We are one level into the 100K Freeroll on Stars for Gold+. The table has been very quiet thus far, with no real showdowns and no big chips changing hands.

The villain is UTG +2 with t1450 and I am on the button with t1620. Blinds are 15/30.

Villain limps in t30 chips, folds around the table to me on the button, who makes it t90 to play. Both blinds fold and villain calls for t60 more. The pot is at t225. The flop comes:

As 8s 9c

Villain checks, and I c-bet t110. The villain auto-raises to t395.

1) What range of hands can we put him on in this situation to limp UTG+2, cold-call a raise, and then check-raise on the flop out of position?

2) What range of hands would you raise or call with.

3) What is the weakest Ace you raise with? On the other hand, what is the best ace you fold?

4) If you decide to just call, what do you do on the turn if a spade rolls off? Assuming of course that you do not have a spade draw yourself.

I'll post the results later, but I'd like to know your input.

Thanks
-sm

What would I do?

I would post in the correct forum.

Look at my cards so I know what to do. I am assuming we have an ace here, but what is our kicker?

Haha, I missed that.

I guess he's wanting to know how good an ace we'd have to have to play this way. Kind of hard to "reverse engineer" like that, but let me give it a shot:

In this situation (I'm on the button, one EP limper in the pot) I'd limp preflop with any ace (and a lot of other hands). With >A9s or ATos, I'd raise.

Moving ahead to the flop...this is a freeroll, so I'd probably "go to war" with any ace I would have raised with preflop. In a $5 tourney, I'd need AJ+ or A8/A9. In a higher buyin tourney or if I had reason to suspect villain was a tight player, I'd need AK or A8/A9.

I wouldn't let the spade issue figure too strongly in my considerations given the way the hand is played and the fact that I only have one opponent.

Slacker has the right idea. My cards are irrelevant here if I cannot put him on a hand. So I'm interested to see how we break it down in different ways

I agree with slacker here, that a flush draw isnt likely to play this way, although an Ace of spades with any other card is in his range. The combination of top pair and backdoor flush draw is very tempting to check raise with, because he knows you dont have the nut flush draw. I'm also concerned about a set here. His raise is low enough to call with AK, A9 and A8, maybe even AQ, but I would be quick to fold on the turn if I miss and he bets. The best thing that can happen to you here is for a spade to fall, because it might slow him down and give you a free card.

This is a freeroll, which makes me more nervous about villain holding 8/9 than I normally would be, as well as A8 and A9. I agree with everyone above that it's not a flush draw, and appears to be very much afraid of the flush in this case.

Again, freeroll makes this really unpredictable. I think I just play ABC and maybe push with AQ+ and hope for the best.