Good number of hands in against solid villain. Villain started off aggressively, 3betting my first button raise and pushing me off my hands post-, but cooled down after I started playing back. No showdowns so far; villain varies button raise pre- so this slightly normal pfr doesn't mean too much.


Full Tilt Poker $20 + $1 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): t1800 M = 60
BTN/SB: t1200 M = 40

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is BB with 2 A
BTN/SB raises to t70, Hero calls

Flop: (t140) 8 3 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB checks

Turn: (t140) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t70, BTN/SB calls

River: (t280) 8 (2 players)
Hero ?


I usually block here for ~t70. I'm thinking villain's range is weighted mostly towards PPs less than 88 and A high, so a block would prevent me from having to call a larger sized value bet from the PPs without costing potential equity if I fold to villain betting with A high.

Are there any better lines I can take, or should I be putting villain on something else?

Thoughts and comments on all post-flop streets appreciated.

i fold pre

and check river

fold pre obv...unless you've been really tight oop up to this point I don't really see him checking behind any pocket pair on the flop. I expect to mostly see A high (with a diamand kicker) here. I don't think he's very likely to bluff the river with A high here though and he's not folding to your block bet either, so I don't see the benefit of bet/folding here.

wtf @ folding pre, its almost a minraise and you have an ace, def defend. I check river and probably call a bet depending on sizing/timing.

pretty much this..

Preflop I think depends on the raising range of villain. The problem with A2 is that the reverse implied odds are huge.

As played I would intend to check/call the river since our hand is somewhat of a bluff catcher. Throwing out a blocking bet is foolish IMO since we have showdown value and are basically turning our hand into a bluff.

pre can deff be arguable but i deff dont see how its a must to defend here i fold alot pre here

nat, imo, alot of ppl play bad in Axx flops.. so can be goot. Don't know how much he balances, but how often does he have Ax better kicker here? I dunno..

its not the point of being dominated also with your reasoning shouldnt we 3bet?, and if he has Ax he always has better kicker lol

I h8 3-bet pre vs this villain..

also hand very much depends upon his c-bet behaviour.. if he is pretty normal TAG I think this is prob c/call on riv, and all other streets look standard.. would be funny if he had 44-77 here and v-bet it on river...

Concerning the pre-flop call, i think it's more standard/correct for a beggining player to fold a small offsuit Ax. I think the limit for calling an offsuit Ax OOP is about A5o for an inexperienced player.

I think any suited Ax is good enough to at least call OOP.

Not a huge mistake, but it's a common leak for beggining player or weak post-flop players to call any Ax OOP then they end up losing a large pot or trying to make thin hero calls.

But yeah, i'm with nathan fold pre-flop.

Yea. I'm not sure why you would fold this preflop.

Cuz very few flops make you super happy. Even if Axx comes out you'll feel super ****ty if your opponent bets strong.

funny how reg speed regs vs turbo speed regs think

Ya know, this is exactly why I wrote:

Emphasis added.

Preflop is definitely marginal and debatable, but it's not a must-fold or must-call IMO. However, suffice to say that since I did call, I'm more interested in the post-flop analysis.

yeah but maybe pre is best point to analyise?

i prob c/c river most of he time

This is what I do as well.

looks fine if you c/c river, nh

c/c river

Thanks for the responses everyone. I guess check/calling would have been better than blocking.

I ended up blocking for t70, villain flatted with Ad4c for the split.