$50 NLHE 6-max: SB: AK vs UTG - Pokerstars Zoom

Hi everyone,

I had the hand below in a Zoom session today and I'm not sure how I could have played it better. I had only 7 hands on the villain so not much help stats wise. Any insight would be appreciated.

PokerStars - $0.50 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players

BTN: 303.72 BB
Hero (SB): 103.52 BB
BB: 100 BB (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 2)
UTG: 552.26 BB (VPIP: 16.67, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 7)
MP: 132.2 BB (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 50.00, 3Bet Preflop: -, Hands: 2)
CO: 131.1 BB (VPIP: 15.38, PFR: 15.38, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 13)

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

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

UTG raises to 3 BB, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 10 BB, fold, UTG calls 7 BB

Flop: (21 BB, 2 players) 5♥ Q♠ K♣
Hero checks, UTG bets 10 BB, Hero raises to 27 BB, UTG calls 17 BB

Turn: (75 BB, 2 players) 7♣
Hero bets 30 BB, UTG calls 30 BB

River: (135 BB, 2 players) 2♥
Hero checks, UTG bets 43.24 BB, Hero calls 36.52 BB and is all-in

UTG shows Q♣ Q♦ (Three of a Kind, Queens)
(Pre 54%, Flop 93%, Turn 100%)
Hero shows A♥ K♥ (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 46%, Flop 7%, Turn 0%)
UTG wins 204.04 BB

i dont like your check raise on the flop it brings confusion to the hand, you were the the 3 beter pre flop so cbet and go from there. i wouldnt put him on QQ but 55 yes. cbet the flop check the turn as pot control and evaluate on the river that is the strategy i would apply here.

I’m obviously not qualified to analyze your hand, but for practice:

Check raising gets value sometimes from JT, KJ JJ, KT, AQ so I guess it’s ok, even though only hand we really hate of those is JTs (that is only sometimes in his range), so I don’t really like check raise. When hero bets the turn, there should not be any hand left that would just call that we are ahead, at least I cannot see, but if we do not bet can we really fold? Not really against unknown so I would guess after we check raise flop our only choice is to pile the money in.

Only other lines I can think after check raising, is turn check/call, or turn check/fold that makes some sense, but both of these are just a bit meh. If a bit deeper check/call - fold or check/call - call lines would make more sense.

Yeah there's no need to check raise flop here with top pair. Folds out everything worse and gets called by better. Top pair top kicker a good hand, but by no means the nuts.

Preflop id make it 11 or 12. On the flop id just cbet for value and take it from there.
As regards the check raise, ask yourself, Is this raise for value or as a bluff?
Clearly any raise here with this hand would be done for value so you should bet bigger and then just shove the turn on appropriate cards. No one decent folds away any reasonable equity to your flop sizing when they are in position.
I think the question here should be; is Tptk a suitable hand to check raise for value? For me that depends entirely on the player type. If they are loose or a bit fishy then its fine to CR but you dont have the evidence through lack of hands.
Against a player with 500bb who is likely decent then check raise flop, shove turn is a viable line to take away his positional advantage.
If you check the turn what are you saying with your hand? Just gii...If you run into a set so be it.

I think most people would lead on the flop because you have the leading pre-flop action; I mean you would bluff this board if you miss or if you flop a straight draw; and if you want to protect your check/call range, why raise here on the flop? So, you check/raise, lead turn, then DO NOT check this river because if you check on the river, you miss all your value since AK is a strong hand.

Why did you check raise the flop?

Value?
Top pair top kicker on this type of board isn't strong enough to check-raise for value on this type of board (two high cards) in a three bet pot against an UTG player.
Bluff?
The raise was only for 1/3 pot so you don't get a lot of fold equity for that, and what are you representing?

With top pair top kicker in a three bet pot would normally bet out as the preflop aggressor and occasionally just check call and play from there as to get perhaps a bluff from my opponent.

You check raise and the villain calls on this board that raises all alarms would try to keep the pot small and check the turn. Would put villain on:
AK (6 combos)
AA (3 combos)
KK (1 combo)
QQ (3 combos)
And occasionally a stubborn AQ (9 possible combos but would count less then 25%) (from which you normally don't get extra value)
And perhaps an occasional JTs but would an UTG raise and call a three bet with that not many times say 10% so can almost discard that and if we take JTs in consideration we also must count KQs for a bigger percentage which made two pair but only 1 combo possible on this board.
So most of the time you either split pot or loose after his flop call in my opinion.

Would not bet out on the turn and might even fold if the villain makes a decent bet.

Check raising flop is absolutely terrible, sorry. Just cbet and if you get raised, be worried but we are probably hanging on.