1/2 NL Foxwoods hand - deep stacks baffle me

[schwza]

1/2 blinds at Foxwoods, max buy-in is $100. the primary villain in this hand have about the same amount, roughly $450. i play 99% of my NLHE at Party, so playing deep stacks is totally foreign to me.

the villain is a maniac pre-flop. i've seen him raise to 20 or so (10x BB) with such powerhouses as T3o and 74o. it's more common that he's shown down mediocre hands such as KJo or 55 after one of these big PFR. post-flop i would describe him as loose and bluff-y, but not as terrible as he is pre-flop. on to the hand...

I have A /images/graemlins/spade.gif Q /images/graemlins/diamond.gif in the SB.

folded to maniac in MP, who opens for 13. it's folded to me, and i make it 30. <font color="green"> i think this was my first mistake. i should have made it 35 or 40 to go, as he probably would have called that much with any raising hand anyway. and even if he had folded, that would have been pretty good too. </font> he calls.

flop: 2 players, 63 in pot. A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 8 /images/graemlins/club.gif.

a good flop for me. i think there's a decent chance he's splashing around with A9-AJ. i check, planning on check-raising. i thought there was a good chance he would bet a hand like KQo here, and i wanted to give him that opportunity. i also figured that if it got checked around and a straight card didn't come, that'd be good since it would help keep the pot small. of course, if a 9 or 6 had hit, i might have vomited.

he bets 30 into the pot of 63.

i make it 75 to go. <font color="green"> i think once again i raised too small. a pot-sized raise would have been to 153, so my bet was.... not close. </font>

he reraises me 50 more, making it 125 total. i seriously considered folding here. this looks a lot like a call-me raise, which is pretty scary. but i thought there was a decent chance that his pre-flop maniac-ness had spilled over to his post-flop. i called.

turn: 313 in the pot. we both have about 290 left behind here. 8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif (A /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 7 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 8 /images/graemlins/club.gif)

i think there's some chance he's on a straight draw, and he may have picked up a flush draw as well. there's also some chance that he just spiked another 8 to go with his J8 or whatever. i had a really hard time putting him on a hand, but i was pretty sure that giving a free card could be bad.

i bet 120 into the pot of 313. my thinking was that i didn't want to scare out a hand like TT or Ax (A7 seemed pretty possible), because i thought this guy would call a smallish bet with either hand. i was planning on calling a push, or check-calling the river (i thought he would make a desperation push on the river if he didn't make a hand). as it turned out, he mucked.

as i was leaving, we chatted about the hand - i told him what i had and he said he had nothing.

i feel like this is a difficult hand to analyze because so much of it is player-dependent. there are very few opponents i would 3-bet from the SB with AQo. and against most players i would fold to the 3-bet on the flop. but given the scant information i've provided, i'd still love feedback, especially on stuff relating to playing deep stacks. thanks.

[Wayfare]

I think the big problem with the logic in this post is that you made a reraise out of position with AQ. If you had that good of a read I guess you can do it, but how do you know this guy isn't going to go to the felt with AK or flop his two pair. If you are going to play it like AK, bet it like AK and make a larger raise preflop as you said. However, I would have called and checkraised the flop, probably taking it down right there. I don't think out of position AQ with deeper stacks is a good place to be playing at ALL.

BTW I like the flop check raise but it has to be more. And yes, you do have to fold to the reraise against any decent opponent.

[PokerFink]

Considering that this guy is a maniac, I like you're play. Since you re-raised out of position, he is probably putting you on high PP, and maybe figured you were bluffing the ace too on the flop, which is why he re-raised.

A very read-dependent hand, but you obviously played you're opponent well. Nicely done.

[Garland]

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i play 99% of my NLHE at Party, so playing deep stacks is totally foreign to me.

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If you've played any extended period of time of NL at Party you should have a few sessions of deep stacks with other players.

You're betting and raising too little.

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folded to maniac in MP, who opens for 13. it's folded to me, and i make it 30

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Make it 40-45.

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he bets 30 into the pot of 63.

i make it 75 to go.

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Again, your reraise garners little respect unless you're trying to induce a bluff reraise. I would make it at least 90 with the intent on pushing right there.

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he reraises me 50 more, making it 125 total. i seriously considered folding here.

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Folding? BOOOO.

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i called.

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Don't call out of position and let him bluff you out on the turn on a scare card. I'd reraise all-in here expecting him to fold.

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i bet 120 into the pot of 313

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Way too little. This will even give odds if he has a piece of it w/ a draw or both a straight and flush draw. I'd push in your spot since you didn't do it on the flop. The only way I'd make this bet is to try to induce an all-in bluff if you think he senses weakness, which I would beat him into the pot with.

Garland

[schwza]

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i called.

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Don't call out of position and let him bluff you out on the turn on a scare card. I'd reraise all-in here expecting him to fold.

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i bet 120 into the pot of 313

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Way too little. This will even give odds if he has a piece of it w/ a draw or both a straight and flush draw. I'd push in your spot since you didn't do it on the flop. The only way I'd make this bet is to try to induce an all-in bluff if you think he senses weakness, which I would beat him into the pot with.

Garland

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garland,

thanks for the analysis. i considered a push on the flop, but i was worried that i'd be letting him make an easy (and correct) play. i think it's unclear whether he'd fold AK (i'd guess no) and would call with 87 or better. but i thought it would fold out AJ or AT with decent certainty and anything below it almost definitely.

i definitely was not making the small bet on the turn with the hopes of inducing an all-in bluff raise - my sense was that this was an inexperienced player who had stumbled onto a big stack and was thrilled to have it, and wasn't gutsy enough to risk it all on a bluff. i was hoping he'd call with a worse hand. you're right though - i was giving proper odds to a flush or straight draw (assuming some modest level of implied odds), which is pretty atrocious.

i've played a decent chunk of NLHE at party (~200 hours) but players move in and out so much more rapidly there than at the casino that it's relatively rare that i wind up playing in a deep stack confrontation.

i posted this question in a seperate post, but i'll throw it out here too: if i wanted to start playing NL with 100BB stacks, what site do you recommend?

[Garland]

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i posted this question in a seperate post, but i'll throw it out here too: if i wanted to start playing NL with 100BB stacks, what site do you recommend?

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I definitely recommend Ultimate Bet. They have nice $0.25/$0.50, $50 max and $0.50/$1, $100 max games. Plenty of bad players swimming around there.

I've never played beyond the microlimits NL at PokerStars, but if you want to improve your game against better players, I think that's the place to go.

Garland

[PokerFink]

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I've never played beyond the microlimits NL at PokerStars, but if you want to improve your game against better players, I think that's the place to go.

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Garland, is stars known for having better NL players in the medium limits? I'm planning on playing 1-2 blinds at stars, and from watching a bit of it, it seemed like the kind of game I would expect from party, only less limping.