So over the weekend I went to vegas to try out some NL live. I did quite well except for this one hand that completely rattled me for the rest of the night. I'm pretty sure I set myself up for losing my whole stack of chips, but I was wondering what others would do in this situation.

At a 1-2NL, max buyin 300$

I just sat down and about 5 hands in I get dealt AA UTG + 3. Very little time to get a read on people whatsoever.

A few limpers, so I raise 15$, which in itself was pretty small considering how loose/agressive vegas was to me so far. Anyway, folded to villain who makes it 40$ to go on the button. Folded to me. Now I was going to re-raise but decided to see a flop at 40$. Villain has about 5 stacks of 100$ in chips in front of him (as a side note).

Flop: Q:diamond:, 3:heart:, 6:spade:
I throw out a feeler, 15$ again. He flat calls. Now this sends off alarms in my head. Why would he re-raise then flat call a small bet, I was almost certain that if he had KK or AQ, I should expect a raise here.

Turn: 9:heart:
I throw out another smallish bet. 20$. He makes his move, and re-raises to 100$ to go. Now I replay the hand in my head, I think that maybe he hit his set of QQ, but from the play I've seen in the last two nights this makes me think otherwise. 100$ in most cases would have made me lay down my AA online or in other live games, but I saw some wacky agressive play so far, and 100$ on a pair with a draw happened too many times to count here.

I sit there and think for about 10 seconds, and then something really odd occurs. The dealer said, "hurry up bud, you're on a timer now". After 10 seconds?? This completely rattled me. I wasn't sure what my timelimit was, but I still needed time to think about it. I was thinking that maybe he had AQ with a heart draw now. So I think some more, and again the dealer hurries me up, and this time a lot more agressively. I still hadn't thought through the hand though. I didn't want to see any more scare cards, and if I was going to push I had to do it now, otherwise just lay it down. I was about 10-20 seconds of just laying it down and taking my lumps, the third hurry up by the dealer ended up tilting me for some reason. All in.

The instant call by the villain sealed the deal. While I hate posting results of a hand as it changes people's views of the hand, I'd still like to know what some of you would do? This was the first and only time I ever got "timered" in vegas.

River: blank (couldn't remember honestly, no heart, didn't matter). He flips over QQ.

I was going to rebuy in to get my money back, but I was so rattled by what happened (being timered, allowing myself to be rattled by the dealer and not trusting my instincts) that I just got up and left. I think this was just one of those hands I couldn't get away from, even though I should have. I was more pissed off with the dealer than anything else as he was really agressive about getting me to hurry up. Maybe I'm just looking to place blame elsewhere, but not being able to follow a train of thought without the dealer yapping at me, made it a lot harder than usual to figure out that I was beat.

Tyrsis

Before reading the entire post I'm going to say right now that you should have reraised all-in after he put in his $40.

I'd have also made my first bet probably at least $20-$25.

agreed.... push in those situations everytime.

Also - tell the dealer to call the pitboss if he doesn't like it.

It's his call, not the dealer's.

Besides, you're not in a tournament with timed blind levels - there's no reason to cut you off so quickly (unless it was 5 minutes without you realizing it).

Regardless - put out a bigger feeler bet - $40-$50 - and fold his raise.

But being out of position here is why I prefer just going all-in preflop - he'll fold his queens...and if he doesn't, it's a bad beat, instead of a bad call.

I would agree - the problem being I called the re-raise to catch a situation with QQ. I'm pretty certain he was calling me with an allin, the result being the same. You are probably right though as I wouldn't have had to deal with the timering and would have just rebought and tried to get my money back. The flat call after the flop should have told me that he was trapping. In fact after the feeler I even said to myself that if he just flat calls he's caught and I'm out on a bet, otherwise a re-raise and I'm allin since he only got a piece. But the internal dialog after the dealer was hurrying me changed what I was thinking. Ah well. Mental note, tell the dealer to shut it next time

Tyrsis

it happens. You move all in preflop, he calls, he draws out. I don't inherently mind your flat call; he happened to hit his two outer. Still have to bet harder than that, however; can't simply live in fear of trips.

And true, in this instance, position is not your friend. Moving all in probably the right move here, regardless of result.

I know this is a common tactic, but here's the problem.

You don't know if he's got QQ, JJ, KK, AK (doubtful), or maybe even TT...so, you could get into some ugly scary boards.

And you're out of position, which sucks, even with AA.

I will sometimes smooth call AA from the back, but not from front. Even from back, there's no shame in taking it all right there.

If he calls all-in, yeah, you lose, but you lost anyway. In my scenario, it's the villain's mistake, in yours, it your mistake.

Generally, if you raise where you did, everyone else folds and perhaps a limper calls, then you're in position - if someone behind you raises, then you push...if someone behind you calls, then you're out of position and need the feeler/continuation bet on the flop.

If he doesn't hit a queen I'm pretty certain you don't win another chip from him....your feeler bet probably gets folded, even to J72 on board.

