Quote:
Originally Posted by $tack$Poker
That is how I analyzed it in real time. I didn’t like holding the Ace of clubs and could not think of many bluffs beside JTs and maybe just the one combo of JTcc. I kind of discounted the SB because he was tilted (we just got it in $650 pre and my AK hit quads) so I raised to what I would bet heads up against UTG.
I was a bit baffled when he showed up with AK since I had AA, KK, QQ and Laws in range. Also I squeeze some with KQo but probably not against UTG open. But kudos to him for pushing me out of the hand.
Lots of stuff going on here.
People will play AK different ways at different stack depths in different positions, and AKo differently than AKs. This hand is a good example why it can be good not to just blast off with it pre. By just flatting your 3B in position, he keeps his range wide enough to credibly rep KQ / 77 and push us off a chop.
So, if he's a guy who just always 4B's AK pre, we can just flat call SB's jam, and fold if UTG raises over our call. But when we raise over the jam, and UTG 3B's, it's just an auto-snap-fold.
If he's a guy who can sometimes flat call your 3B with AK pre, it puts us in a tougher spot.
If we knew he had AK, obviously we should raise over SB's jam to push UTG off a chop. But if we raise here, we should still fold when he re-raises - even if we KNOW he has AK in his flat-calling range pre, because he still has KQ / 77 in his range, and the best we could hope for is a chopped pot against AK.
Even if we have AA, he can still rep KQ / 77, and put us in a tough spot.
You played it fine with your 5x 3B pre. With the Ac in our hand, we can just flat SB's jam, because we have the backdoor-draws, and we might be able to rep the nut flush if it comes to that. We shouldn't be raising with the Ac in our hand, because we'd prefer V to have it. It would be different if the board was KdQc7c, making it possible for us to have AKcc.
Even then - I still think we have to fold here, as played. AKcc is still only 44% against KQs on a flop of KdQc7c, and crushed by 77. If he ever flat calls our 3B with QQ or KK pre - fuhgeddaboutit. The way this was played, against a good V, I might fold everything but KK / QQ.
It's a strange line by V. This seems like one of those spots where V doesn't know if he's raising for value or as a bluff. Obviously we're never folding KK or QQ here. If he's a halfway competent player, it's hard to imagine he thought he could get you to fold AA or KQ by repping exactly 2P or a set, or that he'd take this line to target your AQ combos - and only those combos - for value.