$10 NLHE Full Ring: AA losing hand - please critique my betting

Not much to it. I was called to the river. I only had 20 hands on the Villain, so his stats my be non representative.

How was my betting / bet sizing ?

PokerStars - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 127.7 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 12)
UTG+1: 102.6 BB (VPIP: 57.14, PFR: 14.29, 3Bet Preflop: 11.11, Hands: 14)
MP: 31 BB (VPIP: 36.36, PFR: 27.27, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 11)
CO: 72.6 BB (VPIP: 14.29, PFR: 7.14, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
BTN: 40 BB (VPIP: 7.14, PFR: 7.14, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
Hero (SB): 76.5 BB
BB: 73.9 BB (VPIP: 76.92, PFR: 7.69, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A:club: A:spade:

fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 3 BB, BB calls 2 BB

3BB because in SB, with just BB left, I didn't want to make him fold, so I thought 3BB would get a call and perhaps a trap. Plus, I have been going through a phase where everyone is folding to my big hands so I am trying to get some action.

Flop: (6 BB, 2 players) 5:heart: Q:heart: J:club:
Hero bets 3 BB, BB calls 3 BB

3BB - why... it was half the pot, I should have made it bigger. I have had a long run of my top hands getting beat, so usually here I have a tendency to massively overbet and close the hand, however I thought I was in pretty good shape and so would bet less and try and build a pot, perhaps take it down on the turn. I have him on Qx, pocket pairs or suited connector, possibly Ax, which works in my favour. Suited connector, if it's hearts, is a problem, though I don't think he has that, not sure why, I just don't.

Turn: (12 BB, 2 players) 8:heart:
Hero bets 6 BB, BB calls 6 BB

Scare card, now I am concerned about a flush, but I think he has a queen. QJ is also a problem.

River: (24 BB, 2 players) Q:spade:
Hero bets 11 BB, BB calls 11 BB

Now I am devoid of ideas, I bet out 11BB for no good reason. The better play should have been a check, but my thinking is that I am either in unfamiliar territory where I have actually played a premier hand over 3 streets, or in VERY familiar territory where my premier hand has lost a pot. Even though I suspected he had a queen, a part of my brain closed off that idea with the thinking that there is NO WAY I am losing another hand on the river. My common sense On the bright side, I didn't go all in....

Hero shows A:club: A:spade: (Two Pair, Aces and Queens) (Pre 88%, Flop 82%, Turn 89%)
BB shows Q:diamond: 3:club: (Three of a Kind, Queens) (Pre 12%, Flop 18%, Turn 11%)
BB wins 43.9 BB

Thanks in advance for the help.

Two hands later, for comparison:

Clearly now I am mentally off on how to play these hands as I don't do well with them.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

UTG: 48.5 BB (VPIP: 11.76, PFR: 8.82, 3Bet Preflop: 13.33, Hands: 36)
UTG+1: 100 BB (VPIP: 21.95, PFR: 13.41, 3Bet Preflop: 6.06, Hands: 82)
MP: 35.5 BB (VPIP: 30.00, PFR: 22.00, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 50)
MP+1: 126.7 BB (VPIP: 16.00, PFR: 12.00, 3Bet Preflop: 8.33, Hands: 25)
CO: 40 BB (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 50.00, Hands: 3)
Hero (BTN): 60.3 BB
SB: 173.2 BB (VPIP: 76.92, PFR: 61.54, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)
BB: 81.5 BB (VPIP: 13.04, PFR: 13.04, 3Bet Preflop: 7.14, Hands: 23)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A:club: A:heart:

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 9 BB, fold, fold, UTG calls 6 BB

Flop: (19.5 BB, 2 players) 9:spade: J:diamond: T:spade:
UTG bets 11 BB, Hero raises to 51.3 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 28.5 BB and is all-in

Turn: (98.5 BB, 2 players) 8:heart:

River: (98.5 BB, 2 players) A:diamond:

UTG shows Q:heart: Q:spade: (Straight, Queen High) (Pre 18%, Flop 41%, Turn 98%)
Hero shows A:club: A:heart: (Three of a Kind, Aces) (Pre 82%, Flop 59%, Turn 2%)
UTG wins 94.1 BB

Stop pussyfooting on the flop in hand 1. Microstakes player would call a 80 pct pot bet as much as a 50 pct bet. Also , that's too wet a board to bet that small. Straight and flush draws will have a field day with you. Also do not fogey against any qx or jx they still have usually 5 outs vs your AA.

