$25 NLHE Full Ring: AK against an UTG limp

[TheBigFinn]

BB, Villain #2 $18.24
UTG, Villain #1 $12.19
Button, Hero $29.31 holding
Villain #1 limps for $0.10, Villain #1 is VERY loose. She appears to play about 1/2 the hands regardless of position and is working on her 3rd buy-in. CO limps and Hero is loving life and raises to $0.95. Hero is trying to isolate Villain #1, but Villain #2 in the BB calls, Villain #1 calls and CO folds.
$3.10 in the pot and the flop comes
All pocket pairs just became boats. but how likely are pairs? With AKs is Hero behind? Villain #2 checks and Villain #1 donk raises $1.00. This bet looks small to me. Is she walking the dog or is it a feeler bet? Is Hero being squeezed, or is Villain trying to see a cheap card? Hero calls and Villain #2 folds.
$5.10 in the pot and the turn comes
Hero likes the Queen at first thinking flush draw, but after about a second I realize a boat is Villain #2's most likely winning holding and a flush is a loser. I like the high card since Villain limped called. Not many Queens in her range. Villain #1 checks. She has ~$7 behind, so a jam wouldn't look too odd. Is she trying to get Hero to raise so she can re raise shove? I bet $2.50, planning on folding to a shove. Villain #1 takes a long time to call. Is Ace high is good?
$10.10 in the pot and the river comes a
The flush draw comes in, but who cares. Villain #1 checks quickly and Hero bets pot, putting Villain all in. Has Hero overplayed his hand, turning a nut flush into a bluff?
Villain insta folds and shows

Spoiler

Calling pre-flop was loose, but how does she call the flop and especially how does she call the turn? If she would have shoved the turn, Hero would have folded. Hero would likely fold to a river shove too. Villain buys in for $25 again.

 

[Sidetracked]

'Think about just how stupid the average American is. Half the people are dumber than that.'

Your own tagline answered all of your questions about how this woman played the way that she did.

 

[300HPGOD]

Villain 1 and 2 limp in for 25 cents since this is 25 NL so I think your raise to 95 cents is too small over two limpers. I like a sizing more like $1.25 to $1.50 for this situation.

On the flop when either of the villains bets here I am not loving life but you do have overcards to an pair they have, at least that is what we must think. They are betting $1 into $3.10 so we have the correct odds to call hoping we hit one of our overcards as we are a 3 to 1 dog against hands like 99 or similar. Calling as you did is correct.

On the turn we do pickup the flush draw but as you say flushes are drastically declined in value on this board. When villain checks I would advocate checking behind as any pair is more than likely not folding and all else you are ahead of so why not take the free card to see if you catch a K or an A on the river.

On the river the flush comes in but again do you expect many villains to fold a pair that they got this far with, especially given the fact you bet on the turn and they still called. At this point I would advocate checking again and if the flush is good, its good. Same as with your ace high. But if you are up against a boat you lose the minimum and I think you would not gave gotten many of them to fold especially considering the river was a low card in the deck.

 

[fundiver199]

Villain 1 and 2 limp in for 25 cents since this is 25 NL so I think your raise to 95 cents is too small over two limpers. I like a sizing more like $1.25 to $1.50 for this situation.

On the flop when either of the villains bets here I am not loving life but you do have overcards to an pair they have, at least that is what we must think. They are betting $1 into $3.10 so we have the correct odds to call hoping we hit one of our overcards as we are a 3 to 1 dog against hands like 99 or similar. Calling as you did is correct.

On the turn we do pickup the flush draw but as you say flushes are drastically declined in value on this board. When villain checks I would advocate checking behind as any pair is more than likely not folding and all else you are ahead of so why not take the free card to see if you catch a K or an A on the river.

On the river the flush comes in but again do you expect many villains to fold a pair that they got this far with, especially given the fact you bet on the turn and they still called. At this point I would advocate checking again and if the flush is good, its good. Same as with your ace high. But if you are up against a boat you lose the minimum and I think you would not gave gotten many of them to fold especially considering the river was a low card in the deck.

Excellent analysis. To sum it up: Raise more preflop, call the small flop bet, check back turn and river. Key concept for this hand: Showdown value.

