$20 NL HE STT: Check set of Aces?

[StealTheButton]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

STT

Buy-in

20

Game Options

1. Turbo

Currency

$

There are 4 players left in this single table no limit tourney. I picked up AA and opened with a bet of 2.25bb. I've never played with the villain (BB) before. The flop cam all low cards and the villain lead out with a 40% bet. I figured he has a medium strength pocket pair or something like K7 (top pair with a good kicker). Flop was pretty benign. I could have raised, but I wanted to hide the strength of my hand. The turn came and strengthened by hand- I now have a set of aces. If the villain has a hand like A4 or A5 then he has top pair and a straight draw. I actually did not like the Ace because he is going to be fearful I have it and will only put more money in the pot if he improves (if he makes a straight or two pair). I was debating betting, but I checked.

What is the best move here? The more I play the less often I try to extract money and simply bet hard when I make these hands, and I'm regretting not doing so here.

pokerstars, $18.50 + $1.50 - Hold'em No Limit - 75/150 - 4 players
https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/425cbq8Us[/COLOR]]Replay this hand on CardsChat

runningqueens (UTG): 3,315 (22 bb)
RareAir1223 (BU): 2,549 (17 bb)
branch888 (SB): 976 (7 bb)
Pokerwrit202 (BB): 2,160 (14 bb)

Pre-Flop: (225) Hero (runningqueens) is UTG with A♠ A♦
runningqueens (UTG) raises to 339, 2 players fold, Pokerwrit202 (BB) calls 189

Flop: (753) 7♦ 3♠ 2♥ (2 players)
Pokerwrit202 (BB) bets 300, runningqueens (UTG) calls 300

Turn: (1,353) A♣ (2 players)
Pokerwrit202 (BB) checks, runningqueens (UTG) checks

River: (1,353) 5♦ (2 players)
Pokerwrit202 (BB) bets 450, runningqueens (UTG) calls 450

Total pot: 2,253

Showdown:
Pokerwrit202 (BB) shows 4♠ 4♣ (a straight, Ace to Five)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 10%, Turn: 9%, River: 100%)

runningqueens (UTG) shows A♠ A♦ (three of a kind, Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 90%, Turn: 91%, River: 0%)

Pokerwrit202 (BB) wins 2,253

 

[puzzlefish]

That is the trouble with trying to let players catch up to you when you correctly feel that you are ahead.

I personally don't like slow playing aces after the flop. You have the best hand on the flop so raise him with it and get some value. Hit the set on the turn, bet that too and get paid for all the times he doesn't get anything by the river, all the other lower sets that he may have, etc. Don't settle with getting outdrawn through passive play like this.

 

[StealTheButton]

That is the trouble with trying to let players catch up to you when you correctly feel that you are ahead.

I personally don't like slow playing aces after the flop. You have the best hand on the flop so raise him with it and get some value. Hit the set on the turn, bet that too and get paid for all the times he doesn't get anything by the river, all the other lower sets that he may have, etc. Don't settle with getting outdrawn through passive play like this.

I rarely play this way, but the flop was all low cards. My plan was to raise him hard on the turn, but he checked when the Ace came. Only way for him to beat me now was for him to catch a straight and there were not a lot of likely ways for this to happen, so I checked behind him and hoped he would catch two pair or 3 of a kind on the river. I sure did not want to see 4 cards to a wheel on the river.

 

[ratbat615]

That’s poker ♥️ but you played it well. He could have hit his set on the flop but I would have raised on turn and hope for the board to pair . And the fact that you never raised your poker sense was tingling. I think 💭 you will do well and I would like to be your vip mentor ?? I will show you how easy it is to become a vip member so you could play in all cards chat games and win 🥇 prizes. Message me if your interested.it if no one ☝️ as asked you already.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
You could jam here as the chip leader and this being either the bubble (9-man) or one away from the bubble (6-man). But with AA you of course want to get action, so I am totally on board with making a small raise.

Flop
Obviously you can just call here, since its easy to get in chips in later, when the effective stack is only 14BB. And of course you are pretty much never planning on folding AA for 14BB. So its only a question of, how do you get him to put in as many chips as possible with second best hands. Calling is good, if you think, he has a lot of bluffs in his range, and that he will continue to do a lot of bluffing on the turn. However in this situation I dont think, thats particularly likely, unless you had some read on him.

If he is bluffing, he is probably just going to give up a lot on the turn due to his stack size and the ICM-pressure. And I also think, this is more likely to be a lead for protection from some sort of small pair, which dont want to allow random overcards to come. And if he has that kind of hand, like the K7 you mention, there is pretty much no cards in the deck, he is going to like, other than exactly those (K or 7), which gives him a hand, that beat you. So against that kind of range its far better to raise and try to make him stack off or commit right now. Make it something like 700, which still gives him room to think, you might fold to a shove.

Turn
As played you have to bet now, even though the A is a potential scare card for him. You can make it small and still make him stick in that crying call with his K7 or whatever. You are not inducing many river bluffs by slowplaying here, because if he wanted to bluff, he would most likely have bet the turn.

River
Now there is a 1-liner to a straight, so at this point its just a call as played.

Results
You kind of did this to yourself. Raise the flop and jam the turn, if he continue on the flop with just a call. Easy game.

