What to do

[hollygirl]

Hi everyone, I have not posted in a while as for i been playing a massive amount of poker the last 3 months. That being said, I have a question. I was playing $0.25/$0.50 at Absolute Poker. It was a 6 handed table, im in the BB, UTG limps the Button raises to $1.50. I have AJ suited so i re-raise to $4.75 UTG folds Button calls. I JUST SIT DOWN MY 2ND HAND HAVE NO TELLS. Flop comes A34 I BET $5.25 Button callls. Tun is 2 I check Button bets $9.00 I call The Rver is 3, I check Button shoves for $18.60.. WHAT DO I DO HERE???? There was no flush draw on flop. Here are the suits A 3 4 /TURN 2 /RIVER 3 / I HAD AJ

[blakoltion]

in my concept, the increase in 3BB before the flop, it was a perfect motion not to scare the participants who were still on hand. because if he had given an increase of 4BB, everyone could have dropped his hand.

after the flop, raise her, brought him comfort, asserting that you also had an A. The correct play he had to he made only one call.

it also made the turn, because you had a chance to be with flush draw. then he just called again.

but as the river did not file a flush. as he should have ((AK))) he would make sure you have an A and another low card as Q or J.

so he gave this monstrous RAISE

[travz21]

Make it at least $6 pf. Check flop. As played, do not fold turn or river.

[grimReaper]

Hi everyone, I have not posted in a while as for i been playing a massive amount of poker the last 3 months. That being said, I have a question. I was playing $0.25/$0.50 at Absolute Poker. It was a 6 handed table, im in the BB, UTG limps the Button raises to $1.50. I have AJ suited so i re-raise to $4.75 UTG folds Button calls. I JUST SIT DOWN MY 2ND HAND HAVE NO TELLS. Flop comes A34 I BET $5.25 Button callls. Tun is 2 I check Button bets $9.00 I call The Rver is 3, I check Button shoves for $18.60.. WHAT DO I DO HERE???? There was no flush draw on flop. Here are the suits A 3 4 /TURN 2 /RIVER 3 / I HAD AJ

You're asking what to do on the wrong street, playing a hand inaccurately on one street complicates decisions on future street. Why did you 3 bet out of position w/ a mediocre hand? Better is to flat and manage the pot size, that way when you flop an ace, your check raise on the flop will be a small one, and you can fold a 3 bet if not short stacked.

A342 is a pretty harmless board. If you check/call turn, then against an aggressive player you're setting yourself up against a big river bluff or big river value bet, as a weak ace is in your range by check/calling turn. Therefore, had you kept the pot small by not 3 betting pf, you could've fired a second, but defensive bet on the turn, losing the minimum if he was slow playing AQ/AK.

[travz21]

Check/raising the flop would be lol bad.

[C8H10N4O2]

If you actually decide to play this hand (fold to a Button raise with AJs if you have no reads imo), an overbet on the turn as played is ideal imo. If villain shoves, you can get away with calling mathematically. Make it like 2x or 3x the pot on the turn and hope to get it in for stacks. If you aren't ahead, you are drawing to the nuts anyway.

[grimReaper]

Check/raising the flop would be lol bad.

Lol bad is 3 betting oop w/ AJ...

[blakoltion]

Lol bad is 3 betting oop w/ AJ...

surely he should have an AK in a minino AQ

[travz21]

Lol bad is 3 betting oop w/ AJ...

lol good, not bad. Why would we call oop over 3betting oop? Because we don't like dead money and want to play a 3way pot in the second worst spot on the table?

I don't think you understand why check/raising the flop is terrible. Cbetting or check/calling at least have valid claims.

[grimReaper]

Why would we call oop over 3betting oop?

Pot control. If you're a short stacker, then it doesn't matter.

[phaul]

I flat preflop, I think this has more value than 3betting. If there was no limper, I could be persuaded otherwise, but the limper tightens button's range considerably. 3bet more OOP than IP.

