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View Full Version : Top Two Pair Example.... Advice?


UconnMike
10-31-2004, 04:02 PM
I recently played in $1/$2 No-Limit game at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, and came to a tough decision. I was under the gun with AK of diamonds, with about $300 in front of me. To the left of me was a calling station who had accumulated about $1500, and to the left of him was good, semi-agressive player, also with a large stack. I raised the pot to $20 before the flop, and the calling station of course called, as did the good player, with the rest of the table folding. I'm a fairly tight player, so I expected the good/agressive player to respect my raise and have something (perhaps 10s, Js, AQ, AJ, maybe KQs), but nothing better because he had frequently re-raised with premium hands. The flop came A,K,Q all spades. I didn't expect a flush possiblity because the top 3 spades were already on the board, and J-10 would have a somewhat loose call before the flop (at least for the good player). So, I bet out $60, and the calling station folded. The good player raised me all-in for my remaining $200. A few hands prior to this one, he had gone all in with another player on a flush draw and hit on the river, so I was figuring for perhaps a pair of Js with the spade draw. I decided to call him, and much to my dismay, he flipped over two bullets. Was this a bad call? I'd love to hear some input.

Masquerade
10-31-2004, 04:05 PM
Of course you call. You just walked into a monster.

Cooker
10-31-2004, 05:20 PM
I didn't have a read on this player like you did, but in my experience most people will just call this raise preflop with AA and KK, and fold many of the hands you suggested. Whenever an aggressive player just calls a fairly sizable (compared to the blinds) raise preflop, I immediately think AA or KK.
I agree that you can pretty much rule out AK or QQ, which he would probably reraise with. I think some other reasonable hands he might have would be AQ or JJ I don't know about the rest of the hands you put forward as those would seem to be some pretty loose calls, but like I said, I don't know what this guy is playing.

Only against AQ or JJ without the /images/graemlins/spade.gif are you in good shape. If he has the hand you suspect, you are a 1.18 to 1 dog at the flop, but you have the pot odds to call (I have $60 in preflop plus your $60 plus his $200 = 320 to 200 which is 1.6 to 1 pot odds). However, couple in my opinion that he could easily have AA or KK, and I think it is a pretty marginal call. Still in the heat of battle, it is a hard hand to get away from.