I would bet flop hard, turn hard too. And check back river

Hand 2 is standard. We'll done

Much appreciated, thank you.

RodneyC86 said:

Stop pussyfooting on the flop in hand 1. Microstakes player would call a 80 pct pot bet as much as a 50 pct bet. Also , that's too wet a board to bet that small. Straight and flush draws will have a field day with you. Also do not fogey against any qx or jx they still have usually 5 outs vs your AA.

I would bet flop hard, turn hard too. And check back river

Hand 2 is standard. We'll done

Click to expand...

I 100% agree with the previous comment.
2 hand i might as well just call the flop to let him go on with his semi-bluff and pay, as he might fold to 3-bet.
1 hand you let him improve for cheap, I would bet 2/3 on such a wet flop and turn. On the river I would play check-fold as possible flush completed and Q has us beaten if he was stupidly raising with TP.

Thank you.

I did lose the second hand - I am not sure if you guys are reading it as a win ?

enesem said:

Thank you.

I did lose the second hand - I am not sure if you guys are reading it as a win ?

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No, it is clear he had a straight. The only thing is what was your idea of what he was raising you on the flop with. It might be a set of 9, 10, J or OESD+ pair (QQ, 88) or bluffs.... So it is 9 combos against 12 combos + possible bluffs.... But with his taggy stats (the sample is small though...) , being short-stacked (which is strange) and calling a 3-bet OOP I would be inclined to think that he had a decent pocket pair. So I would think he had JJ, QQ, KK and I would discount sets to, say, only JJJ. He would hardly raise your flop bet with KK (if he thought it was good he would raise all-in pre but he just called). So JJ and QQ were most probable holdings - 3 combos of value hands against 6 combos of semi-bluff (or SDV) hands. Because of that ratio I would rather just call, because a raise might fold out bluffy part of his range. The fact that he hit a straight on the turn doesn't change the math and logic on the flop. By the way with this SPR you are never folding in 3-bet pot anyway

Great, thank you.

That gives me some inspiration to re-analyze the hand.

Good stuff.

Falcon1803 said:

I 100% agree with the previous comment.
2 hand i might as well just call the flop to let him go on with his semi-bluff and pay, as he might fold to 3-bet.
1 hand you let him improve for cheap, I would bet 2/3 on such a wet flop and turn. On the river I would play check-fold as possible flush completed and Q has us beaten if he was stupidly raising with TP.

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Disagree on just calling. The stack sizes are ripe for the taking... Shove the flop and he has to call if he has at least OESD and make him throw in money after bad. Simple. If it is 100bb ++ things would be very different though.

RodneyC86 said:

Disagree on just calling. The stack sizes are ripe for the taking... Shove the flop and he has to call if he has at least OESD and make him throw in money after bad. Simple. If it is 100bb ++ things would be very different though.

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What prevents you to stack it off on turn or river with only small part of the effective stack left and good price for the vilain.... if you raise he might fold QQ or bluff...

enesem said:

Thank you.

I did lose the second hand - I am not sure if you guys are reading it as a win ?

Click to expand...

Stop being results orientated.

FWIW, it's a weird play for a made straight to donk into you like that with the nuts. He would lose major value against air that you might cbet with.

Oh btw as a side note, if you have air (like AK) on this board, probably don't cbet, this is exactly the kind of board that fish smash quite hard on.

Falcon1803 said:

What prevents you to stack it off on turn or river with only small part of the effective stack left and good price for the vilain.... if you raise he might fold QQ or bluff...

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He absolutely won't fold QQ here, not in a million years, KK is quite sticky too. But then again, since he didnt reraise preflop, i would think middling hands are far more likely.

Thing is if he has a bluff on the flop, he won't be throwing anymore money in turn and river. Unless you have a read that he is just retardedly agro

Even if he IS massively agro, given this flop texture, you are likely dealing with a semi bluff, not a pure one. best way to kill a semi bluff from a short-medium stacker is to push it in and make them throw in money after bad because they have to call with even equity from a bare OESD or flush draw.

