AQs in the SB - Party 15/30

[WillMagic]

The button in this hand is someone I consider a strong player - tight/aggressive.

Party Poker 15/30 Hold'em (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A/images/graemlins/heart.gif, Q/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button raises, Hero calls, BB folds, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (9 SB) 7/images/graemlins/club.gif, K/images/graemlins/heart.gif, Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(4 players)</font>
Hero checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, Button bets, Hero raises, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, Button calls.

Turn: (6.50 BB) T/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero bets, Button calls.

River: (8.50 BB) 4/images/graemlins/diamond.gif <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 10.50 BB
<font color="green">Main Pot: 10.50 BB, between Button and Hero.</font>

Do you play this differently?

Will

[nepenthe]

Yes, I would bet the river. I like the flop checkraise.

[NabO]

Even if you had won that pot leading this way against a very probable AK will cost a tone of money in the long run..

[DcifrThs]

this is an interesting spot...

what do you put the button on after he calls your c-r and calls the turn? AK? why didn't he raise the turn? AQ? quite possible. what does the button think of you? does he know you respect his play? are those questions possible to answer?

i think we can rule out JJ unless you misjudged his ability. AQ, AJs (even AJo if he has reads on early limpers) are possibilities. in fact, if i were the button, i'd play AdJd the same way (raising the turn sometimes though). AK i think is out b/c he should raise the turn with it unless its the AKd...but even then he should still raise the turn.

KK and QQ (more likely KK, or AA) are all possible, but if i were him i'd 3 bet the flop OR raise the turn but not call both!! i think it looks EXACTLY like AdJd with a turned straight rivered flush. (if it was me again though i think i'd still raise the turn w/ the straight b/c there may be river cards that scare you into checking).

if you really respected his raises and his play the river is a 100% crying call after he calls your c-r and then the turn and bets the river after it looks 100% like you will call...in fact i'd venture to say that if you won this hand it would be VERY VERY rare. but then again, a split seems possible as well...

interesting post, got me thinking.

PS- you may want to consider building a nice pot preflop and reraise this good holding from the sb. if the flop comes the same way i'd bet out, call the button's raise and check fold the turn.

-Barron

[WillMagic]

I'm glad you found this hand interesting.

First off, I really don't know what he thinks of me. He probably thinks I'm decent.

After he calls the turn, you are right, I'm really running out of hands to put him on that I can beat. I guess all I can really hope for is that he has something like QJs or JTs, and that he raised with position as strong players will do. JJ is also possible. But once he called the turn, I thought I was beat much more than half the time, and he wasn't going to fold a better hand on the river, so it was time to go into check/call mode.
In regard to reraising preflop - I don't like it because it puts me in the position of leading out into a huge field in a huge pot. Just calling puts me in a lot better position to check-raise the flop and knock out middle pair and gutshots. I think it's close, but I think just calling is a better plan.

Also, I think the flop-checkraise is definitely the right play. He's going to bet a lot of hands there...AJ, JJ, TT, ATs, and QJs and JTs. And he's going to call a check-raise with a lot of those hands too. But then, if I have him beat, he's going to fold the turn.

I wonder if check-folding the river is right. I mean, this guy is a strong player. He's not going to bluff at this on the river...he knows that I'm checking the river with the intention of calling a bet. So he's just not going to bet without at least top pair - he'll always check behind with anything less. So maybe I can save a bet and fold, even though this is a dangerous habit to get into.

Enough suspense. He had AK and took it down.

Will

[DcifrThs]

he played his hand very poorly on the turn IMO. the Td brings a lot of draws up that would and could c-r the flop. NOT raising the turn with AK here against a possible semibluff that WILL CALL your raise is a pretty big mistake imo....but on the other hand, raising when the opponent is drawing thin or dead will usually cost a bet if your call will elicit a bluff catching call on the river. the reason it was particularly intersting was because of the sequence of events and possible holdings and how the way in which a good player would play those holdings is so sensitive to information and ability in this exact hand.

hope that last part makes sense...theres a chance it dont though lol

-Barron

[1800GAMBLER]

He played the hand poorly but that's the only reason hand i think he'll have the majority of the time. Even 99 drops eventually. I don't like the flop play.

[Ulysses]

Pre-flop and flop are debateable, depends on a lot of things. I 3-bet pre-flop, though. But I don't really want to talk about those streets.

The river. Check-call. Yuck. Betting is so far superior than check-calling, for precisely the reasons you stated in your results. You need to think this one through. Very basic stuff.

After this river play, elysium would probably take you off of AQs and restrict you to AK/AA/KK/QQ for a while.