Let the LAGs bet your hand for you ...

[DiceyPlay]

I'm playing 4/8 in a very loose aggressive game. Pots are being capped with 86o with 7 people seeing the flop. This has been going on for quite a while. Every pot is over 20 big bets. But there are only about 3 asian guys doing all the pushing. The others don't really seem to know how to handle it, but they do know it's a live table and they are liking it. I decide raising won't get any players out, so I decide to just call with any hand I'm going to play - NOBODY will put me on a hand no matter what. So I'm dealt KK. It's capped pf with 6 opponents. It's capped on the flop with 5 opponents. I raise the turn with my overpair. I win a nice pot against 3 callers on the river. I'm almost even!

A few hands later I'm dealt AA. I play it the same. It's capped pf with 7 players (28 small bets). Flop comes A66. I sit there all smug and dismayed at how bad the poker gods are treating me and just call the 3-bet on the flop. The turn is a 6. I know I'm screwed now. The guy on my immediate left, a descent player but on tilt, had J6o. He takes down a 40 big bet pot.

I'm not sure what my question is here ... is there anything I could have done to win the pot? He was an ok player and I know he respected my play. Had I 3-bet pre-flop forcing him to call 2 bets pre-flop may be he would have folded. But he was tilting and he had to have known that pot was going to be capped pre-flop regardless. I think he's calling no matter what given his tilt status. I don't know. Any advice would be appreciated. May be I shouldn't play my monster starting hands passive like that when every pot is capped anyways? Should I show the strength when all it's going to do is give my hand away to those who are observing. I guess so??

Thanks,

-DP

[Grease]

I don't like to let anyone else do my betting for me. I dunno if you can force him out if he's on tilt. I wouldn't take the chance and I'd 3 bet a bunch of LAGs who will cap regardless of their holdings in a heartbeat.

[Nick C]

I think that with AA and KK you don't really mind the extra players in. You'll win fewer pots, but all the extra money going in will make up for this in the long run (and, if your hand holds up, can pay off quite well in the short run).

At a table like the one you describe, I don't think it matters all that much what you do preflop. It sounds like whether you call or raise, it's going to get capped and everyone will be in anyway.

Your story reminds me of a live $3/6 table I was at where one player was on one of his preflop raising spurts and, during this orbit, anyway, would habitually raise with anything. I limped UTG with KQs, setting up what was probably a pointlessly fancy limp-reraise. (Chances are, the pot would've been capped anyway, with the same number of players in, if I'd just raised to begin with.) A bunch of limpers followed, and then the preflop maniac raised. It came back to me with eight people in and I made it three bets. It was capped by the preflop maniac, and we went to the flop for 32 SB.

I missed my nut flush draw and check-folded the river (which was capped, like every other street, though that didn't seem so maniacal once I saw the showdown). The preflop capper showed 23o for the flopped straight. He chopped with the player to his left, who had 23s.

After the hand, the other player who saw the showdown (who had flopped a set of aces) took some grief from his friend for not raising preflop. The friend argued the player with AA could have won if he had raised preflop.

But I'm pretty sure that's not true.