Need some advice on how i should have played this hand.

Hero: early 20s asian college student. Tag style play with seldom polarized hands.

Villan: early 20s white male in the military, stationed nearby. Lag style play, just about plays any two cards... but doesnt go overboard in bluffing.

9- handed table. 2/5 game
Button staddle for $10 with pocket Aces (Hero)($575=115 BB stack)

Small blind calls $10 (villan)($590 =118 BB stack)

4 others call. Hero reraises to $65. Villan in SB calls, all others fold.

Flop: 9c 8d 6h ($170 pot)
Hero: $510 (102BB) Villan: $525 (105BB)

SB checks, button raises to $90. SB tanks for 20 seconds and calls.

Turn: 8c ($350 pot)
Hero: $420 (84 BB) Villan: $435 (87BB)

SB checks, button (Hero) bets $125. SB tanks for 15 seconds and reraises to $250.

Hero: $295 (59 BB), Villan $185 (37 BB)


Hero??



Hero shoved all in, figured he was bluffing with KK. He snap calls.

Hero flips aces, villan flips 10 8.




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9 handed, 100bb+, shipping the turn with an overpair to a coordinated, paired board isn't much different from doing it with TPTK. You're turning your hand into a bluff.

Playing live, 20 seconds is not a tank; he's not sincerely confused about what he should do.

With 5 left to act after your raise I would make it closer to $90 pre. I like a bit of a bigger raise on the flop as well, maybe in the $150 range.

Is anyone checking the turn and just calling a river bet?

we are NOT 115bb deep. $10 straddle makes our stack 57BB.

also don't post results since it skews results. Would have gone at least $80 pf and would have bet the flop prob $120.

I think you have your reads wrong since you say he's a lag but doesn't show it here.

Also you didn't raise the flop, you bet it.

BB means big blind. Staddle doesnt change the big blind of the game.

And yea, raise/bet.. im tired

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It does change the effective stack sizes.

I'm fine with PF sizing, with the button we're happy to get multiple callers. Like flop and turn sizing as well as they allow us to set up a river shove. Once V min-raises the turn, we're in a pretty bad spot. He's basically got 8x or better almost always. As painful as it is, turn is a fold to the raise.

That seems like a horrible flop for planning out a hand with the goal of GII on the river.

Sizing on every street too small, would've gone $75 pre, would've gone $150 flop and shoved almost any turn that doesn't complete a straight. Larger flop bet also sometimes forces V into shove or fold mode. There are too many bad turn and river cards to really play both streets, hard for the board to totally brick.

Your straddle has effectively halved the depth of the hand, think of it as 67BB, which is on the short side. With aces with this short stack, you need to get the money in as fast as possible. Therefore to thin the field of hands to beat with 5 limpers I would certainly raise more than 65, probably more like 90. I'll get less credit as the straddle which encourages looser calls, great for our hand in position, but we need to raise enough to discourage playing against all the limpers. You got a lucky result. Of course if you often raise straddles small and only get 1 or 2 callers your size is ok, but the problem is still that you want to get stacks in as fast as possible and this is going to make it harder, as this hand illustrates. If everyone folds, I win a nice chunk of dead money change with AA and I'm happy, you should learn to be happy winning small pots. A bigger raise would set us up for a 2/3 pot flop cbet and a pot turn shove to charge any remaining draws or non-believers. If you lose your stack heads up with AA in position at 67BB it's just a cooler if you dutifully got your money in when it was likely to be the best hand.

As played, the flop is scary, it hits a loose player's range pretty hard. He can have flopped straights, 2 pair, and sets on this board. He also has tons of straight draws and pair+straight combo draws. Bet more to charge the draws properly. You bet just over 1/2 pot, he is likely to continue with his entire connecting range which will make turn decisions hard. With your sizing, you leave over a PSB left, which gives his draws and weak hands plenty of room to maneuver, not good. Get money in as soon to preflop as possible with AA.

As played, he check/tankcalled 1/2 PSB. With his player type I am excluding 2 pair and overpairs, he never plays them this way. He still has plenty of 1 pair that put you on AK, and draws. Slowplayed hollywood sets and straights are still possible but unlikely, I'm going to continue assuming he does not have them due to his demonstrated hesitation. The turn card pairs the board, which is not great not terrible. It means he had to have specifically an 8 to beat you, which is not too likely, and no draws completed, we're assuming this is not boating him up. We don't have to worry about a random 2 pair catching, so it's really just the 8 we are worried about. When he checks, we are now in a tricky situation with >1PSB left. I don't love it (we got ourselves into this bad situation with earlier sizing) but I'm generally just overjamming here. If he cracked my AA already, so be it, otherwise I'm making him pay for that last card. If you want to go the lower variance route, you could give him the free river and play poker on the river, calling as a bluff-catcher based on what draws completed or didn't, or thin value betting. But with AA heads up I'd rather play fast for stacks than using them as bluff catchers.

As played, you made a tiny 1/3 PSB. Terrible. Not sure what this bet sizing is trying to accomplish. He'll basically never fold, a draw has good odds to call, and a c/r reaction does not give you much useful information since he could be either reading you for weakness and bluffing with a draw or have a real hand. You're not deep enough to fold any more. You are basically handing him control of the hand.

Ok, so he minraised. If you're so desperate for action with your AA, well then mission accomplished, you have to ship here. I'm never folding AA when the pot is like twice the size of my remaining stack, we still beat some nonsense like TT or 76. Of course with a c/minraise here he pretty much always wants your action, for better or worse. Frustrated missed draw bluffs are typically going to be bigger. That means most of the time he has 8x. Yes, I put him on 8x before reading your results (by the way you should not post the results for a few days...) but we still have to ship it here due to the range he could be overvaluing and the cheap price relative to the pot. In the likely case of 8x, our consolation prize is 2 outs on the river.

Fix earlier streets to avoid the hard turn decision.

Sorry you got sucked out on with your PPP.

Not sure what your line of reasoning is here. Absolutely nothing he did in this hand suggests KK. Also, KK is not a bluff, it's a reasonable value hand on this board that might be hoping you have 9x in the straddle or TT-QQ.

@Thorware

Best response ive read so far. I greatly appreciate your advice and especially since it was without sarcastic or demeaning comments. Thank you

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Maybe bet a little bigger but you have AA in a straddle and got a great turn. I'm happily shoving turn, I think folding really bad as is calling since there's lots of cards that hurt our action or make our opponents hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4vf8h-EEf8

HING