Should I have been more aggressive?

Here's a hand that pretty much crippled me. Generally there's times I'm on the fence when it comes to being aggressive and as I sit somewhat steaming afterward, I tend to wonder "should I have thrown a c-bet here instead of checking?" To this point in the game the villain had come back from being down to somewhere under $100, so I had some respect. But I'm thinking now that after looking at that flop instead of checking I should have bet 300-400? I was only worried about the potential flush draw, not the King so much.The other player had A / J off-suit and hit the jack on the river.

Well, thanks in advance, please be kind.


Poker Stars - $20.00+1.60 Tournament (#368433074) - Blinds: 75/150 +15 Ante, No Limit Hold'em (7 players)
Poker Stars Hand Converter Tool from CardsChat.com

SB: t1,180
BB: t1,950
UTG: t1,705
MP: t3,041
MP+1: t3,764
CO Hero: t1,390
BTN: t1,865

Pre-flop: (t225) Hero is CO and dealt
3 folds, Hero raises t450, BTN folds, SB calls t375, BB folds

Flop: (t1,050) (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t1,050) (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t400, SB raises t730 (All-in), Hero calls t330

River: (t2,510) (2 players)

It probably would have been the same result, but I would be shoving pre-flop with blinds so high.

As it was played, though, not betting the flop told him you had no king, so he felt pretty good about his Ace when the board paired.

So yeah, more aggressive in this case, I think...

Yeah, definitely a shove preflop here. You're not in the position stack wise to do anything else.

Okay that make total sense. I hadn't actually factored that in. I may have still been called, but you know, I had that feeling that I should have done something different (regardless of the result) and I think you guys hit it on the head. Hopefully I'll have enough sense to keep that in mind next time.

Well I came upon two situations that essentially mirrored this one last night, both in the same game. I held A-K suited in one hand, A-K offsuit in the other. Shoved pre-flop due to the high level of blinds both times. Was called by the same guy both times (he was a short stack the first call). He had A-10 and then A-J, and unfortunately for me he hit a 10 on the river the first time, and a jack on the river the second time. Ah well, next time..."victory shall be mine." I feel at least that I did the right thing both times, but it just didn't swing my way this time around.

well you made the right plays, crazy how same guy gets lucky on both hands and gets ya, Im almost used to that happening now
i too am just learning to apply more aggression/value betting and blind stealing
especially late in mtts
keep making the right plays and it will pay off more often than not

and what i learned today:
better to lose as bubbleboy than not to play properly...we play to win, not just place ITM

nice cool attitude you have to, as nice as i am, i still curse some to those runner runner bad beats ive been gettin too much of recently

BuddhaWarhol said:

Okay that make total sense. I hadn't actually factored that in. I may have still been called, but you know, I had that feeling that I should have done something different (regardless of the result) and I think you guys hit it on the head. Hopefully I'll have enough sense to keep that in mind next time.

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Part of the shove with this hand is that you aren't really trying to double up at this point with it, but accumulate some more chips. You win what's in the pot when everyone folds and this increases your chances of winning the hand overall.

M of < 4 you should be shoving pre IMO.
The 450 raise made you pot comitted so should have shipped it after the flop as played to try rep flush draw or king.

tbdbitl said:

Part of the shove with this hand is that you aren't really trying to double up at this point with it, but accumulate some more chips. You win what's in the pot when everyone folds and this increases your chances of winning the hand overall.

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Yeah, totally dig what you're saying here. My initial (flawed) logic was that the 450 would have been enough to make anyone without a hand go away and I would steal the blinds, but I do see how this was not the right thing to do. Having made that error, if I had realized it at the time, I should have then shoved after the flop like jbbb mentions to try and rep the flush or king. Lessons learned.

micalupagoo said:

well you made the right plays, crazy how same guy gets lucky on both hands and gets ya, Im almost used to that happening now
i too am just learning to apply more aggression/value betting and blind stealing
especially late in mtts
keep making the right plays and it will pay off more often than not

and what i learned today:
better to lose as bubbleboy than not to play properly...we play to win, not just place ITM

nice cool attitude you have to, as nice as i am, i still curse some to those runner runner bad beats ive been gettin too much of recently

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Eh, I wasn't very happy at the time (mild understatement), especially after the second beat, but I have to expect that playing more often will lead to getting sucked out more often.

BuddhaWarhol said:

Eh, I wasn't very happy at the time (mild understatement), especially after the second beat, but I have to expect that playing more often will lead to getting sucked out more often.

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This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Do not make the mistake of being results orientated, it's about getting your money in with the best hand. The more you play the more suckouts & the more times the best hand will hold up.

Don't know if you've seen them yet, but you should check out the Strategy Articles. There is a lot of good info there to keep you busy.

Just shove pre (your stack is too short to do anything else.... you're never raise/folding here obv.). Some players 'might' raise with a shortstack with a monster (AA/KK) hoping to induce a shove but this is reallyyyy transparent (except for maybe in the $1 or$2 buyins)... even then it's just 'allin' pre.

juiceeQ said:

Don't know if you've seen them yet, but you should check out the Strategy Articles. There is a lot of good info there to keep you busy.

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Gotta have a look at these. There's sure a lot of information "out there." I've collected some links, videos, e-books. A lot to go through, but you know, you do what you gotta do.

Pre shove would have been the correct move here because of the blinds.

For sure, Definalety would of shoved preflop:icon_thum

Yep. Shove. You miss with AQ often enough that you'll be faced with a tough decision. Just get it in preflop.

You'll sometimes run into AK, QQ-AA, but it's rare.

(I had AQ on BTN in a similar situation and ran into AK on BB last night. I had two limpers in front and the blinds to act. I went all in. Results wise, it didn't turn out good, but I don't regret it. If you wanna go deep, when you get a good hand, you gotta go for it)