$5 NLHE 6-max: AQ

PokerStars - $0.05 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

CO: $5.24 (VPIP: 24.13, PFR: 17.83, 3Bet Preflop: 5.88, hands: 298)
BTN: $1.30 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
SB: $5.83 (VPIP: 39.44, PFR: 25.71, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 73)
BB: $3.54 (VPIP: 33.33, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 6)
UTG: $6.69 (VPIP: 30.66, PFR: 19.71, 3Bet Preflop: 10.42, Hands: 144)
Hero (MP): $5.00

SB posts SB $0.02, BB posts BB $0.05

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.07) Hero has Q:club: A:spade:

fold, Hero raises to $0.17, fold, fold, SB calls $0.15, fold

Flop: ($0.39, 2 players) T:spade: 7:spade: 5:heart:
SB checks, Hero bets $0.27, SB calls $0.27

Turn: ($0.93, 2 players) K:spade:
SB checks, Hero bets $0.66, SB calls $0.66

River: ($2.25, 2 players) Q:heart:
SB checks, Hero checks

Figured he got this far the queen wasn't helping me.

I think this is very well played, standard c-bet in pos on the flop. On the turn there are many hands like T9 T8s , medium pocket pairs that villain will fold, and if he is drawing you charged him well so in this pot I would semi-bluff as well. On the river I don't think we can get any value from Tx hands, it is better to check behind rather than lose pot to imaginative players who may check-raise you with nothing.

In the strategy articles in mentions that good LAG's actually C-bet less often than you would think. This has been a vital change in my game. The standard C-bet is a spew. The villain knows you are doing it just to do it because he has seen you do it over and over again. IP we want to see another card for free anyways. So the turn comes and not only does it miss us with something he may have, but it also completes a potential flush. Had we not been playing bet pre, c-bet post every hand we got up to this point like clockwork and instead decided not to c-bet the villain would have bet the turn had it hit him, then we could have folded our A high hand only losing our initial .17cent bet. The reason I think not c-betting when being agro is a good thing is because otherwise we never know where we are at in the hand. We keep betting every street with the worst of it. Best case scenario we get to showdown with the worst cards, worse case having to fold when villain finally bets on the river or check-raises us.

Everytime I try and quote from this thread I get this:
Invalid Thread specified. If you followed a valid link, please notify the administrator

Any ways, it's true people are c-betting less, but not in a spot like this. This is fine. Hero played it fine. NH.

Where in this play do we know where we are at?

We are basically bluffing with nothing to a station. A station that prolly has us beat, but we don't know.

Edit: Nvm, wp

Delvuter said:

We are basically bluffing with nothing to a station. A station that prolly has us beat, but we don't know.

Click to expand...

Why would we not c-bet here with two overs, a BDFD to the nuts, and BDSD? We don't have nothing. We probably have the best hand most of the time, and by c-betting we get a free river card or can fold out his equity on the flop. We have decent equity against almost any hand range other than sets and two pair. And he can always just fold if he missed.

Hand was well played.

Why in the strategy articles does it say good LAG's c-bet less often? IDK. I want to know too. But I aint gonna disagree w/the dude.

Here is an article talking about AQ being a trap hand.

http://www.parttimepoker.com/trap-hands-in-no-limit-poker

Is this the right link ? If so, I guess you are refering to this from the article
"2) AK or AQ where you flop pair of aces. This is the classic hand that good NL players will kill amatuer players on. Think about it – if you hold AK and flop comes, i dunno, say As 10h 3c, what hand is going to pay you off? On your lucky days at weak tables, AJ and AQ MAYBE. More often than not other players are only going to call you if you’re beat. I’m not saying this isn’t a good hand – it is. I am just saying you don’t want to overplay it, especially when you’re out of position. Bottom line: if you’re consistently putting all your money in the middle on top pair, you’re in trouble long-term, especially at higher limits."

In my opinion the author is wrong in many situations because, if you flop AT3 rainbow, you are alwayas getting called from weaker aces, you are always getting called from draw, especially at this limit .
Anyway, I totally agree with MinhANguyen's saying that we have good equity many times, and in the above example we have position, yeah out of positions you have more reason to just check rather than c-bet but still c-bet wouldn't be that bad, simply just becuase your oppoonnet will only hit a pair 2 out of 3 times, of course there are others reason to it but, c-bet will often take the pot down.