$50 6-max: AK on KQ9 flop - opponent pots turn

[Bombjack]

Your move here?

Reads -
mejrum: makes ridiculous bluffs and often raises marginal hands.
bluejonty: seems quite aggressive and has raised me out of some pots earlier - probably thinks I'm a bit weak-tight after folding a straight on the river after he check-raised when the board paired. However, he seems to have tightened up a bit recently.

Seat 1: mejrum - $62.31
Seat 2: karodd3 - $48.99
Seat 3: bluejonty - $197.88
Seat 4: BluTooth - $24.50
Seat 5: Bombjack - $77.79
Seat 6: abdelsheva - $66.95
Moving Button to seat 3
BluTooth posts small blind ($0.25)
Bombjack posts big blind ($0.50)
Shuffling Deck
Dealing Cards
Dealing [ ] to Bombjack
abdelsheva folds
mejrum raises to $1.53
karodd3 folds
bluejonty calls $1.53
BluTooth folds
Bombjack raises to $4.62
mejrum calls $4.62
bluejonty calls $4.62
Dealing Flop ($14.11)[ ]
Bombjack bets $8.50
mejrum folds
bluejonty calls $8.50
Dealing Turn ($31.11)[]
Bombjack checks
bluejonty bets $30
Bombjack...

 

[Dingodaddy23]

i'd bet-fold the turn here. since you got here like this, fold, ur basically , , hoping he has KJ, K10, QJ, or air

 

[Bombjack]

Many thanks all for the barrage of constructive criticism, comments and advice!

 

[F Paulsson]

i'd bet-fold the turn here. since you got here like this, fold, ur basically , , hoping he has KJ, K10, QJ, or air

I cannot stress enough how much I disagree with this.

Why did you check the turn, Bombjack?

 

[bubbasbestbabe]

^^^^
agree, why did you?

 

[Bombjack]

Um not sure, I suppose I was thinking "what the hell is he calling me with" and was worried he might have KQ/JT/99. We're looking at a re-raised pot and I've just got top pair....

 

[F Paulsson]

Against a straightforward player, I think betting the turn (and folding if he pushes back) is an OK play. With your read on this guy, I don't think that's safe. So what's safe?

Safe is checking behind on the turn and calling the (inevitable?) river bet. Sometimes, he slowplayed KK. Sometimes, he's full of shit. But if you check this turn, I fear that you have to call the river against a "quite aggressive" player. No?

 

[Bombjack]

If I'm calling on the turn and check-calling a river bet, isn't it better to push here on the turn?

 

[F Paulsson]

What the... I completely misread the action, I just realized. Ignore everything I said. I for some reason thought you checked behind on the turn and was now being bet into on the river.

 

[tenbob]

Checking the turn if you intend it to look like weakness with the intention of a C/R could be ok,but check fold is a little weak IMO. I could see a 2/3 maybe a little less of a bet on the turn, and folding to a push, I think id be fold as played though. Calling kinda commits you to the hand, or you call and push any river. The cry when he shows the J10.

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

Ok. Some random thoughts.

- Reraise more pf. You're out of position and your small raise encourages action that you don't really want with AKs OOP.

- Lead the turn. You've got a draw-heavy board, which is also a board with which it's entirely possible your aggressive villain could have a second-best hand he's willing to go with. A rag falls on the turn and you check? You're inviting him to try and take the pot from you whatever he has - put him to a decision and lead.

- Whenever a very aggressive player who raises a lot starts flat calling, it should be setting off alarm bells. However, this board is so co-ordinated, and could have hit so many hands that perhaps this doesn't apply so much as it often would.

- You obviously can't call the turn bet as played, you have to shove or fold. Damned if I know which.

 

[Bombjack]

You're right in that I should probably have re-raised more - roughly pot-sized to 6 or 7. You say this is to discourage action but do I really want to discourage action when I have a premium hand? Surely the re-raise is for value? Or is the idea that AK is a better hand heads-up than it is 3-way - and is this true?

Can you explain further why I can't flat call the turn bet?

 

[Dorkus Malorkus]

(a) you want to get the pot HU. AKs isn't terrible multiway, but I'd rather be playing it out of position against one player than two. It's obviously not the same as something like playing a low PP for set value OOP when in most cases position is largely irrelevant because we know exactly what we're going to do with the hand - AKs is the sort of hand that you want to be acting with with as much information as possible, especially for example when you flop TPTK on a co-ordinated board. ^^

(b) it isn't really a 'premium hand' OOP like this. Most of the time you're going to miss the flop - are you going to be comfortable c-betting a flop here into a LAG and a 'ridiculous bluffer'? If not, why are you essentially just swelling the pot with a small raise when you're going to be check-folding 2/3rds of the time? Yes, it swells the pot for the occasions on which you hit, but even in some of those cases (like the example given) we're going to be 'playing without a clue'.

You can't call the turn because of the pot size. If we call $30 the pot will be nearly $100 and we will have $35 left. What's the point? What exactly are we hoping will happen on the river if we do call? If he's got a big made hand, he's got a big made hand - getting like 4-1 are we really going to check-fold the river if we call the turn? If he's got nothing he should realise he has only the tiniest fraction of fold equity and thus you're not getting any more out of him anyway. If he's drawing, let him get all his money in while you have the better hand by shoving the turn. Or just fold turn, of course, I still don't know which I prefer.

 

[Bombjack]

Good explanation Dorkus.

I decided I was ahead and pushed:

Seat 1: mejrum - $62.31
Seat 2: karodd3 - $48.99
Seat 3: bluejonty - $197.88
Seat 4: BluTooth - $24.50
Seat 5: Bombjack - $77.79
Seat 6: abdelsheva - $66.95
Moving Button to seat 3
BluTooth posts small blind ($0.25)
Bombjack posts big blind ($0.50)
Shuffling Deck
Dealing Cards
Dealing [ ] to Bombjack
abdelsheva folds
mejrum raises to $1.53
karodd3 folds
bluejonty calls $1.53
BluTooth folds
Bombjack raises to $4.62
mejrum calls $4.62
bluejonty calls $4.62
Dealing Flop [ ]
Bombjack bets $8.50
mejrum folds
bluejonty calls $8.50
Dealing Turn []
Bombjack checks
bluejonty bets $30
Bombjack raises to $64.67 (all-in)
bluejonty calls $64.67
bluejonty shows [ ]
Bombjack shows [ ]
Dealing River []
Taking Rake of $3 from pot 1
Bombjack has Two Pairs: Kings, 9s
Bombjack wins $157.45 with: Two Pairs: Kings, 9s

I'd like to say I employed some kind of advanced multi-level thinking in this hand, but in fact I just though "sod it, I probably have the best hand, and I want my money back from this guy". In fact it was the right move, and his draw meant he was priced in to call with just under 30% equity.

It worked out very well, but I'm in two minds as to whether checking the turn was the right thing to do. I risk giving him a free card for his draw, but if I think he'll read me as weak and bet a draw, checking is the right move because I get a lot more value from the hand this way.

 

[Ghost Ridah]

hmm, to me it looked like he was tryin to buy the pot. Make a small bet on the turn, basicly a value bet, hoping that you would think he had the nuts and you would call and he would push on the river. Now that I see the hand, i can see why he bet the way he did, although betting like that on a draw is a pretty risky bet, you made the right call in moving in on him. Congrats