise would suck here but we have to call off the rest with the nut flush redraw and have plenty of outs against any hand that is not a made flush. Most likely still with the best hand.

We will have $110 back and an easy shove on the river obv if the club comes in and I might check back with showdown value if it does not come in. I am just saying we could get $80-$90 more dollars from Kx hand if we bet the turn whereas we don't get another dime if a club hits on the river.

Preflop raise is laughably bad. Sorry

Going to have to agree here.

Given this:

"Typical preflop raises are $15ish, and a raise of this size sees 5 or 6 players to the flop. Somewhat unusual for this room."

Raising to $10 UTG with AA is awful. Needs to be at least $15, and if you want to isolate to 1-2 players, probably more.

In a vacuum, agreed. However:

Don't want to turn this into another "I don't like the advice you gave me after I asked for it," but there was a reason for the small raise. (Not that it wasn't bad, and I think the l/rr would have been best, given the table.)

OK keep raising 10 if you like playing 6way pots oop with AA

Why on Earth are we raising $10 at this table?

If your image is so nitty that when you raise to $15 everyone folds...

Then raise MORE OFTEN!!!

In Early position you can still keep a fairly nitty raising range, but from LP open up your raising range to J9s+, KT+, AT+, 99+ and pick 1 SC and 1 SG hand to also raise with (like 87s and 64s).

Once you start getting called more, you can tighten your raising range back up. Then, when you finally get those big hands like JJ+, AK you can raise more and get callers.

Last thing in the world you want at this level is to feel you have to raise $10 just to get action on your AA. That is how Aces end up winning small pots but losing big ones (As Doyle says)

I hate how LLSNL players turn into psychics in spots like these so they can justify whatever it is they want to justify.

Fact is, this hand started out FIVE WAY!!! ranges are going to be fairly wide to include 2 pair hands, pair + FD, straight draws, sets, and Kx hands...

keep that in mind as the hand progresses and avoid the psychic trap of putting your villain on an exact hand.

How on Earth do you know this???

These sorts of psychic readings are seriously flawed.

EVERYONE SET MINES!!!! When given the right opportunity. I mean, seriously, are you suggesting that if Villain had 77 and you raised $10 pre that villain is going to fold his 77 because he doesn't set mine???

Now, you can say villain hasn't hit a set all night, but that is way different than saying villain doesn't set mine

Anyways, don't mean to come across harsh, not my intent to berate you. I'm just pointing out the flaws that I'm seeing in your thought process, flaws that are probably hurting your overall game.

Making the right reads has nothing to do with being psychic. We simply have to be observant of the situations, our villains, their tendencies, and how the action develops. Sometimes, we will be able to narrow hands down to 1 or 2 specific hands but that just isn't going to be the case here when a pot starts out 5 way. I'm not saying we should see MUB, but we have to be cognizant of possible hands and then just play our hand vs a possible range of hands and compare that to our likely equity and then just make the best +EV play we can.

You said in general the table was going 5-6 ways to the flop with a $15 raise. More often than not at a 1-2 table most people don't pay all *that* much attention to image.

L/rr from a perceived nitty/tight player may come off as ultra strong, no? I'm not too experienced with this play but what is it we are hoping to accomplish.

I'm thinking best case scenario is we play heads up against a V who flats our reraise. Is this often the outcome? Otherwise we merely collect dead money. I will concede that playing OOP here is not desirable, even with AA.

Basically why is l/rr a favorable course of action in these spots?

I agree that dropping down from 15 to 10 is excessive here. 13 may be acceptable if one is really concerned about lack of action. But even then, I think OP you were hasty with this adjustment based on only a single hand from the previous orbit.
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Hard to say what is the best line on the turn. Villain's range isn't very clear imo.

Agreed, and I try to be aware of this, but given the earlier fold-around, and the fact that I had shown down exactly KK in 3+ hours, I sensed the adjustment was warranted. LOLme of course.


Now that I've been berated by our new overlord, we can continue.

DGI's comment about thought process is a good one, as mine was muddled from the get go. Standard "last hand of the night" syndrome.

Seeing AA, first thought was "well ****, no way this isn't going to be 8 handed unless I'm either correct in being seen as nitty or just open shove."

