Villian is starting to raise my limp's quite often now, I havent adjusted yet because I just picked up on it, but hes starting to raise about 50% of them now, HOWEVER, he normally raises a standard amount,this may have should a been a read for me but I just didnt and still dont see him as a very smart player,(just decent). Could I have played the hand better? Hes calling tons of my preflop raises, so I have already adjusted to that, and hes sometimes donking into me oop, (maybe 33% of the time if he catches any piece)...hardly ever 3 betting preflop.

The thing is, im obviouly going broke with the hand if I woulda raised preflop and him 3 bet me, wouldnt you agree? Even though he rarely ever 3 bets preflop especially oop, he could easily have aq,ajs,tt,jj-aa giving me 51% equity according to pokerstove, he might even do it with a smaller pp but my equity isnt going to change enough for it to matter with my pot odds at this point, so thats irrelevant, but im pretty confident he would 3 bet with those hands for sure with the game flow that only I know about.So I would think everyone would agree in going broke there?

My reasoning for not raising preflop is hes doing a fair share of stealing postflop and ak never flops for me...(is this bad thinking?)

Note: When I raised I didnt expect a re-raise I expected a flat call.

I already discussed his all in range but I think his raising range is a2s-a8,a9+,tjs,jqs,jk,qk,tt-aa roughly. (basically I think hes just pot sweetining in his mind) how the hell could I have played this hand better? I think if I called hes betting out into me (obv dont be results oriented) in which case like I said im going to miss and probably going to fold...


Seat 1: Villian (2033 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (967 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind 25
Villian: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Kc Ah]
Hero: calls 25
Villian: raises 50 to 100
Hero: raises 233 to 333
Villian: raises 1700 to 2033 and is all-in
Hero: calls 634 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1066) returned to Villian
*** FLOP *** [2h 5h Js]
*** TURN *** [2h 5h Js] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [2h 5h Js Kh] [3d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villian: shows [Ad Ac] (a pair of Aces)
Hero: shows [Kc Ah] (a pair of Kings)
Villian collected 1934 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1934 | Rake 0
Board [2h 5h Js Kh 3d]
Seat 1: Villian (big blind) showed [Ad Ac] and won (1934) with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: Hero (button) (small blind) showed [Kc Ah] and lost with a pair of Kings

Why limp anyways? How about:

Hero raises to 150
Villain raises to 450
Hero shoves.

AK is the nuts preflop. If he has AA or KK it's just a cooler imo.

lol @ different line than all the chips in pre

And if I raise, and he calls, hes going to be betting (value/stealing) alot... As far as getting it all in preflop, im flipping with his all in range...whats the point in that besides...HUGE variance, Theres not even any metagame in that,cuz i probably wont play this guy again (mid stakes). Given his postflop tendencies of bluffin/value betting, and flipping with his all in range, is a fold all that bad for 50 chips? Im definately leaning towards calling or folding as a better alternative, I just dont like flipping for 50 chips. And if calling is better why ,since most of the time hes taking that pot down

I take it you guys wouldnt call or fold, youd rather push and gamble? Is there anyone who sees a better alternative to this situation? Thanks for all comments

Assuming you took the raise/shove line...

This is not about push and gamble... Against capable opponents we push for value as AK does well against their range. If we already build a pot worth contesting we don't need 50% equity anyways. If we also take into account that folds a bunch we need even less equity to push and breakeven. So pushing is always better than folding, even with hands much worse than AK imo.

You could call this, but you should consider your 4betting range when you do. If you flatcall AK, what hands are you 4betting.... If your range is really strong you might want to add hands as (semi)bluffs. But which hands do you choose if you're calling 3bets with AK and possibly AQ, AJs, KQs?

Normally you bluffraise the strongest hands you would otherwise fold. But this is only because there are hands you can call with that have more value when you do so. If you're being 3bet it's hard to play a pot with an easily dominated hand like AQ, AJs, ATs, KQs. So I prefer NOT to add these to my calling range and 4bet or fold them instead, depending on my opponent. AK is somewhere alone. It's not dominated as often, but doesn't have great equity when called. Still I think 4betting is more profitable in general, unless your opponent goes crazy with TT-QQ when you hit your card.

Nothing wrong with limping if he's raising your limps frequently but not 3-betting you.

There is definitely something wrong with thinking "AK never flops for me." If you need to know why, someone else can list off paragraphs of lecture to you about that.

Don't raise to 150, that's spewy, you're only 20bb deep and this guy is flat calling a lot PF, so you're going to have a 300 chip pot with like 750 behind, that's what would be termed a "tough spot" or a spot that will often get you into trouble.

Standard raise would be to 100 here, but with your read limp reraise is fine. Your reraise size is very suspicious, even to a fish, unless of course you are always reraising to 333, 222, 444, and stupid things like that, which you probably aren't. I'd just shove or make it like 400 and shove/call shove on any flop (except maybe like an AKK flop or KKK or what have you).

