I have worked really hard the last few months to improve my game. I pride myself in being able to make good lay downs, and not stack off with over pairs, or top pair type hands.

Well not last night! I was playing 1-2 with stack of $360.00. Villian 1 in early position makes it $10.00 and gets 1 caller. I'm in middle position and look down at AK suited.

I make it $30.00 and get a caller in C/O. Caller has me covered. Other 2 villians fold. Flop is 5-A-3 rainbow. I bet $60.00 and villian raises to $160.00.

Tough spot. When he called my PF raise, I put him on JJ-KK as most likely hands. I shove and he snap called and shows 33 for a flopped set. He stated that he only called my PF 3 bet because he had position on me, LOL.

I had to quit for the night after this hand. It has really bothered me all night. Is this an obvious fold? On most nights I probably would have just let it go, but I really thought I had him beat.

Was this a bad play, bad read, or just bad luck?

Here's your mistake. When he called your 3bet (and assuming he's not completely ******ed, but still a straight-forward player, you should put him on {any pair, AK/AQs(maybe)}.

On this board checking back on the flop is actually not bad - since you're either way ahead/way behind, and if you check back you may induce bluffs from 99-KK type hands.

If I check the flop and he bets, I'm going to raise, and he will be the one shoving. I'm basically in the same spot. Stack off or fold.

Its a tough fold, unless Villain is sick enough to play 2-4. I like the play preflop. On the flop $60 into a $82, good bet, helps define Villains hand and chase out straight draws. (7-6, A-2, A-4). Whats the Villains hand range in this spot? A-A, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, 5-5, 3-3, A-K, A-Q, 7-6.

The reraise from the Villain, the question is what is the players image and his hand range. If in a 1-2 game he has over $360. Did he buy in for $300 or $200? Did he earn the stack in front of him or did he suck out and bluff his way to it? Was he playing solid? Against a Solid Aggressive player, look to fold. Against a passive player showing strenght, Fold. Against a maniac or loose player, chances are I'm stacking off. Did you think the Villain was capable of making a bluff in this spot for the reraise amount, if the answer is No, Fold. This decision I'd base off of hand history of Villain, villains image, and Villains ability to bluff you.

The last thing to consider is your image, had you been playing solid? If yes, then there should not be too much room for someone to make a move on you, Fold. If no, had you been c-bet alot, had you showed down a bluff or two, then is the Villain making a move? Which ask the question again is this a move the Villain would make or capable of?

this is tougher than normal with TPTK because villain flatted pre without other callers up front, so a small pair is more difficult to place in his range (compared to AQ for example). i also expect 33 or 55 to flat the flop instead of raise here, given your perceived range and the dryness of the flop. b/c of all these things i would also find it tough to lay this down. (i suspect, though, that in my ultimate nittiness i would still find a fold..)

uhhh no, if it goes check/check on the flop and then villain leads turn you will be overplaying your hand by raising. If you choose this flop line I would go for the check/call/call or check/call/VB lines. I'm generally happy getting only 2 streets of value with one pair hands, and will only go for three streets against the biggest of stations.

This.
Of course, what happened to you happens to us all. Our goal should be to let this happen at a minimum. Realize AK will(for all practicle purposes) always make a TPTK hand. And as a rule (unless shorthanded)we shouldn't stack off with a TPTK hand, especially 180BB deep. Know your opponents. Ask yourself, would this guy get all in for $360 w/AQ? No offense, but people in poker get too greedy, they want to get allin and win big. Practicing pot control is an art, try to be a master at it.

raising 10 to 30 is like pretty weak.


Villains range calling that small raise will be his entire range.


Getting 3 streets of value all depends on dynamic and image at the time.

Do people really like the 3-bet pre? As has already been said, a majority of the time we're winding up with air or TPTK. 3-betting is just building the pot. Flat the initial raise to keep it small and disguise your hand. You still have three streets to get value out of.

I think raising 10 to 30 is fine given that your blinds are 1-2. But yea I wouldn't discount villian possibly having low pocket pairs looking for a set mine since as he states he has position on you and your stack is deep enough to make it worthwhile.

Given this flop was a rainbow flop and you re-raised preflop, I would prefer to check/call since it could induce bluffs or beliefs that we don't have the ace and hold some sort of pocket. And look for either another check/call or value bet on turn.

