$.25 NLHE MTT: AK played correctly or was I bluffed off?

[tzuriel]

Hand History driven straight to this forum with DriveHUD Poker HUD and Database Software

Villain is a consistent winning player on sharkscope. Certainly capable of bluffing though I haven't seen him lose with a bluff.

Action made this feel like an overpair and all I have here is bluff catcher

NL Holdem $0.25+$0.02 (160.00BB)
BTN ($19813)
HERO ($23912)
BB ($18258)
UTG ($19968)
HJ ($72637)
CO ($19732)

Dealt to Hero: A♣ K♥

UTG Raises To $548, HJ Folds, CO Folds, BTN Folds, HERO Raises To $1960, BB Folds, UTG Calls $1412

Hero SPR on Flop: [4.35 effective]
Flop ($4144): 7♣ 7♥ 5♦
HERO Checks, UTG Checks

Turn ($4144): 7♣ 7♥ 5♦ J♠
HERO Checks, UTG Bets $3108 (Rem. Stack: $14900), HERO Calls $3108 (Rem. Stack: $18844)

River ($10360): 7♣ 7♥ 5♦ J♠ 5♠
HERO Checks, UTG Bets $10360 (Rem. Stack: $4540), HERO Folds

Spoiler

UTG wins: $10360

 

[300HPGOD]

Pre flop is good imo so Ill skip to the flop. Im not sure why you would check there. Would you ever check there if you had a big pocket pair? My guess would be no and villain is probably thinking the same so if they are a thinking player and they see you check that flop they can with high likelihood put you on AK or AQ. I think a bet is best there. It shouldnt be a large bet but something that will make 88-1010 question their hand strength for the rest of the streets. If you get a fold from a worse hand then you are fine with it because you only have ace high at the moment.

On the turn as played I think you need to bet for the same reasons you should have bet on the flop. If you check now, which I dont think you would do with premium hands, you look weak and invite villain to try and take it. When you do that you have a a dilemma because you cant range your opponent now. They could easily have a decent hand since they did open from UTG or they could be bluffing because you checked twice. This is the point in the hand if I got this point in this way I would fold and say I misplayed it and move on. If I got bluffed then I did but when you call here you are in no mans land on every river that is not an Ace or a king.

The river pairs the board which gives our ace high some value but not significant value. When villain fires this bet I would fold but like I said I would fold the turn as played.

C betting is a must in certain hands and I think this is one of them. We want to paint the picture that we have a strong hand, have some fold equity and also at least if our bet is called we pick up some information. Checking the flop put us in a spot where we dont know where we are in this one. Much better to keep the lead in the hand and get some folds not to mention some extra value should our hand come in on later streets.

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
3-betting AK is obviously fine, and sizing looks good as well.

Flop
775 rainbow is basically a flop, which noone has connected with the vast majority of the time in a 3-bet pot. This should give you the range advantage, and I think, a solver might want you to bet small here with your entire range. And most of the time this is also, what I would do with AK.

With that being said betting AK on 775 is not the greatest thing in the world. You are never getting a better hand to fold, and you are not getting many worse hands to call either. So Villain play pretty well against a bet, and its one of those, where we mostly bet for "other reasons". Denying some equity and getting to see at least the turn.

So I would not classify the check as a mistake. If Villain checks back, you are totally happy to take a free card, and if he bets small, you can mostly look to call. The main issue is, that if you always bet your overpairs and check all your broadways, then your range is very face up, and you become to easy to play against. So I would at least bet here some percentage of the time and then also sometimes check a strong overpair like AA or KK, which is unlikely to get drawn out on, and where you actually want your opponent to catch up by pairing on a card like the J.

Turn
When Villain check back the flop, we can also remove most pocket pairs from his range, since hands like 88-JJ would not want to give a free card here. Occationally he could have trips or a flopped boat, that he decided to slowplay. But mostly his range is going to be hands, that missed the flop, just like we did. If we bet, he is not going to fold a J, and those hands, he fold, we already beat. For that reason I prefer to check-call, but when he bet this large, I might just let it go.

River
River dubble pair the board, and now he really bomb it with a full pot sized bet. You have played your hand in a way, which is very face up, so if he can hand read, he should use a much smaller sizing for value and try to get called by a hand like AK or AQ. Whereas this huge sizing should only be used, if he wants you to fold.

It is a 25c tournament though, so its certainly also possible, that the guy is just really exited about making a full house, and he is not even thinking about your range. Its also bad, that you chop with other AX hands, so if he has a hand like AT, you will only win half the pot. So all in all I do lean towards a fold, but I would not consider calling to be totally crazy against the right type of opponent.

