1/2 in a Birmingham UK casino.

Villain was a young Chinese guy, probably in his early 20s.

I had just sat down at the table and this was my very first hand. I had no reads on the villain and vice versa.

V (cutoff) ~ 350

H - (utg +1) 400

Pre Flop - H opens to 8 with AK. V calls. Everyone else folded.

Flop (£19) - Q Q A H bets £15. V raises to £35. H calls.

Turn (£89) - 5 H checks. V bets £60.

Hero?

With no reads i really dont like to continue with this hand at all. Big portion of his raising range on the flop and firing again on the turn is probably trip Q, like for example QJ or KQ.

I cant imagine he takes this line with AJ-A10 type hands very often at all, wich are the only "valuehands" you beat here.

I would fold flop and pay close attention for wild play from him for the rest of the session. If you don't see much of this, then you made a good fold.

+1

Just because I tend to play super duper nit my first hour at the table. I don't like to start splashing around until I have some reads on my villians. So i prob just fold to flop raise or maybe I get to turn and fold at this point.

Bet/calling the flop to the small raise is fine.

I think you can check/call the turn with the plan to check/fold the river.

Or just check/fold the turn. Either one.

I feel like people get most honest on the river, so I don't mind peeling one more street here, but I certainly have no interest in check/calling turn AND river.

So you don't have much latitude/many options here, but I just wouldn't fold the flop.

On the flop, his raise is small, and could easily be with a worse hand that will sometimes check the turn or make a silly small turn bet, etc. We can't give up now.

You're also getting almost 4:1 to see the turn card. You're 24:1 to bink an A. So if you can win $400 more when you bink your A, believe it or not you're actually getting some implied odds to peel. Of course, there's only $300 left in stacks, and he doesn't always pay you off, etc., etc., so the implied odds are never sufficient enough alone to justify a flop call, but you do need to add the consideration of implied odds to the possibility of him taking turn actions that let you continue, that you have the best hand already, etc. It might seem absurd to mention implied odds here, but it's not totally absurd. Even if you only get half of what you need on an implied odds basis, it's one variable you need to consider and is one additional factor that should make you realize that folding the flop to the small raise is quite bad.

who cares how he is the rest of the session? you need to figure out the hand now. even if he doesn't get 'out of line' the rest of the sesh, that doesn't mean he doesn't try to destroy noobs on their first hands (metagame, maybe he's tight but wants a crazy image, etc).

i probably call turn and fold river if faced with a shove. i can paint enough pictures that make our hand good (as stated above, or perhaps villain is bad and thinks aj is good here, etc).

Preflop: In the USA the "standard" 1/2 preflop open raise is to $10. Raising to 8 is by no means a mistake, but with a hand as strong as AKs it's better to open raise to 10 (or larger if you can get away with it), just as long as your opponents are willing to give you action with worse hands.

Flop: Tough spot. Bet/fold, check/call, and bet/call with the intention of leading the turn with a small blocking bet are all viable options. I have a slight preference for the last of those options because this is the way to get maximum value out of a hand like AJ and if you are against a Q you won't lose too much after folding to his turn raise.

I do think that any line that involves betting the flop should have a smaller bet, though. The flop is very dry so you don't have to price out draws. Betting 11 still gets worse hands to fold, causes you to lose less against a Q, and is more inviting for a low A to call with.

Turn: As played, definitely put out a small blocking bet. 40 or 45 is unlikely to get raised by anything less than a Q, and it's still small enough to get some aces to call.

Just my opinion...

As played, fold turn.

I think a c/c line through the turn is an alternative. Betting flop usually folds worse (JJ-). These combos out number the AJ/AT combos you may miss value from. However, checking will allow the opponent to bet those for you, at least OTF.

If you call the turn, then the river is a C/F w/o reads.

call turn and river. Makes it tougher with no reads but with the yeti theorem and the azn stereotype I'm calling the whole way.

Some good advice here, thanks folks.

I ended up folding on the turn after a bit of a tank.

A few hands later he asked me what I had, I told him I had a medium pocket pair and he said he did have a queen.

Watching V play for the rest of the session, he was a loose passive fish, not positionally aware at all and was playing all kinds of funky hands. He found it very hard to fold any kind of pair, and when he raised he always had 2 pair +

He built his stack up to around 500 and then lost it all calling AJ to a cold 4 bet PF where 3 players ended up all in on the turn on a board that ran out KKQ T 2.

One guy had AK, and another with pocket 10s scooped a £1200+ pot.

You played it fine, Op. Raise pre seems a bit low, but what do I know yo u guys do a cross the pond?

That turn bet is straight value. He's not trying to blow you off the hand. Good fold.

This. Gotta do this in a vacuum situation unfortunately.

Fold. I d b/f turn.

I think you played the hand fine - pretty consistant with what I would have done. Of course we can never know for sure since we didn't see villians hand...