AJ on SB, how to play preflop?

I had AJ on SB at a six man table. There were two limpers ahead of me. Should I raise in this spot? And how much? (2/5 cent tables)

In the real situation, I ended up limping because the table was pretty loose so if I raised and missed the flop, I'd be in pretty bad shape.

The flop came A79. I bet the size of the pot. Two folds and one call. 6 on the turn. Pot size bet again, call. 8 on river. I decided to bet 3/4 size of the pot and fold if he reraised. He called with 68. And I lost a $5 pot. The difference between a winning and losing night.

And should I have just checked the river? I decided to bet because if he put in something like a pot size raise, I'd probably have to fold.

Was limping preflop or betting the river the bigger mistake?

THanks.

I would make a raise, and preety big one. and after the flop I would make a super bet because of the open str8 draw.

gopnik885 said:

I would make a raise, and preety big one. and after the flop I would make a super bet because of the open str8 draw.

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a pot sized bet isnt a super bet??

he really had to raise pre-flop. now this dude had the str8 draw and we don't know but might he also had flush draw or something.

you dont have too.... if you think you will get calls then isnt it a good idea to just complete?? instead of making the pot bigger for the guys in position.. if you think they will fold then sure make the raise... but im quite happy to just complete there and look to spike something on the flop

i dunno, i play OOP like a pussy i guess...

ok sorry 6max table, sure raise away..

You can make a case for limping or raising. Personally, I would likely limp because I wouldn't want to bloat the pot with a marginal hand out of position. In general, I don't like to bet the full size of the pot, because it is risking more to accomplish the same thing that a 1/2 pot bet will often accomplish, and needs to succeed significantly more often to be +EV. But here, on the flop at least, I guess you're trying to force out draws, so it isn't awful. Still would lighten up on the turn. Even though we had villain beat before the river, I'd c/f-- maybe c/c if he bets small-- after he calls the bet on the turn. I don't think top pair with an okay kicker is good very often after villain calls two pot sized bets. In this case, you just got unlucky.

I probably would have raised pre-flop but one thing I have found in micro stakes tables is that you are going to get called more often than not by someone with a hand just like you described.

On a 2/5 table I would have bet 3-4x the BB pre-flop and hoped to eliminate everyone to take the pot right then and there.
Since that didn't happen they had no reason to believe that the Ace hit you on the flop. Thus they stayed in with the straight draw.

agree with the rest def raise to (iso), cbet flop or check raise flop. depending on player read if u had 1. but ur in a hard spot, he had n oesd, i think he was gonna continue calling neway.

Raise it up preflop for sure. The player open-limping almost never has a real hand, and anyone over-limping has an even weaker range. AJ is doing great against them.

I think quite often you'll actually drag this pot preflop with your raise. Anyway, the flop and turn bets I like, but the river's just a really bad card. I don't see anything worse than an ace calling this bet. If villain has an ace, it almost has to beat us. AK is super unlikely, AQ is possible though still unlikely, AT now has a straight, A9-6 all have two pair, and A5 also has a straight, leaving exactly A4-2 that maybe call this bet and we beat. Everything else just folds when we have the best and calls/raises when we're smoked.

6-max easy raise, though this being micro, I can see him calling with 68.

Best of luck

I only played 6 max twice by accident, they are too hyper aggressive for my taste. It looks to me like you did a good job, you could have lost more on the river if you made a different raise, that is if you would have called his raise. As it is I think you made him call with the size of your raise instead of going over the top on you.

Raising in the SB out of position is normally not a good idea, especially with a hand like AJo. But, being that this was a micro stakes 6 max cash game, I would have probably put in a 3x or 4x BB bet preflop. After hitting the flop that hard, I would have definitely overbet the pot and make it as expensive as possible for them to draw on that type of a board. Micro stakes play is bingo for some, so you also need to take into account the style of the players at your table and that needs to drive your decision here more than anything else I think.

yea u should raise preflop to at least test the water good odds the guy would of called you anyways and sucked out but their ant much you can do when people want to put their money in bad

NOLA Red said:

Raising in the SB out of position is normally not a good idea, especially with a hand like AJo. But, being that this was a micro stakes 6 max cash game, I would have probably put in a 3x or 4x BB bet preflop. After hitting the flop that hard, I would have definitely overbet the pot and make it as expensive as possible for them to draw on that type of a board. Micro stakes play is bingo for some, so you also need to take into account the style of the players at your table and that needs to drive your decision here more than anything else I think.

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what if he doesnt have a draw, and in fact has you crushed?? overbetting the pot now seems like a massive mistake doesnt it?

ciukster said:

AJ AQ AK - all deserve a big raise pre flop

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I don't think AJ and AQ are that good of hands really. It definately depends on the situation but if your in a pot with 3 or 4 other people you really got to watch out. I suppose a raise from the SB would save you money though. You need to figure out where you stand in the hand.

Leo 50 said:

I probably would have raised pre-flop but one thing I have found in micro stakes tables is that you are going to get called more often than not by someone with a hand just like you described.

On a 2/5 table I would have bet 3-4x the BB pre-flop and hoped to eliminate everyone to take the pot right then and there.
Since that didn't happen they had no reason to believe that the Ace hit you on the flop. Thus they stayed in with the straight draw.

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3x pre isn't going to make any limpers fold on a 5NLSH table. If you're raising OOP here, you're wanting to be up against one other hand (AJo doesn't play too well in a multi-way pot).

"thus they stayed in with the straight draw".. even if they could see his hand, they still were getting great implied odds to call on this flop with an OESD (especially seeing as OP wasn't able to let go of TPGK type hand). They were probably hoping that OP had the Ace when they called on the flop (what other hand would they have likely put them on?)
note.... 1/2 pot bets will not get players to fold out draws on a flop on cash tables (if they're folding they're terribad).

On a 6 max table, with AJ. I'd usually raise about 3x times the blinds and on the flop I might try and steal if I never hit or if there is just 1 other player in the pot. I rarely ever try and steal a pot if there is 2 or more players in the pot.

Poker Orifice said:

3x pre isn't going to make any limpers fold on a 5NLSH table. If you're raising OOP here, you're wanting to be up against one other hand (AJo doesn't play too well in a multi-way pot).

"thus they stayed in with the straight draw".. even if they could see his hand, they still were getting great implied odds to call on this flop with an OESD (especially seeing as OP wasn't able to let go of TPGK type hand). They were probably hoping that OP had the Ace when they called on the flop (what other hand would they have likely put them on?)
note.... 1/2 pot bets will not get players to fold out draws on a flop on cash tables (if they're folding they're terribad).

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Your are probably correct, 3x wouldn't be enough to eliminate anyone (sorry my mistake) but you get the idea of what I was proposing.

As for them staying in, maybe they wouldn't have been getting as good odds if he had raised pre-flop.

It might have been best to go all in or much more than a 3 bet after the flop. You needed to eliminate anyone drawing for a straight or having something lower than top pair. You had great odds after the flop.

WiZZiM said:

what if he doesnt have a draw, and in fact has you crushed?? overbetting the pot now seems like a massive mistake doesnt it?

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Not really. By overbetting the pot, I don't mean to shove your entire stack in--more like pot-size plus a bb. If he reraises you or shoves in response, then you know you're facing a made hand and probably beat. This bet is about the same amount you'd put out if you just value bet through to the river and then got jumped by a big reraise. IMHO better to find out where you stand early in this type of hand, considering your position.