2nd hand at table, sat w/$20


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FCP)

MP1 ($10)
MP2 ($25.70)
CO ($25.40)
Button ($26.55)
SB ($25.55)
Hero ($19.75)
UTG ($35.45)
UTG+1 ($6.90)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A , K . MP1 posts a blind of $0.25.
UTG raises to $1.25, UTG+1 calls $1.25, 2 folds, CO calls $1.25, 2 folds, Hero calls $1.

Flop: ($5.35) Q , 3 , K (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.5, UTG+1 folds, CO folds, Hero raises to $5


Questions:

Reraise preflop? (with 3 people to act, and I'm out of position?)
Lead out on flop, or C/R, or Flat call, lead out on turn for a pot size bet when no scare card shows up?


get at it.

I would play this the same way. I don't mind re-raise pre flop with AK but not OOP on the BB. Especially since UTG is likely to call you which will give decent odds to the rest of the players, therefore playing a big pot OOP in which you have the lead.

I'd play it pretty much the same I think, if you bet it and are called by say UTG and UTG+1 I think you would have a problem on your hands, this way UTG has isolated for you and you are seeing if he has AQ or AK or maybe even AA, I don't think UTG raises for that much pre flop with KQ

Preflop:

i don't reraise preflop here because

- the level: i wouldn't be surprised if you get at least 2 callers even if you bump it to 4-5.
- your stack size + position: if you reraise to 4-5 and even get just one caller, you're forced to act first and if the flop blanks you are stuck with the tough choice of either giving up the pot or firing a continuation bet that pretty much potsticks you given the pot size, which is not a good place to be against an opponent (or several) that called a reraise.
- most importantly, the size of UTG+1's stack: this guy is short and if you re-open the betting, you really need to reraise to put him all-in. he's not committed from calling the initial raise, but i seen shorties go "eh, f.uck it" when in this situation so many times to know that doesn't really matter. so if you reraise less, he's likely to push with a very wide range. you want to eliminate this possibility since it would be terrible if UTG called your initial reraise and then UTG+1 pushes, because it will induce the CO to come along and UTG won't fold at that point. this means that at the very best, if you reraise you could be dominating UTG+1, but more likely you are in a coinflip or 3/2 against 2 live cards. this would be fine if you were guaranteed to be in with just UTG+1, but you could easily find yourself in a situation where you are racing against a shortie and then also forced to potstick yourself with a continuation bet against another player who is not all-in preflop.


Flop:

a read would really help here. but absent one, i look to lead this flop for the size of the pot. reason being, if you get raised here it's likely to be a push, and i think you can find a fold getting only 2.5-1. you're way behind AA, KK, QQ, KQ, and a slight favorite vs. AJd. given that it's an UTG raiser, the only likely hands you're ahead of are KJ, JJ, and TT, and absent a read I wouldn't think my opponent would reraise me with those hands given that I've already shown strength. You could be chopping with AK, but I really think that would be the only hand that's popping you back on this board that doesn't have you beat.

this is why i don't look to c/r here - i think you got lucky villain bet so small, which basically lets you bet-size the c/r like a lead bet. if the villain had led for the pot, a c/r would basically be an all-in because of your stack size.

I think you played it fairly well. Your checkraise is awesome. It allows you to see if you get 3bet (which would mean that you're most probably beat), and dump the hand safely. Leading it (when we assume we're beat), loses us more money, then checkraising it.

I thought about this as well, but the c/r only works here the way that you say it does because the villain led the flop small. It verges on results-based thinking. If he leads normally, a c/r potsticks us.

Also, I'm not sure why you would think that leading it would lose us more than c/r when we are beat. If villain bets more, the c/r has to be more. If the villain bets small, the c/r is about the same amount as a lead.

I'm fine being potstuck in this spot. I mean we're behined AA and a set and KQ. We don't like calling off all our chips when we've made it transaprent we have AK, but getting most of our chips in the pot w/ AK TPTK w/ little transparency is a good thing IMO.
Why I like the C/R more than leading is the volume of callers preflop... a lead might get called by 2-3 inferior hands, 2 inferior hands and 1 dominating hand, 2 dominateing hands, 1 inferior hand, 1 dominating had. We let the raiser put the litmus test out, he got it heads up and now we can just on him.
It would have been interesting to get some calls post flop.

ooo, that last point is a gem. but at this level, do you really think that the transparency factor really matters? it doesn't seem like the lack of transparency would make something like KQ/AA fold, and make something like AQ/KJ call?

also, yes we lose value against an UTG continuation bet, but given that an UTG raising range should be narrower, i'm not sure if the number of times we fold an UTG weak hand or get one to call makes up for the times we're crushed against this particular board?



good point, but doesn't this factor apply almost equally to letting UTG lead? it might be different if there were some callers in between us and the villain, but he acts right after us. if he leads, it doesn't seem like the chances the other callers come along is significantly different from when we take the lead. except now, if they do come along, even a c/r push may not price them out. or am i just totally off base here?

I think what I was trying to say was that raise pf, c-bet when an ace pops and then the villian has his decision to put chips into the pot makes it much more likely that we may end up behind if we're called or raised because our hands is pretty transparent. C/Ring,I'm just sorta looking to take it down at this point. I don't know what the alternative is, if we're crushed here. if he's got a set or AA, I mean, what are ya gonna do? Are we ever getting away from this hand once it gets heads up (especially if villian put in a normal pot size bet).




I agree. As I said, I think the hand gets more interesting as more callers come on the flop. If we get two callers, then I'd be looking to smooth call and hope to slow down all the marginal type hands around. The difference between our call now and if we had led, we could have anything here. The raiser is going to have to consider that we've hit somehting and are slowplaying him.2-3 callers on this boards w/ AK or AA in his shoes, and I'm probably slowing down for the rest of the hand.

i mean, i see what you're saying here - it's going to be hard for us to get away, especially if villain is decent and recognizes the lead as a transparent AK. he's more apt to just smooth call, and then there's really no way we can get out. but it seems like leading affords us the possibility of a villain raise that lets us duck and run. but perhaps this is too weak-tight? i dunno - at higher levels though i think your point is great. a c/r here could get a tighty to fold AA/KQ, so making the play not transparent really does make the hand play very differently by introducing some potential fold equity against a better hand and also against an AK chop.



Ah, I think where I lost you initially was that I thought you were still advocating a c/r if there are other callers. So I take it that your turn/river line would be check-call so long as draws don't complete?

It seems to me that your thinking here is really dictated by your assessment that you don't mind playing for your stack here with AK. If that's the case, then yeah, I don't see a point at all in giving visibility to gain visibility. If you're going all the way, you may as well give off no info at all and offer the opportunity for worse hands to hang themselves.


EDIT - I think one thing here that makes it less likely for UTG to just smooth call is that there are 2 people still left to act against a draw heavy board. If he just smooth calls with a better hand, he is really risking UTG+1 and CO coming along for the ride getting good prices. It seems to me that a better UTG hand really looks to raise a lead bet here the vast majority of the time.