The problem with not pushing OOP...what happens when that ace or king hits the board? You just lost all that action from QQ/JJ. What happens when AK misses? Again, more lost action. Just go ahead and re-re-raise.

Yeah, I think I was just trying to be tricky and save myself some money on someone hitting their set after the flop. I guess I put too much faith in being able to read someone, hehe. Oh well. Luckily the next day the same situation happened, and instead of being tricky I did pretty much exactly what was said above. Raise out of position to 35$, got re-raised to 75$, push all in. The guy even says across the table to me, "Got aces eh? Can't fold this though. Call". I just say out loud, "You're right". Won back most of what I lost.

Tyrsis

Generally agreeing with above post...you should've come over the top all-in after his pre-flop re-raise...

Trying not to be results oriented, regarding the flop, I would've bet the pot approx. $90. If he re-raises, then you can decide to push or fold. I'm probably putting all my money in anyways as the only hand you should probably be scared of is QQ which happens 1/8 times. Without any reads, I would think that AQ or KK are strong possibilities.

I think the $15 bet on the flop was a waste. Doesn't tell you much.

My 2 cents... :-)

I dont see why you should reraise all in from his $40. Raising $40 to $300 is too much and he's too likely to fold, imo.

Reraise to $100.

It leaves you with slightly less than a pot sized bet. If he does have a high pair, you won't have any trouble getting him to put in the rest after virtually any flop. If he has a drawing hand, he's still voluntarily putting money in as a huge dog.

I cant understand why anyone would just call a reraise with aces preflop. It's not as if you need to deceive him. People at live 1/2 rarely will let go of their hand when you raise his reraise unless it's for something absurdly large. Your stack isn't large enough for that type of deception to ever be worthwhile.



How was it a waste? If his plan was to bait in weaker hands, it may work.

To call it a "feeler" bet is just wrong though. You get no information. You get action from hands that you have beat just as often as you do from hands that have you beat.

You won't be able to effectively "feel" anything when the pot is this large on the flop.
Anything that gives you information already has you all in. A reasonably sized check/raise nearly has you all in; obligating you to call any amount he can go over the top for. If you bet the pot on the flop, most hands that beat you are going to smooth call (ie: sets). What then? You get smooth called by kings and AQ too. Are you going to check/fold after you get called on the flop? If you bet out another reasonable sized bet, you're going to be all in on the turn before he has a chance to act. If he raises the flop, you still can't quickly assume that he isnt making this move with something you have beat. Same thing as the smooth call and when you check/raise him - you dont know until it's too late to do anything about that.

why why why why why why why why why in the world would WHY WHY WHY

would you decide to NOT reraise preflop,

effectively forcing you to play a big pot

out of position

with a lot of money going in postflop

out of position

against a big stack

with a vulnerable hand

out of freaking position

WHY WHY WHYW WHYWHWYHWHWYHWYHWY

i don't understand people sometimes.

bye

aseem

i found this humorous.

aseem

and guys, you don't need to push all-in after he reraises preflop.

but, it goes without saying that *NOT* reraising anything is HORERENODSOUDHSODUSS.

i'd pump to at least $140, and that's the bare minimum. i think i'd often make it $165 straight.

aseem

I agree that it was a waste, because the small bet gives you no information. Before I read the results I though the guy was a very aggressive player with pocket 9's that caught his set on the turn. Sometimes the easiest way to trick someone is to play straight forward. He has no table read to tell him otherwise. The villian is not really priced out of the pot with pocket 9's smooth calling $15 if he puts you on something like big slick. You needed to bet more than $15 here to get any idea what you were up against.

I also agree with a big re-raise preflop.

I only bought in with 200$ since that is all I brought at the time, and didn't feel like taking out another 100$ since I wasn't going to stay long, little did I know. - So a large raise and an all in was moot. It was either a flat call to try and be cute or an over the top all in.

While the frank response to why I wouldn't re-raised was appreciated, the reason I didn't was a bit selfish in that he was very much wearing what he was holding on his face. Once he saw the queen on the flop his entire attitude changed from nervous chip playing to just coldly glancing at what I was doing. I made the right read at the time after the call of a the small bet post flop. After he bet 100$ he confidently stared at me, not only that, but his call to my small flop bet was instant, as was his 100$ on the turn. In my opinion the small bet served it's purpose, to see how quickly he jumped at putting in his chips. He already planned out a flat call, turn bet right when the queen hit. When I looked down at my cards on the turn is when the dealer started hounding me. I lost my train of thought and started questioning the whole hand. Either way I just ended up trying to be cute and hosed the whole thing anyway.

I replayed the whole thing in my head many times, and obviously played it poorly. But I talked to a few people while I was there and their opinions differed drastically. I'm glad everyone here agrees I wasn't quite sure if it was the pre-flop or not.

Thanks anyway guys,
Tyrsis

He's only got $200...why save the other $35?

Don't you hate it when you make the right read, but still can't stop yourself from making the wrong move. For me that's usually the difference between a bad session and a good session. "I know this is the wrong move, but...." Fortunately I don't do that as often as I used to.