A hand plan.........

[tenbob]

I was playing a live game last night. 50euro re-buy.

3'rd blind level, revelent stack sizes are myself and the BB. Starting stacks are 5,000. Re-buy is 5,000 for 50 euro.

Blinds 150-300.

Me stacked at 12,500
BB stacked at approx 9,000.

BB had one play, the table hadnt seen his cards at all. I didnt see him limp often, or raise, but if he could get heads up with the P/F raiser, he would. And check raise regardless of the flop. So far it has worked, and its a play he has pulled off 4 times successfully.

Im on the button with
[Ac] [Kc] and its folded into me. I finger my chips to raise and the SB mucks. So im up against the tricky flop player.

Whats the plan for this hand ? Do i raise P/F, knowing im making a big decision if i contiunation bet on a missed flop ? Do i limp with position ?

What would your plan be for the hand ? Of course it will change during the hand, but before you get involved, how deep are you prepared to go here.

 

[ChuckTs]

I'd raise anyways...regarding a continuation bet, if i didn't hit, then i'd check right behind him. Don't give him a chance to check-raise again; he's probably doing it with nothing if he's done it 4 hands that he's called a raise in.
I'd never limp with AK in this situation - sure if he was a hyper aggressive player, i might limp-raise him for all his chips, but it sounds like he is a passive player PF and aggressive one postflop, so i'd raise PF here.

 

[titans4ever]

I would raise preflop since i have position. You know you will be heads up and what he is more than likely going to do. You have position and are almost certain he is going to check to you on the flop.

If the flop hits and I know that he is going to reraise anyway I still fire out and i would probably reraise him right back.

If I miss the flop, I have positon and can see the turn for free if he checks hoping for the continuation bet. AK is still a drawing hand. Same for turn. If I hit on the turn, I bet it out and re-reraise if he still plays that way.

 

[Xandit]

I agree with chuck and titan. You still need to raise p/f. With this player I might even make a slightly larger raise, let the flop player know you have a good hand. If he check raises every flop bet, If the flop misses us, as it seems to do so often with AK, I check right behind him.
The plan for the turn would depend on if he bets and what the turn card brings. If the turn hits me hard, I fire out a "probe" bet with a plan to reraise if he makes his standard "flop reraise" on the turn.
Need to revaluate on the river....

 

[F Paulsson]

1. You crush his range of hands.
2. Any money that you get into the pot right now is a good thing for you, since you expect to win more than your half of it (see #1).
3. If you know he will checkraise the flop, this is awesome. If you flop an ace or a king, go ahead and bet, watch him checkraise and just smooth call the flop. In order to take it down he'll have to bet the turn again, at which point you can just push.

If you miss the flop, it's a judgment call. Food for thought: you could just push a missed flop. He can't outplay you if you're all-in, after all. I'm not so sure I'd necessarily give him a free turn card just because he likes to checkraise, because the only thing we've accomplished then is play exactly the way he wants us to. Take control. The more I think about it, the more I like going all-in when he checkraises us on a missed flop. If nothing else, than for meta-game purposes.

 

[Allsopp]

here is a good way to trap someone.

bet the minimum on the flop and when he comes over the top of you - re raise all in.

 

[t1riel]

Raise preflop. If he folds, you win the pot. If he calls and you don't hit on the flop. Raise again. Be aggressive. If he reraises, call and pray you hit top pair on the flop.

 

[tenbob]

1. You crush his range of hands.
2. Any money that you get into the pot right now is a good thing for you, since you expect to win more than your half of it (see #1).
3. If you know he will checkraise the flop, this is awesome. If you flop an ace or a king, go ahead and bet, watch him checkraise and just smooth call the flop. In order to take it down he'll have to bet the turn again, at which point you can just push.

If you miss the flop, it's a judgment call. Food for thought: you could just push a missed flop. He can't outplay you if you're all-in, after all. I'm not so sure I'd necessarily give him a free turn card just because he likes to checkraise, because the only thing we've accomplished then is play exactly the way he wants us to. Take control. The more I think about it, the more I like going all-in when he checkraises us on a missed flop. If nothing else, than for meta-game purposes.

1) Of course im ahead

2) eerrr now here is where it gets dodgy. Ok cash game theory this is fine. But this is about being in control of the pot, its unraised atm, so i raise it, put my money in and lose control once he checkraises, unless i want to assume the flop will miss him just as often as it misses me. Hitting the flop makes the hand very very easily played. Missing it is the issue.

Do i want to lost a nice chunk in an unraised pot ?

Anyway i raise it up to 1000, blinds are 150-300.

He calls.

Flop

[2c] [6d] [8h]

He checks, i bet out 2K, he checkraises to 5000. Expected. Now what ? I mean I expected this, i could still be well ahead, i could be dead in the water, i know NOTHING.

 

[gord962]

My play? Re-raise. I think if you show strength he will probably back down. As you have said, no one has seen his cards and he plays this way every time with no challenges. Play as if you hit your flop and hope for the best, you are probably ahead at the moment anyway. If you re-raise his tournament life is on the line as he will be forced to go all-in to call your raise.

 

[F Paulsson]

He checks, i bet out 2K, he checkraises to 5000. Expected. Now what ? I mean I expected this, i could still be well ahead, i could be dead in the water, i know NOTHING.

This is where I think pushing is a fairly viable option:

1. He is likely to have missed the flop.
2. Even if he connected, you're playing this like a high pocket pair. He may fold a better hand if you do push. If he calls, you have outs versus almost anything he has.

So: Best case scenario, he folds. He could even fold a better hand (= a pair) at this point if you push. The worse scenario (let's ignore the possibility of him having flopped a set or two pair) is that he has some hand like 7-7 or Q8s. You have 6 pair outs, and two cards to hit; you're a 3-1 dog, unless you're reverse dominated (K8/A8), but even then you still have a backdoor flush draw to fall back on. Another key point is that folding here won't leave him crippled, he'd still have a starting stack. He's not forced to call.

I really like a push here. You're ahead here a large portion of the time, and the times that you aren't he may fold a better hand, and when he doesn't, you can still draw out on him.

And I'm also happy about the metagame advantages. Don't let him bully you and tell him that when he checkraises YOU you're not going to take it.

It's scary, but I think it's correct. Especially when you still have the option to re-buy.

 

[gord962]

Sorry, I missed the rebuy portion. That makes the decision even easier to re-raise to put him all-in. If the villian folds he's still okay to continue, which I am sure he will do unless he has hit a set or two pair.