New here and have been playing poker for a few years but just now wanting to take it serious and want to really learn the game. This whole hand actually is going to lead me to a bigger more broader question.

1/2 NL.

Hero (460ish)
Villian (500ish)

Been playing with villan for 3 or 4 hours. Have seen him not reraise preflop with AK JJ and QQ and have seen him not reraise on the river with the 3rd and 4th nuts a few times.

Im dealt AA utg and make it 10. Hes only caller.
Flop A K 10. I check, he makes it 30 I make it 80 and he goes all-in after about 4 seconds of thinking. I go in the tank and to make a long story shorter I put him on QJ or 1010. I take probably 5 or 6 minutes to call and a few people are getting upset with me and threatening to call a clock. They really get mad when I finally call and turn up top set. They go on about that should be a snap call everytime and if Im beat im beat and stop wasting everyones time trying to make hero laydowns.

Main question I have is should that be a snap call and just take it as thats part of the game if Im beat. I just dont like the fact of ever blindly putting chips in with that thought. If I only have 100-200 in front of me at star of hand I would snap call but thought we were deep enough that it warrented some thought. On a side note thats the only hand I played all day that I took more then 30 seconds on so its not like I was taking 5 minutes on all my decisions. Thanks for any feedback.

Never feel bad about thinking about a decision.


That being said: I don't really know if this was a tough spot... the informatino you provided on villain was a series of absolutes wherein the spots were likely to be highly situational.


You may wan to consider better mental notetaking... I could be wrong... just something to think about

Suits would be nice.

I agree with you that it's not a snap call because you're so deep. I don't think you should be taking an hour to make this decision however. You should be making this call eventually. Don't apologize to people if you need to think. Tell them it's a $900 decision. Don't take forever though seriously.

I would raise more than $10 AA UTG. Depending on the table of course.

I took probably 5 minutes. I almost folded a few times. For a few reasons I put him on QJ or 1010 only. One beats me and one doesnt was my thinking I just couldnt lay it down. Also for the last 30 minutes or so most 12-15 preflop raises wasnt getting any callers so thats why I made it $10. I wanted a caller and didnt mind if I picked up a couple.

well if i did the math right you need about 41% equity...

entering QJs and TT into poker stove you have about 60% equity...
if he play QJo QJs and tt your equity goes up to 44%....

if he does not 3 bet KK...(deep like this he probably should not, 3 bets should be AA and bluffs unless he thinks your loose)....
then his range is qjo qjs TT and KK.. you go up to 51%....
Take out qjo and you shoot up to 70%...

This actually looks like an easy call....though I agree taking some time for a $900 pot at 1-2 should be fine...

If you're actually thinking about your decision, take as much time as you need; the clock is there to be called on for this reason, it's your right. But if the spot is one where you're never calling or never folding, just make your decision quick. If you're truly calculating pot-odds and trying to determine whether or not he does this with 1010 and QJ or QJ only, then obviously go ahead, but I say this because there are a lot of players who often tank in situations where they are ALWAYS making the same decision and it's quite obvious, and that's what pisses players off. Like when you see some donk holding his cards high and saying "Can you beat a pair?" and they fold 100% of the time after 20 seconds...

C/R the flop is pretty awful.

1) It puts your hand face up. You aren't doing this with anything but what you have. I easily turbo fold AT here to this play.
2) It gives a ton of hands that are checking behind (KQ,JT,etc) free shots on their out

yea i think this is a snap call, 1010/kk/ak/a10/k10/qj/combo draw if there is FD out there, so many hands you absolutely crush, one hand that beats you and you have plenty of outs, if you dont wanna get it in here for 200bb then i dont know when you wanna get it in with 200bb, you have 2nd nuts

Call now. You havvvvve to lead this flop.

Grunch.

You have to call here. If we were 1k deep that's another discussion. Also lead the flop for sure. CR is better than CC(which reeks of near or mortal nuts) but leading is best. Also you have to account for random spew factor. I don't think his range is just JQ, 10's.

Thanks for all the input. Next time I will lead the flop for sure. Seems like its about unaminous to snap call. I see the point and it seems to be the right play I just hate the thought process of call and if you are beat thats just tough luck and part of the game. Im not saying that is you alls thought process but thats what I was getting at the table. Thanks again.

I think that you have to call this because you literally have to best possible hand that you could raising UTG. You have 7 outs, then 10 outs if your behind. When you have him with a set, he has 1 out twice. I think you have to call.

I agree that his range does not consist of just QJ and TT. It seems like he is a pretty tight player. Does he fold QJ to a UTG raise? What about KK or AK? You have seen him flat a raise preflop with AK and QQ before. It doesn't seem too crazy that he could have those hands as well. (although combowise AK is unlikely)

Either way, you crush all hands that are not straights, and you are not in awful shape if he has it.

I think this is a snap call for sure but I also understand your reasoning because the pot is so big OTF at a 1/2 where the preflop bet was 10. But, it's also a weird line for someone with QJ to take if the board is a rainbow. He's chasing too many decent hands away with that bet. Did he have QJ?

Yeah he had QJ. And it was a rainbow flop.

That is actually the right thought process. You can rarely ever put someone on exactly one hand.

Usually you can put them on a range: TT, KK, QJo, QJs. Then decide your best play based on that range.

If the best play is to call, you absolutely should call and just shrug your shoulders if he turns up QJ this time.