$1/$2 NLHE: AA UTG, Deepish-Stacked (1 Viewer)

[Jimulacrum]

Cast of characters:

• UTG: Hero, pretty straightforward TAG image; ~$500
  
• MP: friendly young Asian guy, intelligent player, a little looser and a little more passive than a TAG; covers Hero
  
• BTN: relatively unknown gambler; ~$200 or $300

Hero is dealt AA UTG and makes a standard $10 raise. MP has made a remark or two about Hero's standard raise to $10 over the course of the session (a few hours in at this point).

MP and BTN call, rest of the field folds. Flop comes 678 rainbow. Pot is $30.

Hero is first to act. Check or bet (and how much)?

 

[gopherblue]

I'm not crazy about that flop. Bet $20 and see where you are.

 

[DrStrange]

I think I'll play this one backwards and check/call the flop. Hero should also plan on a fold if a war breaks out. The plan is to get a brick on the turn before committing serious money. right now there are a host of pair + draw hands that have an edge over aces. Let's not put Hero in a bad spot any sooner than we have to.

DrStrange

 

[AWenger]

I hate playing AA out of position against multiple opponents. I think I mix it up here, sometimes going with DrStrange's line of check/call the flop, sometimes going with gopherblue's C-bet of $20.

Thinking ahead, if you bet $20 and get raised, what will you do then? If you're OK with folding sometimes when you're raised on this flop, then bet $20. If you think you can't call a raise, then checking is a way to control the pot out of position.

 

[courage]

Jam. Oops, sorry @Chippy McChiperson

I agree with AWenger. Vs weak opponents I'd lead but vs these two sounds like check/call.

 

[manamongkids]

check call, see if you can get heads up instead of going to the turn 3 ways

 

[Jimulacrum]

Okay, looks pretty clear that there are two lines of thinking. Hero goes with the more aggressive of the two, and perhaps a bit of an overbet.

Hero bets $30. MP calls. BTN folds.

Heads-up to the turn. Pot is $90.

Turn comes 678A, still rainbow.

Hero … ?

 

[Trihonda]

I bet $45

if the villain has a hand like A8, we're golden. If they're on a draw, we can evaluate the river. If they have the str already, we are behind, but now have outs.

 

[DrStrange]

66% pot for me, $60.

It is going to be really hard to separate made straights from sets and two pair hands should villain raise Hero's turn bet. I think Hero is pot committed with top set (but we will try to get to the river cheaper unimproved).

 

[courage]

We're crushing most of villain's range. I'm with doc, prolly betting 65.

 

[bergs]

I bet $30 on the flop and $75 on the turn. I want to get it in here.

 

[onerand]

Would you have potted AK on A87 flop? I like betting 55 to try to look weakish and hope to get raised in this spot. Happy to get it in.

 

[Jimulacrum]

Okay, we're 100% betting, and I don't expect much disagreement about that. DrStrange wins on the exact amount. Next action:

Hero bets $60. MP raises to $180.

Hero … ?

 

[courage]

Hard to see villain flatting flop unless he had nuts. Weak straight or set would prolly have raised. I'm fist pump shoving over his turn raise.

 

[tripleflatbarrel]

In a 3 way pot I'm probably just checking this OOP unless both Vs are very tight, especially this deep.

This board smashes a flat callers range more so than ours. What are you really opening UTG that hit this flop? We have a hand that is unlikely to improve on the turn V a villains range that includes hands that have us dominated and draws. I just see too many combos V either floats or traps with that make our life hell unless we bink an A. Even then we might be crushed.

 

[tripleflatbarrel]

I think we have to try to get it in on the turn here. Bottom of V callF/raiseT range is probably A9, so he hit TP and still has the OESD. Top of range is obviously T9 & 54 which we have redraws to. I think there are enough two pair and underset combos to balance those out though that it's just gotta get in.

 

[DrStrange]

Well now Hero is in a spot. Shove it in, send a quiet prayer to the Poker Gods. "just this one time!"

DrStrange

 

[gopherblue]

I concur.

 

[Chicken Rob]

Fold face up. Spend rest of night getting bluffed.

J/k, I like getting it in here. I didn't do any actual ranging, but my sense is its a smaller EV mistake shoving than folding.

 

[Jimulacrum]

Glad to see people are having the same kinds of thoughts I was having.

This was one of my first sessions at the Borgata, in 2006. I was relatively new to casino poker; I was mostly a home-game guy with a bit of micro-stakes online experience and a few tournaments. The $500 stack I'd built up was more than half of my roll at the time, so this hand was pants-shittingly huge for me, biggest pot I'd ever played. No one had ever even said the word "range" to me in a poker context before, but all of a sudden, I sure as hell had to think about range—mine and his.

You were all pretty on point about my assessment of his range. Sets seemed most likely. Straights possible, but less so based on previous openers (not a lot of connected speculative hands in raised pots). I also considered aces up in his range, as he seemed to like playing suited aces. The oddball straight, 59, was out of the question; it's not like I was playing against Bergs.

I figured he'd see me as a pair of aces, probably AK, no real mystery there. My preflop range was typical TAG stuff, and AA would be at the very top of my range and hard to expect in that spot, so he'd feel pretty safe with any of the hands in his range.

When he raised, I practically couldn't wait to get it all-in.

TLDR: RESULTS

Spoiler

Hero ships his remaining stack. MP hesitates for several moments, calls, and turns up for the small straight.

When Hero tables AA, MP says something about worrying Hero had 9T. Apparently he wasn't paying as much attention to Hero as it seemed, 'cause Hero holding 9T was just about impossible there.

River bricks despite Hero's polite request for the dealer to pair the board.

 

[courage]

Boo. Just never enough Boaty McBoatface in the world.

 

[tripleflatbarrel]

Major bummer.

Probably would have been worth mentioning this was 2006 rather than today. Game has changed a lot in 10 years. Spot kind of played itself but I'm probably even happier to get it in here in 2006 as players stacked off much lighter, generally speaking