 

[gustav197poker]

The idea of ​​isolating Villain 1: UTG is good, but when you raise $ 0.95 you are giving BB good odds to call preflop with a greater number of hands. I understand that being an effective stack of $ 12 that implies that a V should call with a tighter range. But when BB can continue profitably with all connectors suits and low and medium pockets, it is necessary to deny equity to V2 by making a much larger raise size. I agree to go up to $ 1.50. But considering that UTG is a villain with a wider range, it is good to go even bigger, to deny all the equity to our villains.
As played we hit the flop on a 3MWP and the texture is interesting. Here when UTG donk bet it is important to remember that due to the size of the raise preflop, our range is not perceived very strong, as we are now below any pair and certainly UTG could represent any of them. In this way his range is interfering with BB's wider calling range. So basically our real hand is a bit undervalued and we don't have too much SDV. Our hand is equivalent to having KJs; KTs, K9s so raising on this flop texture would help recover lost values ​​preflop. Our goal here should be to win a quick pot with 2 players who have not shown enough strength in their initial ranges.
As played the flop, now our turn bet is geared towards semi bluffs and possibly in our range we could have some values ​​as well. Therefore if you want to bet here, you should be prepared to call a possible raise. Since your blockers are likely unlocked. That is, your opponent on the turn could block a hand like QX, possibly with some A or some K, since you have the spades, then V could represent any of the other 6 combos suits. (AQs; KQs).
If you had raised the flop here OTT you could check behind to polarize your range a bit more.
On the river you may have improved, but your opponent may have checked to cheat you. Therefore it is better to check on the river.
If you had checked the turn (previous raised the flop) the bet on the river makes a more sense. But it should be a very small size (around 20% of the pot) as this size could induce calling with all AXs that do not include a king, because our opponent might think that we can bluff with KXs that do not have queens.
Greetings.

 

[John A]

On the flop when either of the villains bets here I am not loving life but you do have overcards to an pair they have, at least that is what we must think. They are betting $1 into $3.10 so we have the correct odds to call hoping we hit one of our overcards as we are a 3 to 1 dog against hands like 99 or similar. Calling as you did is correct.

Not trying to pick on you in the least bit, but the above odds are not correct. You're roughly a 3:1 dog if all the money is in, which it's not. To hit your card on the turn, you're closer to a 6:1 dog. It doesn't mean that calling is incorrect, or that there aren't adequate implied odds, but I see people putting odds up all the time that aren't correct, and today I just felt like correcting it. Hope you don't mind.

 

[300HPGOD]

Not trying to pick on you in the least bit, but the above odds are not correct. You're roughly a 3:1 dog if all the money is in, which it's not. To hit your card on the turn, you're closer to a 6:1 dog. It doesn't mean that calling is incorrect, or that there aren't adequate implied odds, but I see people putting odds up all the time that aren't correct, and today I just felt like correcting it. Hope you don't mind.

Why would I mind? We all post on here to help each other and if I made a mistake in posting (which I did in this case because yes, I was thinking in terms of seeing both turn and river) then it should be corrected so someone else does not get the wrong notion about the hand. We should all feel free in correcting each other, going back and forth on a hand, asking each other why we think what we think, etc. Unfortunately there are a few, not naming any names, that I would not try to correct since its not worth their BS. I hope I am not one of those people so yes please always feel free to correct me or let me know my post is way off (not saying you thought I was off). I will only get better by people correcting me and I have a lot of getting better to do. Thank you for catching my mistake.

 

[spectralwave]

bent master ... flinched!

 

[fundiver199]

On the flop when either of the villains bets here I am not loving life but you do have overcards to an pair they have, at least that is what we must think. They are betting $1 into $3.10 so we have the correct odds to call hoping we hit one of our overcards as we are a 3 to 1 dog against hands like 99 or similar. Calling as you did is correct.

Just to add a bit to the discussion about pot odds, we are not calling here strictly to draw. We are also calling, because we beat Villains bluffs, and bluffing is indeed, what they were doing. These situations are fairly common and can also occur, when we have the nut flushdraw (especially with good kicker) or a small pair + draw type hand.

In my last session I defended my blinds with 65s, flopped bottom pair with flushdraw and faced two large barrels from a tight opponent. On the turn I was considering to make a tight fold, but I decided to call. River bricked out, and to my joy he checked back and then flipped over a busted nut flushdraw. So my pair was good, but improving to a flush would have been a disaster.