$10 NLHE 6-max: Folding AA on the flop after being raised

Matthew Southall said:

10NL 6-max zoom NLHE on PokerStars. Villains are unknown.

Boom Hand Replayer

Hero (SB) has $49.41
Villain 1 (BB) has $9.39
Villain 2 (MP) has $11.71

Hero is dealt Ac Ad
Hero posts $0.05
Villain 1 posts $0.10
UTG folds
Villain 2 raises to $0.30
CO folds
BTN calls $0.30
Hero raises to $1.30
Villain 1 calls $1.30
Villain 2 calls $1.30
BTN folds

$4.01 in pot (3 players)
Flop shows Qd 8c 5d

Hero bets $2.20
Villain 1 calls $2.20
Villain 2 raises to $7.50
Hero folds

I'll explain my reasoning: I was fairly confident that at least one player had to have a set here. The only worse hands that I could see the villain raising the flop here are Kd Jd, Kd Td and 6 combos of AQ, since I'm blocking most of his semi-bluff range with the Ad in my hands. If the villain had Kd Jd or Kd Td, he's probably folding preflop to the 3bet, and if he does see the flop, he's probably either shoving or calling, not raising and leaving some money behind. If the villain had AQ, he's probably not raising the flop, given how much strength the hero and first villain had shown, and there's even a chance that he'd 4bet preflop to avoid a multiway pot, meaning he'd never get to this position in the first place (lots of players will 4bet AQo in squeeze spots I've found, since there's a lot of fold equity in doing so). Even villain 1 might have a set here. He may have smooth called the flop with the intention of inviting along the second villain and he may have been planning to shove the turn. So between the two of them, it's difficult for me to have the best hand here, and if I am up against a set, I'm potentially drawing to a 1 outer if one of the villains has AQ.

What are your thoughts on the way I played this hand? And does my reasoning make sense?

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Aces2w1n said:

Never a fold in that spot.. just b thinking stacks in

If your only calling with qq thats really exploitable

I could pretty much call u any 2 cards and shove flop and make a lot of money

Last thing tho why donk flop if ur worried??? That was ur last chance.. when u decided to lead out u committed

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chenkata said:

I think that it was a mistake from yyour side ... you had a huge stack against V1 and V2 that was a chance for a realy good money ... and in my opinion most likely he/she had a A Q ... or he was waiting for a flush most of the players in Zoom are going all in on the flops like this with a cards for a flush drow ok top pair... personal opinion

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Matthew Southall said:

It wasn't a donk, it was a continuation bet. And I purposely bet a small amount (less than 60% pot) so that I wouldn't be committed.

And like I said: having the Ad in my hands just made it so much worse for me. I'm blocking out most flush draws in their range and limiting the amount of AQ combos down to just 6.

And no one knows that I folded AA, so they can't exactly exploit me for that. They know I'm calling it off with a set or a flush draw, so it's not like my bet/fold range is huge.



The huge stack is the thing that made it worse! If we were playing with 60bb effective stacks, I would've happily stacked off. But when the effective stack sizes are 117bbs, I need to protect myself against set-miners. And when your preflop raise gets multiple callers, you can be fairly sure that at least 1 of them is set-mining.

And like I said, there are only 6 combos of AQ remaining, and there are also 6 combos of QQ, so it's equally likely that they have top set as it is that they have TPTK (and remember that there are other sets out there too, not just top set).

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