AK 1st round, A on flop

[texasrattlers]

Took a stab at the Stars $20. 1st round, roughly equal stacks.

Hero on button dealt

A/images/graemlins/heart.gif K/images/graemlins/club.gif

MP raises to 40, Hero re-raise to 140, all fold except MP who calls.

Flop

A/images/graemlins/diamond.gif 9/images/graemlins/diamond.gif T/images/graemlins/club.gif

MP checks, Hero bets 300, MP calls.

Turn

2/images/graemlins/spade.gif

MP checks, Hero all in, MP calls.

River

5/images/graemlins/spade.gif

[texasrattlers]

Shameless bump. Super standard or ludicrously leaky?

[Jman28]

I'm not sure what the blinds are at stars, but this looks super standard to me. Don't sweat it.

-Jman28

[texasrattlers]

Thanks for the response. I forgot to mention starting chips at Stars is 1500 and blinds increase about 50% slower than Party.

[Byrn]

Did you end up losing to two pair? I'm guessing you wouldn't be asking if you won. The play itself is standard, though I find hands like AK tricky in the early rounds. So many people play Ax, you could be up against 2 pair, and you can't really raise enough to make the pot heads up without overbetting the pot. In your case though since there was already a raise you could isolate the raiser.

I'm sure many would think I am incorrect, but I have lately gone into check-call with TPTK in the first round or two on stars - I don't want to lose too many chips in the first round to something like 2 pair. I haven't been raising AK before the flop either - it just keeps my postflop play simpler, hit or fold. I play 15+1 and 25+2 though, I'm sure at higher levels you would have to be more aggressive.

[partygirluk]

You have to keep firing on this flop.

[Scorpion Man]

I disagree with the bet on the turn. You have shown appropriate aggression preflop and made a flush or straight draw a dicey call on the flop. Your opponent has to know that AK is a strong possibility.
You have made a pot sized bet on the flop to discourage flush draws and been smooth called.

To me, the main value in going all in on the turn is to shut out a flush draw and some small chance of a hand like a stubborn KK getting lucky on a longshot. Other possible hands you could be trying to laydown would be QJs or 87s.

(2) Particularly this early in a game, where I assume you dont have a great read on your opponent, I think the benefit of avoiding those draws is swamped by the fact that you are likely to be called only if you are beaten (most likely) or by a small subset of very live draws. And if you are beaten (particularly if its Ax 2 pair or trips) you have few outs.

I check the turn because I still have 1000 chips here, enough to keep playing. I cannot really bet enough to have any confidence i can get him to lay down even a draw without effectively committing my entire SNG to this hand. Its not that kind of hand.

At the risk of getting flamed I will add one more thought here regarding which I feel less confident than these first thoughts.

A hand like Q /images/graemlins/diamond.gifJ /images/graemlins/diamond.gif, despite being a 2 to 1 underdog, will often (because this is a low limit and its pretty) call you anyway (and will be getting about appropriate odds at 2 to 1). While you are ahead here, I am not sure I want a 1 in 3 chance to be out this early if I think I am one of the better players in the game. I would rather give them that shot and have a 2 out of 3 chance of winning the pot anyway(because they will check if they miss).

[texasrattlers]

Result:

Villain had pocket 9s, and flopped the set.

His min-raise PF made me discount pocket pairs, since I expect a limp w/ low-mid PPs. I wonder if a min-raise is a good way to disguise pocket pairs, or are they already disguised enough?

[Paragon]

Drat, I didn't get to make my guess. At first I thought of small set, then looked at the flop cards and thought it would be suspicious to limp 9's or T's. However, smooth calling a fat pot bet on the flop really worries me and gets my paranoia thinking in that direction. I think if he had two pair he would have check raised allin on the flop (at least I find two pair quite vulnerable). The call is usually a poor play or a trap.

However, I don't really have a nice solution for this hand unless you can make a tough fold. At Party, it's a disaster, and after a similar flop bet you'd essentially be committed. Maybe here you can get away with a 2/3 pot bet and still afford to bet the turn and make a decision after a checkraise allin? Usually, I find that at this buyin opponents quickly surrender to an ace flop if they cannot beat TP. However, I overbet so much on Party level 1 blinds that I give a horrible price for people to call with small pairs. I'll be interested to read what people suggest to avoid this with deeper stacks.