$1/2NL: AKo facing aggression OOP (1 Viewer)

jbutler

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Late night $1/2NL at Borgata. I have just been moved to a new table. Sitting with just over $800 and both guys who have me covered are sitting to my direct right. Nine unfamiliar faces which is rare which means none of these guys are regulars. Within the first orbit, the following hand comes up.

I pick up AKo UTG+1 and make it $16 over a straddle and only CO calls. Orthodox guy in his early 30s, have seen him play one pot where he check called a wet flop, led an irrelevant turn and won the pot. He has about $400 and I cover.

Flop ($39): AT3r

I bet $20. He immediately cuts out $45 and raises. I call.

Turn ($129): 7s to put out a spade draw.

I check and he bets $55. My play?
 
Tough spot. Good chance he has A10, and equally good chance you are way ahead. I call but don't feel great about it.
The relatively small raise (and turn bet) indicates he wants a call. Or it could indicate he has no idea what he is doing.
 
Seems like a fold and unless he is a complete maniac he always has AT or a set here. But, that could just be the runbad talking (my opponents smash the flop EVERY time, no matter what they have. T7o, 34o, no problem, they're going to call a big raise OOP and flop 2 pair or a straight. :rolleyes:)
 
Looks like a set, but I don't think I would fold yet since his betsizing is quite small. I think he could show up with AQ or AJ some times and maybe also 45. I think I would call the turn bet and see what he does on the river.
 
I don't like it but I'm calling. I think he has AJ type hands just as much as small sets or 2 pair.
 
Anybody here ever minraising flop in villain's spot with AQ or AJ? I don't have any trouble believing he would follow through with a too-small bet on the turn if he did, but I think the type of player who does that is very specific and pretty rare.
 
Anybody here ever minraising flop in villain's spot with AQ or AJ? I don't have any trouble believing he would follow through with a too-small bet on the turn if he did, but I think the type of player who does that is very specific and pretty rare.

I see a ton of players min-ish raising flops with a bare top pair which is part of why I snapped his flop raise. They'll make a more standard raise if the flop is connected or suited, but on a dry as hell flop like this, they tend to go for min-ish raises in my experience. They don't understand way ahead/way behind, so they have no idea that they should just be flatting if they flopped top pair with, say, AJ against a preflop raiser's flop c-bet. Turn tendencies for these players vary wildly, though, and as I said, I have no experience with this guy.

Does anyone think making a min-ish check raise on the turn has any merit whatsoever? Sort of the OOP version of the classic LHE turn raise to get value from lesser aces (we can simply fold if he 3-bets the turn) and induce a check behind on the river to make sure we can get to showdown. I decided against it here because my figuring was that we'll only induce checks behind on the river from hands that we beat anyway and why would we want to do that?
 
So I took what seems to be the consensus line here (though I'm still not convinced it's not a fold) and called.

River ($239): 9c

I check and he immediately bets $75, leaving him just over $200 behind. My play?
 
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So I took what seems to be the consensus line here (though I'm still not convinced it's not a fold) and called.

Turn ($239): 9c

I check and he immediately bets $75, leaving him just over $200 behind. My play?

I'm a donk and he's priced me in. I call.
 
So I took what seems to be the consensus line here (though I'm still not convinced it's not a fold) and called.

Turn ($239): 9c

I check and he immediately bets $75, leaving him just over $200 behind. My play?
Crying call
 
The raise on the flop screams strength. Most 1/2 players aren't raising a flop as a bluff. He has an A at a minimum, and sets plus AT are pretty likely.

I fold turn as played (and I would've probably played it the same way). His bet sizing on the turn screams "I'm trying to extract value".
 
Anybody here ever minraising flop in villain's spot with AQ or AJ? I don't have any trouble believing he would follow through with a too-small bet on the turn if he did, but I think the type of player who does that is very specific and pretty rare.

No, not with that 7s brick and dry flop. You can't rep much that he can't beat with what he's repping with the flop raise.

FWIW, this plays wayyyy different at 2/5 (at least at FW) and at a proper meat-up.
 
Playing online, this situation presents itself quite a bit. C-betting when an ace hits the board has become so common that it gets countered by a re-raise a lot of the time for information. I'm not saying that's what happened here, but there are a lot of things that could have happened I.E. Villain hit an ace and picked up a spade draw. I do agree that a turn fold could've been found, but Villain was also pricing Hero in.
 
I'd have a hard time folding this in any of the games I play. But in the casino game Hero faces, who knows? A case could be made for a fold but if this is true then Hero should be betting with abandon in other hands and getting folds like crazy.

