$20 NLHE Full Ring: AKo on the BTN: Could I have played this any worse?

(Not sure why this got tagged 20NL; it's a 10 NL FR game)

In my defense (OK, I think there really is no defense but I think there's a very good lesson here for new, still dabbling, "can't yet justify to self putting $100s online to play poker and just trying to prove that online poker can make me some mad money" players):

I've recently started using the auto-rebuy so that I keep a max buyin (100BB) at all times. At 10NL I'm playing way outside of my BR: I have about $80 left on the site (after recently cashing out over $300--all earned from turning freerolls into cash). Clearly a lesson here is that solid BRM will let you make the right decisions more of the time.

But, let's take BRM out of the equation. Just looking at the specific table situation, please rip this apart. I think my bet sizing and actions were all wrong on every single street. I think I should have reraised more preflop and that his c/r on the flop should have triggered all the warning bells and I should have folded right there. But I didn't. WWCCD (what would Cardschat do)?

No reads on villain who newly joined table directly to my right about 4 hands previously. All I know is he doesn't have auto-rebuy on, bought into the table for max allowed, and posted IP.

(Looking at this now in the replayer, I have NO idea what I could have been thinking. No alcohol involved, wasn't really late at night so playing tired not a factor. I guess just a "teachable moment" that I really have to work on my game.)

Cereus Network - $0.10 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

SB: $7.38
BB: $9.00
UTG: $3.34
UTG+1: $9.85
MP: $12.25
MP+1: $49.77
CO: $9.85
Hero (BTN): $10.09

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: ($0.15) Hero has K♠ A♦

fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to $0.35, Hero raises to $0.70, fold, fold, CO calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.55, 2 players) 4♥ 6♥ 7♥
CO checks, Hero bets $0.77, CO raises to $8.84, Hero raises to $9.39, CO calls $0.31

Turn: ($19.85, 2 players) K♥

River: ($19.85, 2 players) 7♦

Definitely missing value with the whole min 3bet thing preflop.

I'm not entirely excited about c-betting this flop. With a half pot c-bet on this board I think you might be somewhere around break-even (if you are generous with what hands he takes to the flop in a min 3bet pot) so I think checking behind/letting go of the hand is perfectly fine.

Like Linkminuts said you should 3 bet way more. I think around 1.10-1.20 is pretty standard since villain is unknown but I would also size it depending on what kind of players are in the blinds as we dont want to play this in a 4 way pot.

OTF I would check this back 100% of the time. No pair no draw and we get a free card. Perfect. I might bet it if I had a heart in my hand.

brank said:

OTF I would check this back 100% of the time. No pair no draw and we get a free card. Perfect. I might bet it if I had a heart in my hand.

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You want a free card here? What card is it you want to see? There are only 4 cards in the deck which could help us out here.

Single suited boards are generally one of the most profitable flops for c betting on. In this case though I wouldn't mind checking and folding to a turn bet as our hand isn't much good against almost all of his range and there is a lot of hands he will never fold here to a c bet.

As played obviously fold to the flop shove...

Raise to $1.10 preflop

Why on earth you call the flop shove is beyond me.

stubzy11 said:

You want a free card here? What card is it you want to see? There are only 4 cards in the deck which could help us out here.

Single suited boards are generally one of the most profitable flops for c betting on. In this case though I wouldn't mind checking and folding to a turn bet as our hand isn't much good against almost all of his range and there is a lot of hands he will never fold here to a c bet.

As played obviously fold to the flop shove...

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So you don't like his suggestion of checking back, but...you would check back here? What am I missing?

LuckyChippy said:

So you don't like his suggestion of checking back, but...you would check back here? What am I missing?

Click to expand...

Just saying if I was to check it would be to check/fold to any bet, not to get a free card and try to improve our hand.

Im curious as to what kinda range you give Villain here. I think its super wide and this pot isnt going to get big if they dont have a heart. We have position and obv we are folding to a bet on the turn unimproved but I dont think we are so far behind either.

3bet need to be bigger.

I also like just checking behind on the flop. Way too coordinated to cbet. After the cbet you're just spewing.

I am with everyone here that I 3bet more. I am more inclined to write this hand off after the flop and hope to check it down or fold to any bet. Calling the check-raise is wasting money.

Something I meant to say earlier but forgot.

I'm not opposed to cbetting a monotone flop (what stubzy11 was referring to) just not this one. Had the flop been something like Qh8h3h I would probably cbet my AK no heart because we can expect to fold out more hands that have good equity against us (22,44-77,lots of non heart SCs, Ax with a little heart hands, occasionally 99-JJ). But on a 4h 6h 7h flop almost none of that range folds because it consists of so many more str8 draws, sets, and overpairs.

Extremely important to remember: You don't have to win every pot. Check/fold this flop. If you just can't let it go, fine, take your shot with a c-bet and THEN just let it go. In my opinion though, your c-bet is too small. Make them call outside their odds if they are drawing. He had right at 3 to 1 for a possible draw that comes in nearly that often. And that's only if he doesn't have a combo draw which, admittedly, seems kind of unlikely to here. I think at least 2/3 and probably 3/4 pot bet is better. Also, 1/2 size just looks weak and opens the door to a raise there. Ditto on the PF raise. It's too small.

Wow...why did u cbet on that flop?
And why did u call his shove?
Definetly u couldn't play your hand worse...sometimes u just have to let it go.