If played your way I'd call the re-raise since its an extra $100 which kind of puts your hand face up (A-K, A-Q, A-J) and if the villain fires double barrel I'd consider folding since I don't really want to commit when I've practically told him I have top pair and he's still not afraid to bet me (in my opinion most people in my game have trouble folding top pairs)

There can exist reasons to flat with AK, dont get me wrong. But flatting AK in general is like saying "i want to miss the flop 2/3 the time, and i want my villain to have the initiative so i can fold to his cbet". (obviously you could creatively play it without a pair postflop, but this is still the basic message)

Grunch.

Did you consider how the hand looked from his perspective?

You 3-bet pre and he flat called. What hands do this? Generally AK or pocket pairs.

You c-bet with an ace on the board and he still raised you on that flop. Do you think he does this with JJ-KK?

Unless villain is a maniac, he has to give you credit for an ace, and he's still raising....

Think about it.

[QUOTE=sushiparlour;20924653]I think raising 10 to 30 is fine given that your blinds are 1-2. But yea I wouldn't discount villian possibly having low pocket pairs looking for a set mine since as he states he has position on you and your stack is deep enough to make it worthwhile.


You do realize that the blinds make ZERO difference, but the stacks make ALL the difference. Allowing villain to call $20 with ability to win almost 18 times that amount begs villain to take perfect odds with a hand we dont want them to make. (or at least charge them correctly to gain an edge if they decide they want to setmine)

Im just questioning the statement "i think its fine" with no real reason as to why. There is a purpose for every bet and betsize. So if you will, please tell me why its fine.

check/call if you raise him you playinng wrong your getting better hands to shove and worse hands to fold. so 3betting all in and or C/R is very bad

well the guy that made it 10 folded... what size do you open to? because if you aren't making it >20 then you are contradicting yourself. I'm not saying 30 but your logic doesn't really make sense.

Oh, and lol at people not realising that CO acts after MP and we can't check back flop.

As played this hand is completely villain dependent... have you seen him raise flops with <TPTK before?

180bb deep, I like the 3bet. Especially in live games. But I would have made it like 40 or 45. (probably 40 though). The raise to 30 is just too little. Villain's flat is a little loose, although if you're predictable post-flop, it's fine.

I try to mix up my play with AK since I seem to so rarely win with it and rarely win a big pot with it. 90 percent of it depends on the table. If you are in EP at an aggressive table, it's OK to limp, watch it get raised to $7 or $12, get 3 callers and then it's back to you. Now, you can pop it up to $40 or $50 and take down all that dead money. A small percentage of the people at the table will know what you have - AA, KK or AK. You've also made it enough that people can't really set mine with low pairs against you.

Bolded: This is fish talk.

Italicized: Incorrect.

Underline: oh good, so our opponents can play perfectly against us? Also, what happens in those times when you raise and get a few callers and the aggressive guy makes it 40 to go, then u can shove and watch him call with AQ or less.

OK, I don't have any idea what has happened to me when I've been playing live. I have no idea what is going on when I play AK.

Seems like I am running into way more people who limp with AK these days. Saw one guy do it twice in the last hour I played tonight.

AK is excellent to limp 3 bet if passive limping game plus some fairly aggressive raisers in CO and BTN.

what is it with people l/rr-ing

While we're on the subject, lets just fold AK in EP - not profitable.

It is position. Position is more important than your cards.

If you have AK UTG and raise to $14 then 6 people come in behind you and it is tough to win OOP against 6 opponents.

You get 6 people calling $14 raises..... wheeee I wanna play.

Hm... Having thought about it again I agree with what your post says but then I still feel that raising $30 is acceptable. Since by raising to $30 it makes it expensive enough to isolate the hand and also make it so that the original raiser may call you with hands that you are well ahead of such as AQ, AJ, A10 etc. which seems to be the objective of this raise.

Raising more, in my opinion, would fold out some of the hands you are ahead of. True it may get hands such as the pocket 3 here to fold and not call since it doesn't have the proper odds, but then again most of the time those pocket 3s will not hit a set (7/8 times, I believe) which means he'll have to win a pot of at least $240 when villain calls for it to work out. If we can pot control it then I feel this play is viable.

Another issue I have for raising more is that I'm not too sure who would call a $50 raise in position and $40 raise OOP (since $50 x 8 makes it not profitable for set miners) unless I've got a pretty strong hand. From experience my biggest wins from AK are generally against A-Q, A-J and I'm not sure if they'd call such a raise.

Lastly if my re-raise is $30 then it makes it cheaper for me to mix up my play to include a re-raise steal.

These are my ideas, I might be terribly wrong and would be happy to get criticized and learn more.