Results

In retrospect, a l/rr would have been awesome given the table. I have zero doubt that if I had limped, by the time it got back around to me there would have been at least $50 (if not closer to $75ish) in the pot, maybe more. Preflop shoves had happened with cards as bad as 88.

First - understand that a lot of what's being said here is solid advice... but it's presented in a "tough love" way. I think a lot of regs get frustrated how sometimes good poker players makes silly mistakes based on assumptions.

#1 - I won't get action because I'm nitty. It's just not true. In 1/2 tables, people are looking for an excuse to play their cards. They've come to PLAY not fold. Just because your AQos raise just won the blinds doesn't mean they're scared of you... they just happen to not have any hands to call with.

#2 - If I bet smaller and get more callers, I'll win a bigger pot. Again, false. The more callers you get, the more combinations of cards are seeing the flop - and the more likely even the best hand will get smashed. With AA, heads up you're 80/20 to win. But for every extra caller, you lose ~10% equity... meaning vs. 5 players you're about 40% favorite to win the hand!

Take a look at your flop: K 7 8 How many playable hands hit this board? I see a ton, such as 109, 56, 78, KQ, KJ, 98, 76, 77, 66 and lots of club draws like QT, JT, J9 or even T9.

Like several other posters here implied, when you bet the flop - you basically folded out losing hands - and kept in the only hands that could beat you. To think V has only got KX and is willing to go to the river with just top pair on a flushed board is myopic thinking. You've got to give V a range of hands, which include ones that beat and lose to yours.

Now that you're looking at this hand with an overhead view instead of from your seat's perspective... what do you think you should do?

Me? I'd check it back and hope a hits. Because I'm pretty certain that if you bet, you're getting check/raised.

GL

Just because you raised an orbit ago and got folds, certainly doesn't mean it will happen this time. As someone else stated, most 1/2 players dont pay attention to image at all.

We can guess that V's hand is weighted heavily towards a K but why can't he have a set,2p or a combo draw. He might not be calling down $15 with suited connectors but very well could for $10.

You stated that V2 hasnt been splashing around and since you guess he isnt set mining. I would think that he is playing more on the snug side of things. With that in mind he could very well overplay his Kx hands but he could also play his bigger hands more timid. The problem with this hand is that we really have no idea where V is at. If we get c/r then I doubt we are ever ahead, at least not enough of the time to make this +EV. I think I check and hope a hits. As far as river goes I would evaluate and hope to show down.

Butchered hand in my opinion. This is a typical nit overvaluing a one pair hand multiway because you nit up all day to get AAs then you get stacked. The biggest mistake was preflop only making it 10 and this was proved by the results of K7 calling. If you make it 15-20 then they most likely fold and you have a better chance of playing heads up.

On the turn I hate the shove as it is only gets called by flushes, sets or 2 pair. Again I like a $80-$90 dollar bet and then check back river. In this case he would have called turn and checked river most likely and you would have showdown value against Kx hands and still $100 saved if you are beat.

Preflop - butchered
Flop - okay/meh
Turn - butchered (bet/call>check>shove)

Grunch.

Stack sizes and the SPR make this hand a bit awkward. But since our villain is passive and we suspect he will never put us to the test, I think this is a great situation for a bet-fold.

I like a sizing of about $75. Kx hands with a club and combo draws will still call us. We might even get paid off by a Kx hand without a club, depending on how weak the villain is.

If the villain raises, then I will fold. While putting in roughly half our stack and then folding is not ideal, it is much better than putting in all of our stack and losing.

I think we are also more prone to stay aggressive with the A in our hand. Not because of the possibility of a re-draw (which is just a bonus), but because we hold a blocker to the nuts.

I hate the limp re-raise with AA because I think it turns our hand face up and thus makes it almost impossible for our opponents to make mistakes against us.

I actually thought we acted first. But I think I still would play it the same. Yes we have the nut re-draw but we can still squeak out value from worse hands. As passive opponent won't c/r without the flush here.

I don't mind an open to 5x because I can play post-flop poker, but we these table dynamics a larger sizing would be more profitable. I won't do something like $30 because I want to get called.