Check-raising the flop with Ace-high

[uw_madtown]

BB is a fishy LPP (39 VPIP, 0 PFR, 0.18 AF) after 28 hands.
MP is a fishy LPP (44 VPIP, 1 PFR, 0.85 AF) after 161 hands.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

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

Flop: (3 SB) 3/images/graemlins/club.gif, 6/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
Hero checks, BB checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP2 bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>...



Reckless? My line of thought here is that if reraised, I can call and check-fold the turn unimproved. However, with a 6-high, paired, rainbow board, my AJ is probably good here. Betting out on the flop and turn, if I'm ahead, isn't going to fold out fishies -- they're gonna see all five cards for one bet per street. A check-raise, though, might scare them into folding the turn.

Bad line, or good line? I'm not sure.

[Entity]

I think you're too good to not raise this preflop here.

In a small pot, this is an awfully expensive way to find out he has 77 and isn't folding, or that he has A3s and definitely isn't folding. I don't mind it so much but you're risking 2 to win 4, so you've got to be correct damned often, and a turn bet has got to take it down a lot as well.

Rob

[uw_madtown]

Go report your hands, weakie. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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I think you're too good to not raise this preflop here.

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Yeh. Good point. If there's another limper, do you just complete? Playing AJo from the blinds (hell, from anywhere) is not my strong suit.

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In a small pot, this is an awfully expensive way to find out he has 77 and isn't folding, or that he has A3s and definitely isn't folding. I don't mind it so much but you're risking 2 to win 4, so you've got to be correct damned often, and a turn bet has got to take it down a lot as well.

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I'd say this play was pretty read-dependent. If either of them were remotely non-fishy, I'd play it a little closer to the vest. Against average players, what would you do? Check-call the flop and turn, check-fold the river unimproved? That's 3 SBs total. I'd imagine an overpair or a 3 would reraise me and I could check-fold the turn.

[27offsooot]

with two loose limpers, value raise AJo. It's a tough hand to play but with two loose players, they'll likely pay your top pair off. If there were any tight limpers, then just complete. With that high of VPIP for both, despite the small sample size, K3/ A3/ K6/ A6 (it would really suck to be reverse dominated here) are very reasonable hands and i would tend to fold the flop if u just completed in the sb. They could have an overpair or a 6 and they're calling u all the way. Wait for a better spot to make them pay. I'm slowly beginning to learn not to get fancy in small pots myself, especially with loose players.

[Redeye]

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Yeh. Good point. If there's another limper, do you just complete? Playing AJo from the blinds (hell, from anywhere) is not my strong suit.


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I'd still raise this if there was another limper. After raising PF I would've come out firing because its 3 way. I would keep firing on the turn also. With this board its somewhat unlikely that anyone hit and your likely to have the best hand. These guys are fishy enough for these to be value bets a fair amount of time I think.

Also, If I have 1 late position limper, I'd raise all sorts of stuff in the SB or BB in this instance. Probably down to A8o, KTo, QTo, 55's or 66s and above. Suitedness shouldn't matter too much here and you probably have the best hand a large majority of the time.

[Derek in NYC]

As others have said, raise this preflop. Had you raised it preflop, you would have stood a much better chance of: (1) folding the big blind and getting heads up, and (2) autobetting on the flop to win the pot. If you are hesitating raising AJo against a 2 person field, simply because you dont like your post-flop position, you still have a weak-tight mentality and should re-evaluate whether you are generally raising enough preflop.

On the flop the checkraise does nothing. You have charged yourself two SBs to try and bluff a three SB pot. Just bet it out. Unlikely the MP player likes the flop. The BB player will either love it or hate it. A flop bet, as opposed to a checkraise, will do a lot to define your hand, as callers are unlikely unless they either got a piece of it, or they have a middle overpair. In which case you check-fold the turn unless you spike an ace or jack.

The double paired board is not a concern to the other players, because the checkraise in the small pot just smells like BS. If you really had trips, you would have waited until the turn to bet out.