 

[jaworek1405]

Hello, I play this hand similar to hero. If I good see hero is on the small blind. 3 bet pre flop is fine. On the flop we have two options. First option we can play cbet, but it is very risky move, because if opponent has over pair he often will raise on the flop and we will have harder decision. Second hand on the flop we have 6 over cards to hit one pair or second pair on the turn or one the river. It is about 24% to hit an ace or a king. I prefer playing this hand passively, because we are OOP. Playing check/call: on the flop, on the turn and on the river, but it has to be fast decisions. If we make fast decisions, opponent see us that we are very confident and he afraid us. GL

 

[eetenor]

Hello,
On the flop we have two options. First option we can play cbet, but it is very risky move, because if opponent has over pair he often will raise on the flop and we will have
harder decision.

It is about 24% to hit an ace or a king. I prefer playing this hand passively, because we are OOP. GL

Thank you for posting


harder decision.

At this buy-in level we actually make our decisions harder by checking because we let our Villains bluff with more confidence that we are weak and may fold. Thus helping our V play better.

By betting small and folding to a raise at this stake level our decision tree becomes very clear as few V bluff in spots like this and if this is one of the 5% of players with skill at this level we got bluffed so be it.

You state
I prefer playing this hand passively.

If we were to play with 100% aggression at this stake level but fold when V's played back at us we would be making no errors. Choosing to make an aggressive action which is betting in this spot 25% pot is the best choice as 300hp stated.
At this stake level a bet of 40% might be required as your V may not see anything smaller as you betting AA so we cannot bluff that smaller sizing.

We only ever play passively when our hand is so strong and our V's range so weak versus that hand that they cannot even call a 1bb bet but might runner runner stack off.

If however you still want to play passively the best action on the turn is to check fold not call. The V at this level will hit that J often and we may be drawing to only an ace so we stack protect and fold the turn in a tournament.

Hope this helps

 

[fundiver199]

If however you still want to play passively the best action on the turn is to check fold not call.

Its also worth considering, what the Villain can be bluffing with on this board? Only some gutshot draws developed on the turn, and if he flopped a draw with 86 or 64 and wanted to play it aggressively, then why postpone his aggression to the turn? This line and sizing really looks like, he hit the J, or maybe he smashed the flop with trips or a boat and slowplayed it, because he wanted to allow Hero to catch up. So yeah. Looking at it again I would definitely just check-fold the turn as played. We took an aggressive action preflop, it did not work, on the turn we are still stuck with A high and no draw, and our opponent now bomb the pot. Time to cut our losses and move on to the next hand.

 

[Lucky_Shark]

I like 3bet preflop. But I would like to bet 1/3 pot. But on your draw line, you can split the turn and give up the river for potbet. So they will play AJs, JJ+. A hand like TT will want to play a check-behindhand.

 

[Bnobob]

The Big Game

an easy play post flop easy play for villain knowing you checked the flop he just needed to be consistent in the no-win post flip hero play

 

[theANMATOR]

Pre flop is good imo so Ill skip to the flop. Im not sure why you would check there. Would you ever check there if you had a big pocket pair? My guess would be no and villain is probably thinking the same so if they are a thinking player and they see you check that flop they can with high likelihood put you on AK or AQ. I think a bet is best there. It shouldnt be a large bet but something that will make 88-1010 question their hand strength for the rest of the streets. If you get a fold from a worse hand then you are fine with it because you only have ace high at the moment.

On the turn as played I think you need to bet for the same reasons you should have bet on the flop. If you check now, which I dont think you would do with premium hands, you look weak and invite villain to try and take it. When you do that you have a a dilemma because you cant range your opponent now. They could easily have a decent hand since they did open from UTG or they could be bluffing because you checked twice. This is the point in the hand if I got this point in this way I would fold and say I misplayed it and move on. If I got bluffed then I did but when you call here you are in no mans land on every river that is not an Ace or a king.

The river pairs the board which gives our ace high some value but not significant value. When villain fires this bet I would fold but like I said I would fold the turn as played.

C betting is a must in certain hands and I think this is one of them. We want to paint the picture that we have a strong hand, have some fold equity and also at least if our bet is called we pick up some information. Checking the flop put us in a spot where we dont know where we are in this one. Much better to keep the lead in the hand and get some folds not to mention some extra value should our hand come in on later streets.

Following your line - of repping those premium hands which you do not have - what would you do on the river? I'm guessing something along the lines of 50/50 depending upon the opponent and other factors, plus RnG - you are either check-folding or 3 barreling?

Asking for a friend who encounters this situation about 20 times during a full day session.

 

[300HPGOD]

Following your line - of repping those premium hands which you do not have - what would you do on the river? I'm guessing something along the lines of 50/50 depending upon the opponent and other factors, plus RnG - you are either check-folding or 3 barreling?

Asking for a friend who encounters this situation about 20 times during a full day session.

Considering it was an UTG raise and that they called my bets both flop and turn I would definitely be checking the river. It would depend on sizing if I would call or fold river and that does not mean that small bets I call and big bets I fold. Its more like what I do I think of the sizing at the time. The larger bets here could lean more to bluffs while some small bets scream call me. Would just depend what I felt at the time but my default play would be to fold most of the time since again, we raised pre, barreled twice and villain has gone no where. Most of the time they have something they are not folding and that something beats our ace high.