C/r flop is lolbad without gameflow/reads.

If you 3bet pre, cbet flop and check turn, folding is really bad. What are you trying to achieve? You need a plan for the hand!

Once you've 3bet I a flop check a lot.

[grimReaper]

surely he should have an AK in a minino AQ

You quoted "Lol bad is 3 betting oop w/ AJ...", yes AJ is mediocre oop.

[hollygirl]

Ok since i didnt get my answer i was looking for. I will tell you what happen. I folded the river thinking he had AK or BETTER. He shows J8 HEARTS. WHO SEES THAT COMING.

[blakoltion]

lol, I think he was near death to throw your money away

[grimReaper]

Ok since i didnt get my answer i was looking for. I will tell you what happen. I folded the river thinking he had AK or BETTER. He shows J8 HEARTS. WHO SEES THAT COMING.

You didn't find the answer you were looking for? Did you read my post? Pot control. What motivated him to bluff you was the size of the pot. You're in a lose-lose situation with mediocre hands in big pots, bluffs are big, and so are value bets from better hands.

[phaul]

Better is to flat and manage the pot size, that way when you flop an ace, your check raise on the flop will be a small one, and you can fold a 3 bet if not short stacked.

You want to pot-control by check/raising flop?

Also, talking about pot control preflop is kinda misapplying the concept.

[grimReaper]

You want to pot-control by check/raising flop?

Also, talking about pot control preflop is kinda misapplying the concept.

Lol, c/r wasn't the main part of my post, you and travz keep singing that. The main part was pot control.

How is it misapplying the concept? You're bloating the pot w/ a marginal hand, incentivizing opponents to bluff. I'm not surprised that he showed J8.

[travz21]

I'm not surprised that he showed J8.

Neither am I. Which is why 3betting and not folding anywhere in the hand is easy. We don't care about pot control. Players make bigger mistakes the bigger the pot. I'm 3betting wide as fuck if he's calling 3bets in position and putting stacks in with air.

If you know villain can make bigger bluffs in bigger pots, why are you ever thinking about folding the hand?

And check/raising directly correlates to pot control, which is obviously why me and phaul keep bringing it up. Check/raising is the opposite of pot control. Check/raising also blows hands like J8s out of the pot when they want to politely hand us their entire stack.

[grimReaper]

Neither am I. Which is why 3betting and not folding anywhere in the hand is easy. We don't care about pot control. Players make bigger mistakes the bigger the pot. I'm 3betting wide as fuck if he's calling 3bets in position and putting stacks in with air.

If you know villain can make bigger bluffs in bigger pots, why are you ever thinking about folding the hand?

And check/raising directly correlates to pot control, which is obviously why me and phaul keep bringing it up. Check/raising is the opposite of pot control. Check/raising also blows hands like J8s out of the pot when they want to politely hand us their entire stack.

I wasn't suggesting check raising for value rofl, it was check raising to see if the jack kicker was any good. It depends on taste, but I rather take or lose a medium pot, than win or lose a big pot, depends on how much variance you crave. Pot control allows a small check raise, the last thing I want to do is lose my entire buy in plus any winnings in a marginal situation, when I've could've waited for a more decisive situation to put my stack in.

[travz21]

+1 to check/raising for information. So you either take the pot down right there by blowing hands out that could have barreled later streets while drawing dead or you get called by an Ax+ and still have no idea how to play the hand on later streets. Pot control at its worst. And totally destroying the value of your hand. Not a good combo.

I'd rather make moves that are +EV and make me money.

Why do you want to see if your kicker is good when villain most likely doesn't even have an A in their hand? Because you're only like 95% to win the hand and want to protect? You don't want to be bluffed when there's no way you should be folding anyways? If I were villain, I'd love to get check/raised when I was holding J8s and originally willing to put my entire stack in on a bluff.

Would you seriously check/raise flop in a MTT even? Where raising for information is somewhat less retarded.