Happened today at my usual live casino, stakes 1/2, $300 max buy in. I have about $200. In the cutoff I get AKo...

The guy to my right straddles to $5 (you can straddle from any position here), I make it $15 to go. I get one caller from early position and original straddler calls. Flop comes AKQ rainbow. Check, check, I raise $30. Early position raises to $100, other player folds.

My thought process: I don't know much about the guy as it was early in the session, but I did notice he called 2 raises preflop out of the 5 hands I saw so I assumed he was your average loose casino player. He had about $250 to start the hand. I think he either has flopped the straight (J-10), hit two pair, or flopped a set. If he had the straight, I don't think he would jam. Set was possible but AA and KK are both unlikely given my hand. QQ is possible and the most likely set if he has one. He could have two pair with AQ, KQ, or even AK (although unlikely). I don't think he would check-raise with a pair and straight draw (QJ, etc.) or just a pair. So...he either has QQ, AQ, KQ, or AK.

Since I only have about $150 behind me, this is either a shove or fold. I go all in concluding worst case scenario (QQ), I have outs to a better full house. He calls, flips over QQ and it holds up. So, bad play or tough beat? I'm open to criticism.

i wanna say bad beat and with the fact you saw him calling raises preflop i understand your logic, but IMO its a misplay. he called the straddle in early position, called your raise which was 7x the BB preflop, then check raised you almost 1.5 the pot. 5 hands isnt a big enough sample size for any raise. at 1/2 blinds i understand thinking he could be some donk but preflop i think you gotta put him on JJ+/KQs+ and prelfop he does nothing to change that assumption. his likely hands seem to be AA,KK,QQ,AK,KQ. you can only beat one of those.


now im somewhat inexperienced so ill diffur to the more experienced members here.

tough beat imo. since there is a straddle, u have only 40bb effective. i would even recommend raising more pre, 20 or 25. now you hit top two and have to go with it, u just cant fold top two given ur effective stacksices.

QQ and JT are the only possible hands here that have u crushed, and u crush all other hands (i assume he would 3bet AA and KK, and also very likely QQ if he is somewhat decent). possible hand range AK, AQ, KQ, AJ, AT, QQ, JT imo. get it in.

I ch/call would be playing, but I am not a too big living person cg-s!

May be on the other hand, that I said big stupidity, but I would make this.

Bad Beat bc you figure QQ would raise pre and not just call the $5 and then call $10 more

this is just a cooler. you are only 40bb deep so you should never fold top two on the flop unless another straight card comes. you have blockers for aa and kk and nearly everyone 3bets pre with aa and kk. with qq you expect a 3bet pre but some people flat and wait to see a flop without overs before stacking off so you can only discount qq slightly. you crush kq, aq, and split with ak and he could be going crazy with aj, a10, qj, kj, etc. or be on a complete bluff (very unlikely but still possible). so you only lose to qq and j10 (the hand he most likely has, a lot of players at these levels either slow play too much or fast play the nuts on a safe board when a slow play is clearly better) but you still got to pay him off. i think you can safely fold bottom two pairs on this flop but top two pairs is just too strong and you still have 4 outs when you're behind (about 16% to hit with two cards to come).

Cooler... =/ Sucky situation. Chalk it up as bad luck and continue on your path to greatness. Your not deep enough to get away from that big of a hand/flop.

I agree big time cooler. I believe AA and KK are definitely out of his range. QQ, 10J, KQ are all in his range with QQ being extremely coolerish.

Its certainly foldable with a deeper stack but bit of a cooler with stack sizes and considering the preflop action

considering the preflop play, I think his range is 4 hands once hes raises on the flop QQ AQ KQ JT, QQ is most unlikly of those, you dominate the other two and JT you still have 6 outs, I personally think folding would be a mistake most times, UL

i think little bit of bad luck. but i mean if you actually listen to the hand u know the guy has the goods. but amazing things happen in poker ;P lol

cooler

I mean its pretty much a Cooler, don't sweat it!
Gl in the future.

40 bbs deep mehhh

Thanks guys, appreciate it. Yea been running into a lot of these. Just wanted to make sure I'm plugging any leaks. G2g, actions to me!

no that is a badbeat

Big time cooler here. You made the raise, in position with the AK. You could have made it 20, but that's irrelevant. At the point that the straddler just flat calls you, OOP, you don't out him on QQ, AA or KK, especially the second two, because usually players will raise you there, to protect their straddle. Overall, you got unlucky and just happened to fall into a bad/mis played pot.

Definitely not a bad beat in my opinion. The way I see it, he was ahead the whole way, including pre-flop. If I was in your position here, I would have had a similar thought process. Eliminated AK since you have it, most likely QQ or TJ. Both scenarios have you beat. When he checks raises on the flop, I would have most likely thought about it, and then made a tough lay down.

You only lost $45 and still have $150, still a decent stack to keep playing with. Usually a aggressive check/raise is sign of a player trying to protect his hand, which is exactly what he was trying to do here.

Tough one!

I am totally agree with big time cooler.

big time cooler

you got coolered with an unfortunate hand, but I believe you could of laid it down. I am no expert by any means, but I play alot of live 1/2-3 in casinos and one thing I have learned is getting it all in on the flop with 2 pair is normally a losing situation. I have vowed to never call a large all in on the flop unless I have at least a set and the flop is not coordinated. In a higher stakes game an aggressive bluff could be made here by the other party, but in a $200-$300 game if someone shoves it all on the flop or raises big, they usually have the goods from my experience. Just my opinion, but i would have folded the top 2 pair here instead of calling off the rest of my money. So even though it was an unfortunate hand situation I feel you made a bad play by not laying down the 2 pair. Just my opinion.

This is a cooler. U are only 40bb deep with top two and no flush out there. I'm a nit and I would get it all in (not super happy though). I'd fold aq though

bad play u had to fold in that board pro only go all in with the best hand and thats guy play like a pro sorry but only you was in that table and your emotion kill you.