Live 1/2 NLHE
Game is pretty good. 1 tilter, table is generally tight but aggressive, meaning good hands are raising preflop. Not too many tricky players.

Significant stacks
UTG+1=260
Tilter=90
Hero=210

Been playing well for the last hr. Tilter is losing alot of money with bad beats/bad play, and definately is looking for some chips.

Preflop
HERO-AQdiamonds

UTG calls, UTG+1 raises to 12, MP1 calls, MP2 calls Tilter on Button calls, Sb folds, Hero calls. UTG Calls.

FLOP
A109, rainbow, 1 diamond.

I check. I thought about throwing out a bet, but decided to see the action here.
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, checks to Tilter, who bets 75.

This for me was a tough dilemma. First I was 90% sure I had tilter, but was unsure of how to play this. Intial raiser is still left to act, and so is the other players. Intial raiser is a tricky player.

I decided to flat call, and see what else occurred. UTG+1 then goes all in, Tilter calls off chips.

Easy laydown right?
What are your thoughts on how I could improve playing this hand.

Yeah, it's an easy fold, as you're really playing this hand as a big draw, not for top pair.

With that many people in the hand I like to lead out for 1/2 the pot and see what happens. UTG+1 will be forced to define his hand...and I'm sure he doesn't want to do this, because he probably wants to C/R tilter if he's holding A-K or A-A. If he calls you then beware, and be prepared to fold to tilter's inevitable raise. You also get to see how everyone else reacts beside meaningless checks.

The other players will know that you're betting something and will therefore be responding to your bet, not just the tilter's raise, which shouldn't command much respect.

You've got to lay it down; you can't even beat AK here.

On another note, I would disagree that a table full of talented TAG's was a "good" table.

Well it was rather predictable, and stable. You werent going to see allin calls with K4 like other nights. For me, I was just trying to take money from the tilter, who had previously donated 150, and was at least stuck 8bills.

first I don;t think the table is tight.
1/2 and someone raised 5X BB and get 5 callers and they call this tight??

maybe its just me

You don't get urself into this problem if you lead the flop. You will easily be able to fold this when raised and reraised.

Problem is how much to lead? I would figure that tilter is going to all in this flop and you could be behind two pair from him pretty easily I think, so anything you lead is going to get bumped up.

thats the point it saves us money from cold calling the $75 from tilt boy. We lead for $35 or $40 UTG+1 is gonna push, tilt boy is gonna call and we are going to fold. we let the tricky player suck us in here.

Good point, say UTG folds, you going to call the push from tilter?

I figured I shouldve lead at the pot, but assumed the preflop raiser would bet the flop regardless. He was a TAG, but can LAG it up, as I had seen him do earlier.

as played, fold to $75.

without a doubt

Easy fold. I like how you played the whole hand.



A lead is ok, as long as you dont think the TAG will reaise with a weaker hand. But, in general, this turns you cards face up, and allows people to make plays at you.

QFT.

one thing: UTG+1's check on the flop should scare the crap out of you.

TAG's possible holding's preflop: AA, AK, AQ, AJ, A10, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99 and maybe KQ.

when i was reading this and saw that he checked the flop i was like oh crap we're in trouble.

KK, QQ, JJ, and AJ put out a feeler bet. KQ is the only legitimate check.

i'm not saying you could play it any differently but only to point out that you should be really wary of UTG +1 having a monster when he checks that flop.
and realize he slowplays his monsters on the flop (which is tough because we don't have position, but oh well)

4 points for folding. no other points.

I'm getting the hell out of this hand. Top pair can win pots, but in the face of this much action, you have to be beat.

The thing is, he was playing TAG that day. I saw him dust off 1g the other night, playing absolute horrible poker, and leaking alot of money. His check was def suspect, but he could have alot of hands here like 33-AA. As I later realized, he raises all pairs the same amount, and can easily get away from them postflop.

I asked UTG+1 why he didnt just call in this spot, and he really didnt know. I think he's got all of my chips if he leads or flat calls.

that's exactly what i was thinking. if he leads with a hand that has us beat he is gonna be a lot closer to stacking us.

raising all pairs to $12 is not really TAG in a live small NL game.

Ye, but like I said he has LAG tendencies. Normally he really gets outta line, raising 90% of the pots he enters, and taking alot of flops. That particular night, he was playing less hands, not making too many raises, and generally was playing like me.

To me, this doesn't seem to be such an automatic fold. My math may be off, but I think you need to call $123 into a $420 pot. So, you are getting 3.5 to 1 on your money. So, you need to be able to win around 22% of the time to make this call. You've got backdoor straight and flush draws which account for 8% of that. You're queen would be good if he's got AK. So, let's give you just one of your queens as an out. That's another 4% chance. So, on this flop, you've only got to be ahead at this point about 10% of the time to make this call. I've got to think you're ahead here at least 1 out of 10 times.

Using the range that navybutton provided of "AA, AK, AQ, AJ, A10, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99 and maybe KQ" for UTG+1 (assuming an even distribution of those hands) and using a random hand for tilter, PokerStove gives you 37% equity here. If we ignore tilter, as we aren't real worried about him, using the same hand range for UTG+1, PokerStove puts us at 40% against him.

Given this was live, you may have had a great read or a tell. But, mathematically, this feels like a call to me. A crying call, but I think I'd call.



I don't know about this either. With 3 players left to act (and two behind me who could check-raise), I'm not sure every player would put out a feeler bet here. I'd rather see how people (other than tilter) play their hands before committing more chips with these hands.

As a final thought, this also has the potential to be a squeeze play from UTG+1. You're the only caller to tilter. He moves in and gets you off you're hand, and now almost any of his holdings are substantial favorites to whatever random hand tilter has.

If my math's wrong (about how much was in the pot, and how much you had left) then maybe I'd change my mind, but I think I'd have called this push. In any event, I don't think it is an auto-fold as a lot of folks here suggest.

Your right. While the pot is massive, and Im getting decent pot odds, I was 100% sure he has me beat. This is where you dont need math. I knew I was was behind, because with him pushing here, he cannot be bluffing. Plus it was a c/r, which came off as odd.

I said out loud, that I had tilter beat, and that villian had a set. Then of course said " I cant believe I gotta lay this shiet down, and folded face up." It wasnt automatic, and I did take the amount in the pot consideration, but felt that I could still take whatever I had left, and try and salvage.