Flopping trips

[wreckoning]

Live casino game. $1-2 NL. A young scrawny guy across from me raises to $10 preflop in early position. He just sat at the table and although I have been watching him he hasn't played many hands and so I don't have much information on him. My initial impression is that he is a fairly conservative player, but not very skilled. We both have about $200 in chips. $10 is a standard size raise at this table and he doesn't have to have pocket aces in my mind to make it. It folds to me in middle position, I call with A-J of clubs. I am the only caller.

The flop comes down A-A-8. It seems like I should love this flop but instead I feel a sense of foreboding coming on. With his raise, if he has the last ace, his kicker is going to be a lot better than my Jack. He checks it to me and so I meekly bet $10, because I want to find out right now if he has AK or not.

He thinks for a long time. He thinks some more. Then he raises me to $50.

The raise is upsetting. Why does he bet so much on a now $30 pot? Is he trying to buy it? Is he raising because he doesn't have the ace and he wants to see if I really have in, in which case why doesn't he just min raise? Or does he have AQ/AK and figures I have some kind of hand and this will shove me all in? If he had Kings or another pocket pair why did he bother to check-raise, why not just bet straight out?

I decide that I just can't fold this hand in this situation, and I shove all in. If he has AK, fine. If he has something else, flatcalling just gives him another chance to outplay me on the turn when I hate my hand. If a King, Queen, or 10 comes on the turn, he could bluff those pockets for a full house and I am completely capable of folding.

He thinks about it and folds. I am surprised and confused, but also relieved.

Was I right to shove the flop? Should I have flat called? Was I right to be so worried? Can someone tell me what he had? heh. From his fold I think pocket Kings-Queens but I don't know for sure of course. He left soon after that so I never really got to peg his play for sure.

 

[beardyian]

It sounds like he was trying to make out he had an Ace, he might of had a medium pocket pair but by pushing all in you were certainly saying to him that you 'really' had an Ace and so his possible 2 pair wasn't good enough.

Of course if his medium pair was 88 you could have been a lot of trouble then

 

[Dingodaddy23]

shoving this flop is pretty bad. call his raise on the flop and play poker on the turn. shoving here folds out pretty much all worse hands and gets snapcalled by anything better, and if he's the type that is going to call your shove with a worse Ace than A10, the money is probably going in anyway (if you want it to), there's not a whole lot of scare cards that are going to come for either of you.

 

[TheChaosPath]

Seemed like a legit move to me, I just think I would've called rather than gone all-in. Had I been you I'd be a little more confident in that situation. Theres one ace in the deck (which can cripple you, but risk is the game) and after his raise of course he was going to try and steal the pot. Not to mention your Jack kicker was more than solid. My guess is that he had a good pocket pair and he re-raised you on the assumption that you missed it entirely.

 

[khaledowns]

everyones talking about the ace but what about pocket 8s, much more lethal than that ace

 

[skoldpadda]

I think he has a wide range of hands here including a possible AJ! Your weak initial bet at the pot followed by shoving after his re-raise is VERY strong. Look at it from his perspective. I know if I had AJ or A10 and I were him, I wouldn't hesitiate to muck it. You are showing great strength and to his analysis it looks like your weak bet was possibly meant to entice a re-raise which you could either smooth call -- OR, given his strong overbet re-raise, re-pop to convey greater strength. I think your play was very good and put him at an extremely difficult decision. Tough to call your re-re-raise without AK or 88 IMHO.

 

[Suited Frenzy]

Yea sounds like to me that he was trying to represent an A & if you didn't have 1 then that raise he made makes you fold. He knew right away obviously that you had the A when you reraise him for all your $...good play.

 

[Ronaldadio]

If u felt that way u could have checked on the flop.

However, u won more chips doing what u did.

I think I would possibly have checked the flop and hoped he would have bet the turn thinking the Aces scared u.

In general, I would have been prepared to go all in.

 

[wreckoning]

Well looking back I guess the move wasn't that bad. If he had a pocket pair like Kings and I just called his raise on the flop, he'd probably check the turn if he missed, then fold to any bet. So this way I took the pot away from him without even one more chance to draw, since he isn't going to pay me off if he misses. And yes it is possible that I made him fold AJ. Or a small possibility of AQ.

And still there's a chance to outplay me on the turn. After all he knows what I have; an ace, and if I call the bet instead of raising him again he might know his AQ is good. I still don't know what he has, could be AQ, AK, pocket pair, the 88s, I dunno if his pocket pair hits the turn or not.

On the other hand if he has AK or god forbid 88, well then I'm screwed but his reraise was confusing and I really need to be positive that he has AK or 88 before I lay the hand down. Heh

 

[PealedPockets]

I think he thought you had a lower pair, like 10s or Js, and that he also had a pocket pair. So he raised it up a little with his pocket pair. I think I would actually have played like he did...

 

[PealedPockets]

And I think I would have just called from your position or re-raised to 100... maybe...