Aaaaaand, they won't fold TPGK

EDIT: BTW, i typed all this before I realized villain had QQ, so i guess the shit i wrote should be fairly unbiased. Take it with a grain of salt though, I barely beat 10NL

On the first hand you should bet 3/4 to pot size bet with the possible flush str8 draws that could be looking to draw and a river check would not of been to bad but I am assuming he is betting about the same amount if you check anyway and you are probably not folding(should be folding though)

I understand your point about being scared to lose value by making villian fold but sometimes that is better than being drawn out on. Just always bet your aces strong and if they catch a piece of the board such as TPTK you can get some pretty good value from them. If they fold to the strength you are showing then scoop the pot and be happy. You just can't be giving people the odds to draw out on you especially with big hands. This hand did go fine though and he got a lucky river, you can mark this as more of a bad beat with some whatever play.

2nd hand I like how you played it and made him pay for your draw, just a typical bad beat. You played well and that is what matters, just move on and forget about it.

If you are playing scared then you are not playing at the top of your game, so try to lose that mentality. All an all both of these hands were pretty much bad beats, how awesome is it that you got AA twice within 5 hands though? Pretty lucky

Not specific to either hand, but if you're going to play cash, either play with a (close to) full stack by using auto-reload or play a short stack strategy with a short stack. You should basically never have a 'tweener stack like you do here.

Yeah, I was advised that before, sometimes I forget.

Why do you advise always to have a full stack ?

enesem said:

Yeah, I was advised that before, sometimes I forget.

Why do you advise always to have a full stack ?

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To maximize pay offs on big hands.

enesem said:

Yeah, I was advised that before, sometimes I forget.

Why do you advise always to have a full stack ?

Click to expand...

See here,since you have a very good chance to GII preflop at microstakes, don't you want get as much as possible in middle with your AA?

Also, you get to play spec hands more, but be warned only play spec hands against the most passive of fishes or you're gonna have a bad time.

Another AA beatdown: Again, pointers on my play please.

It's the 1 bb bet at the end, what's that, designed to rub it in and put me on tilt ?

By the way, re full stacks, as my all in win/loss ratio is about 1 win in maybe 6 or 7 all ins, being fully stacked means greater losses....

PokerStars - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: 70.6 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
Hero (SB): 105.4 BB
BB: 35.7 BB (VPIP: 19.85, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 4.55, Hands: 139)
UTG: 80.2 BB (VPIP: 66.67, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
UTG+1: 173.6 BB (VPIP: 26.39, PFR: 15.28, 3Bet Preflop: 2.94, Hands: 73)
MP: 52 BB (VPIP: 80.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
CO: 31.4 BB (VPIP: 53.33, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has A:spade: A:diamond:

fold, fold, MP calls 1 BB, fold, fold, Hero raises to 4.5 BB, fold, MP calls 3.5 BB

Flop: (10 BB, 2 players) J:club: 8:club: J:heart:
Hero bets 10 BB, MP calls 10 BB

Turn: (30 BB, 2 players) 7:club:
Hero bets 14 BB, MP calls 14 BB

River: (58 BB, 2 players) 6:club:
Hero checks, MP bets 1 BB, Hero calls 1 BB

MP shows 5:heart: 5:club: (Flush, Jack High) (Pre 20%, Flop 12%, Turn 23%)
Hero mucks A:spade: A:diamond: (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks) (Pre 80%, Flop 88%, Turn 77%)
MP wins 57.3 BB

Bet turn slightly bigger, I know straights and flush probably made it there but give you opponent is playing almost everything ( when you have VIP of 80 with no pfr, you can quite safely make assumptions even after just 10 hands), you lose value vs any 8 and pocket pairs that you beat and possibly many over card type hands.

Think about it. T9 makes up only about 1.5 pct of your opponents entire range and of all his hands, only 6 pct are suited clubs.


It's fine to just call the river, 1bb call might as well be checking back. You only need to win once in like 57 times for 1bb call to break even.