Also, tag your posts "husng" or "hucash" please.

"This is not about push and gamble... Against capable opponents we push for value as AK does well against their range. If we already build a pot worth contesting we don't need 50% equity anyways. If we also take into account that folds a bunch we need even less equity to push and breakeven. So pushing is always better than folding, even with hands much worse than AK imo."

What im tryin to say is that its just such a small pot thats going to have resitance, by that I mean I was almost positive he was going to call, and calling or raising in my mind is resistance. And build a BIG pot where he tends to like to value bet/bluff and probably force me to fold with a hand like ak because it just doesnt flop well. Now my read was off that hed call, and even worse since he raised, I say worse because now ive commited myself and even though im getting great pot odds, im only getting great pot odds because I made them that way for myself, Its not a good situation because if my reads are correct on my range on him, were basically gambling. Its like flipping a quarter for money. Now obviously as played im calling because the pots too big compared to what I lose ( sometimes I think players justify calling a $1000 raise into a pot of $1100 just because there getting pot odds, "well im 50% to win agaisnt his range so I call". Now thats a extreme exampe but you catch what im saying. Almost like theyre forgeting that what they have lost thus far, be it ($50) is small compared to what theyre about to risk ($1000), but thats just my thinking. I hate re-raising here and am saying if I could do it all over again, since im pretty sure hes going to call me if I re-raise...Whats the point in basically gambling here with a small pot? Ive lost 50 chips and still can fold or call another 50 (which im still not sure what woulda been best) and wait to win a bigger pot considering our stack sizes to the amount I lost at a later time rather then just gamble. Dont ya think? Its different when theres no resistance, agaisnt this particular opponent I was able to play very aggressivly in limped pots firing when he almost always checked on the flop and almost always taking it down, he never adjusted to that, so I never did either... now those pots on the other hand are important, but thats because theirs no resitance....maybe once in a while he fires out or check raises me, but so what I fold.






I tend to not worry so much about akward stack sizes and worry more about putting my opponent on a hand. Maybe this is bad but let me explain in reason to you what I mean. Why worry so much about tryin to dodge a akward stack size postflop as opposed to exploiting your opponent to the fullest extent, WHILE protecting your stack. An extreme example of this would be not raising aa because if we are to raise and opponent calls us we will have a akward stack size post flop. So lets just limp and let him limp as well so that we have a good "stack to pot ratio". Yes im quoting professional nl hold em by Matt Flynn, Sunny Metha, and Ed Miller. And in my opinion its the most informative/worth money nl poker book out there. But to me that seems like were worrying too much about something we just cant help sometimes dont ya think? I mean when your opponent is aggressive and tricky sure, it might mean not raising, but that doesnt really have anything to do with worrying about a akward stack size I dont think, its simply protecting our stack from losing more then we have to by being outplayed. But when your equity is good against your opponent's range , I dont see it over riding us exploiting them.

Also, a main reason I wrote my little 2 cents in on akward stack sizes was to get to the point about me raising to odd numbers. My opponent could not have any read based on my preflop raise, I had been raising to 222,333, and things like that all game as blinds went up the entire game, he may have gotten a read off my timing or the way my avatar slumped down in its seat (haha), but not off my raise. I simply raised to 333 instead of 350 because it was easier typing it. Please let me know your thoughts on this, and thanks in advance.

If you are getting 2-to-1, think you're 50% to win, and don't insta-super-fastly-snapcall, you're doing something VERY SERIOUSLY WRONG, and are misunderstanding pot odds at a very fundamental level.

****EDIT****

After reading a bit more, it seems you do actually understand this, and just picked a very poor example of a "bad" call.

1) Please dont post results from the hand, it just sways our opinion to be results oriented.

For example, you could have posted:
Hero: calls 25
Villian: reraises to xxx
Hero?

2) You have <30BB's effective stacks at 25/50. You should be HAPPY getting it in with AK.

3) You said that you are afriad that, if you raise and he just calls, that you will get the pot stolen from you a lot of the time. If this is true, you need to really re-evaluate your postflop play. AK is an absolute monster for 30BB's effective, and you're playing in position. What is his calling range of your raise? Big aces, big broadways, and suited connectors/low-mid pocket pairs. Your hand plays well against all of these, and you can take him to value town when you flop big. Even on a flop like JTx, you can semi-bluff raise him if he donks into you. If you are afraid of playing flops, I strongly suggest playing some HU cash games/6-max games. You will learn a lot more about flop textures, and how to abuse players from position with a monster like this hand.

I think you may have more of a point OOP against an aggressive opponent for < 30 BB's, where the pot will be taken from you a lot of the time. There, I'd still want to raise up the pot though, so that when you spike a pair, the pot is big enough so that you can get all the chips in the middle by the river.