 

[puzzlefish]

I rarely play this way, but the flop was all low cards. My plan was to raise him hard on the turn, but he checked when the Ace came. Only way for him to beat me now was for him to catch a straight and there were not a lot of likely ways for this to happen, so I checked behind him and hoped he would catch two pair or 3 of a kind on the river. I sure did not want to see 4 cards to a wheel on the river.

I think if you keep track of the times you feel upset with a hand you played (any hand, not just aces), you will find it's got a similar type of runout story because the villain got to the river for cheap. It's way easier to just prevent these from happening and lose less money even though at first it may feel like you are winning less by being more aggressive.

If your plan was to check-raise on a scare card, maybe that may be a flaw in your thinking for this kind of spot. Yes - this works sometimes - but how likely is it that the villain will not check back to you when you have 3/4 aces accounted for? And when you put him on a range of lower pairs and non-A junk?

 

[feisas7991]

up to 1.5bb otf and keep blasting tiny on all streets.
generally speaking this isnt a spot where we can teach beginner to play perfectly within couple sentences.

your strategy would be there to attack with your entire range therefor we bet tiny
ott you mostly want to bet all your overpair to the board and start mixing in some nuts like sets into the check.
actually i just realized it would take too much time writing down even basic strategy for you on these boards.
basically you want to attack and this specific hand wantss to keep blasting and prey he goes to showdown with something. on the river we annoyed check back, since we expect most of his 2 pairs and Ax to jam on previous streets leaving his calling range of mostly 2pair that rivered a 5 and 4x straight, even though i dont think he should be defending with pretty much any of these low hands and jamming most of his pocket pairs pre and we block Ax.
so basicaclly if he isnt a reg id mostly put him on broadway float like K9 i.e. but would still blast on the turn regardless
Hope this somewhat helps and Good Luck! :/

 

[eetenor]

There are 4 players left in this single table no limit tourney. I picked up AA and opened with a bet of 2.25bb. I've never played with the villain (BB) before. The flop cam all low cards and the villain lead out with a 40% bet. I figured he has a medium strength pocket pair or something like K7 (top pair with a good kicker). Flop was pretty benign. I could have raised, but I wanted to hide the strength of my hand. The turn came and strengthened by hand- I now have a set of aces. If the villain has a hand like A4 or A5 then he has top pair and a straight draw. I actually did not like the Ace because he is going to be fearful I have it and will only put more money in the pot if he improves (if he makes a straight or two pair). I was debating betting, but I checked.

What is the best move here? The more I play the less often I try to extract money and simply bet hard when I make these hands, and I'm regretting not doing so here.

PokerStars, $18.50 + $1.50 - Hold'em No Limit - 75/150 - 4 players
https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/425cbq8Us[/COLOR]]Replay this hand on CardsChat

runningqueens (UTG): 3,315 (22 bb)
RareAir1223 (BU): 2,549 (17 bb)
branch888 (SB): 976 (7 bb)
Pokerwrit202 (BB): 2,160 (14 bb)

Pre-Flop: (225) Hero (runningqueens) is UTG with A♠ A♦
runningqueens (UTG) raises to 339, 2 players fold, Pokerwrit202 (BB) calls 189

Flop: (753) 7♦ 3♠ 2♥ (2 players)
Pokerwrit202 (BB) bets 300, runningqueens (UTG) calls 300

Turn: (1,353) A♣ (2 players)
Pokerwrit202 (BB) checks, runningqueens (UTG) checks

River: (1,353) 5♦ (2 players)
Pokerwrit202 (BB) bets 450, runningqueens (UTG) calls 450

Total pot: 2,253

Showdown:
Pokerwrit202 (BB) shows 4♠ 4♣ (a straight, Ace to Five)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 18%, Flop: 10%, Turn: 9%, River: 100%)

runningqueens (UTG) shows A♠ A♦ (three of a kind, Aces)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 82%, Flop: 90%, Turn: 91%, River: 0%)

Pokerwrit202 (BB) wins 2,253

I think there are some factors in this hand that you did not consider to effect your play

The first factor is stack sizes and ICM-You are playing 14bb eff in this hand but there is a 7 bb stack to think about as well as you having the biggest stack

The pot on the flop is 5bb the V bets 2bb the pot is now 7 bb almost 30% of our starting stack in an ICM spot-we are fine if our V folds on the flop ICM wise so no need to slow play why give our V the opportunity to hit their outs.

Turn we now make a strong but not nut hand 45 is the nuts and our V can have draws as we found out- ICM wise we are never checking this back- Why? This very outcome- we were chip leader and now we are in third place.

Second factor why are we assuming our V is folding if we raise flop? Why assume they are folding turn if we bet?
They have 10bb left on the flop when we call the pot is 9bb why are we not thinking of shoving a balanced range on this flop instead of slow playing 1 pair?

 

[PokerHunter21]

I have to agree with some of the comments on here, raise or jam pre-flop, depending on the individuals style of play. Bet the flop, and jam the turn, although there was no flush draw out there, it has to make you think what his range is given that there are only 4 players left, its easy for most people to call with an A X or K X depending on their play style. It's likely they would have a low card with an A or K or any middle pair they would usually jam with or low pair as 4s is a call. I would be interested to see the hand in play and their playing style sand stats.