DrStrange
 
FLOP: His smallish raise makes me think he's looking for action from someone with Ax and could have me fearing he's hit a set. That being said, there are a LOT of bad players in 1/2 live games, so I don't mind a call to re-evaluate on the turn. Villian could also make this play with Aces we beat because he's fishing for info (plus we only bet about half the pot which he might view as weak)

TURN: His bet is super small. I have a hard time believing he's trying to extract value from a set or two pair here. I mean, maybe he's just bad and doesn't know how to bet size for value, or maybe he's some super genius thinking on a level beyond me and thus he is extracting value from me here, but I'm fine with the check-call line.

RIVER: $75 into a $239 pot, wtf? Again adding fuel to the fire that this guy has no clue about bet sizing. I'm assuming you mention his $200 behind because you're considering a shove to extract value from a weaker ace in this spot. I guess if we had a different description other than this player being "orthodox" I might approve of that play. But I'm in the check-call camp and hopefully Villian has value-towned themselves with a weaker ace. I can't find the river fold, but I don't think I'm comfortable enough for the shove either. I'm guessing you call, win and bemoan not having shoved and stacked this guy.

moral: playing OOP is hard
 
A case could be made for a fold but if this is true then Hero should be betting with abandon in other hands and getting folds like crazy.

Not really imo. The games are good exactly because that would be a horrible strategy in most instances.

I'm assuming you mention his $200 behind because you're considering a shove to extract value from a weaker ace in this spot. I guess if we had a different description other than this player being "orthodox" I might approve of that play.

We have no information about his play apart from the hand history I gave above. I have no idea if his play is orthodox, but he is definitely Orthodox.

ssYH0DY.png


I mention what he has behind only as a reminder of his stack size. If he had bet $75 leaving himself $25 or so behind, I would consider that indicative of much greater strength than betting $75 with $200 behind. I didn't consider raising the river as a plausible option for any longer than it took to dismiss it.

Villain has AK - call and chop it up.

I will spoil it to the extent that I will say this didn't happen. Although it did about an hour later when another deep stack and I got all our money in on a turn when I was freerolling with top/top and the nut flush draw. Unfortunately the flush didn't hit and we did chop it...
 
Huh. When you said you didn't know anything about him but he was Orthodox, I pictured a guy in a black top hat with 4-ft. beard. Shows what I know.

Yes the flop minraise is obv a snap call, as people do that with all sorts of stupid crap "for information." (God I hate that whole concept.) But I'm saying that having received his "answer" in the form of a snap call, somebody who does that probably checks back the turn with most of the hands we're beating. IF he did it with AQ/AJ he probably bets, but I think it's less likely in that case that he feels the need to make an "information" raise in the first place. Yes we could be ahead but I just think we're getting valuetowned WAY more often than not. The turn is the place to make the hero-fold I think, but having called turn I guess we HAVE to call $75 on the river - regardless of what he has, that's certainly consistent with the rest of this guy's line and doesn't really give us any reason to reevaluate.
 
We have no information about his play apart from the hand history I gave above. I have no idea if his play is orthodox, but he is definitely Orthodox.

ssYH0DY.png

Without the beard or tzittzit I'd say more orthodox is highly unlikely. Most likely conservative and possibly reform. Since we were fed incorrect info on villain all analysis thereafter is prone for error. [emoji12]
 
ave seen him play one pot where he check called a wet flop, led an irrelevant turn and won the pot.

My decision here is a raise or fold, depending on his bet sizing on his previous wet flop. If he weak bet here before, I think he has an issue with bet sizing and may actually have a set. If his bet was pot-approaps on the wet flop then I think his hand here is perceived (by him) as beatable, and I'm going over the top.
 
Without the beard or tzittzit I'd say more orthodox is highly unlikely. Most likely conservative and possibly reform. Since we were fed incorrect info on villain all analysis thereafter is prone for error. [emoji12]

That's not actually the guy. That's Ari Engel. I think I just googled "poker player wearing kippah". I'm not sure about Ari, but I know for certain the guy in this hand was (he ended up switching seats later and we chatted for a while).

My decision here is a raise or fold, depending on his bet sizing on his previous wet flop. If he weak bet here before, I think he has an issue with bet sizing and may actually have a set. If his bet was pot-approaps on the wet flop then I think his hand here is perceived (by him) as beatable, and I'm going over the top.

Not a bad question, but I don't remember unfortunately :( But why would calling be out of the question for you? Raising seems to have almost no value imo.
 

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