About stack sizes..... When we are playing against fish we go for value, less chips in your stack means less you can make when you have the goods, simple. If you're losing more all ins than win at microstakes , it has to be variance or you are paying fish off.



You can try short stacking but I don't know if there are any good shorties on CC, some even say the term good shorty as an oxymoron. I hear many Russian poker sites dabbles in shorts tacking though...

By the way, the villain in the last hand is VPIP 84 / PR 0, as I type this he has turned his $4 buy in to $25.

Just sayin...

And... just now... Should I have played this differently ?

This is my point about playing with big stacks, it's more to lose - nigh on every big hand I play is a loss. Is it bad play, bad luck, variance, I dunno. Don't get me wrong, I do win some, but my loss rate is pretty consistent and it's nearly all losing hands like these. I am running -10 BB/100 over 36,000 hands.

PokerStars - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 7 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 120.7 BB (VPIP: 20.65, PFR: 11.96, 3Bet Preflop: 1.20, Hands: 186)
CO: 40 BB (VPIP: 20.00, PFR: 20.00, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 20)
BTN: 100 BB (VPIP: 6.67, PFR: 6.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 16)
SB: 100.5 BB (VPIP: 14.58, PFR: 8.33, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 97)
BB: 137.1 BB (VPIP: 23.40, PFR: 8.51, 3Bet Preflop: 5.56, Hands: 47)
Hero (UTG): 156.4 BB
UTG+1: 105.5 BB (VPIP: 15.94, PFR: 13.20, 3Bet Preflop: 7.25, Hands: 252)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K:heart: K:diamond:

Hero raises to 4.5 BB, UTG+1 calls 4.5 BB, MP calls 4.5 BB, fold, BTN calls 4.5 BB, SB raises to 35 BB, fold, Hero calls 30.5 BB, fold, fold, BTN calls 30.5 BB

Flop: (115 BB, 3 players) 2:diamond: 8:spade: 7:club:
SB bets 65.5 BB and is all-in, Hero calls 65.5 BB, BTN calls 65 BB and is all-in

Turn: (311 BB, 3 players) 3:spade:

River: (311 BB, 3 players) 4:diamond:

SB shows A:club: A:diamond: (One Pair, Aces)
Main Pot [310 BB]: (Pre 62%, Flop 68%, Turn 83%)
Side Pot#1 [1 BB]: (Pre 82%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)

Hero shows K:heart: K:diamond: (One Pair, Kings)
Main Pot [310 BB]: (Pre 17%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)
Side Pot#1 [1 BB]: (Pre 18%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)

BTN shows 9:heart: 8:heart: (One Pair, Eights)
Main Pot [310 BB]: (Pre 21%, Flop 23%, Turn 12%)

SB wins 297 BB

Here's another one: My bet sizing was probably off again, but still, not sure I did too much wrong.


PokerStars - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

MP: 40 BB (VPIP: 21.43, PFR: 7.14, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 14)
Hero (MP+1): 101.3 BB
CO: 92.2 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
BTN: 61.1 BB (VPIP: 46.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
SB: 218.5 BB (VPIP: 10.00, PFR: 10.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 10)
BB: 100 BB
UTG: 122.3 BB (VPIP: 26.67, PFR: 26.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 15)
UTG+1: 46.2 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 13.33, 3Bet Preflop: 14.29, Hands: 15)
UTG+2: 101.5 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 16.67, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)

SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K:heart: A:spade:

fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 6 BB, CO calls 6 BB, fold, fold, fold

Flop: (13.5 BB, 2 players) 2:heart: A:club: 2:spade:
Hero bets 6 BB, CO calls 6 BB

Turn: (25.5 BB, 2 players) K:diamond:
Hero bets 15 BB, CO calls 15 BB

River: (55.5 BB, 2 players) J:diamond:
Hero bets 53 BB, CO calls 53 BB

Hero shows K:heart: A:spade: (Two Pair, Aces and Kings) (Pre 43%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
CO shows J:club: J:heart: (Full House, Jacks full of Twos) (Pre 57%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
CO wins 154.2 BB

So, maybe just sizing is wrong, perhaps I should be loading up before the turn ?

On the last hand you probably could of bet 20BB on turn but who knows why villian did not fold there, he was obviously beat.

Micros.