LIve 3-6 kill AKs.

[cnfuzzd]

This was interesting. Live 3-6. Kill is on. Table was been somewhat tight, except in a couple of places.

A slightly weak-tight player posts the kill in MP. Blinds are calling stations, but tend to not defend that often without some sort of suited ace. My image is fairly tight, aggressive, and i have only showed down good cards.

2 folds to a horrible player. This guy is just bad. He limps for six. Kill posted checks. Folded to me in MP3 with A /images/graemlins/heart.gifK /images/graemlins/heart.gif. I raise. A somwhat tight button, who is more tricky than aggressive, and doesnt seem that skillfull 3 bets. folded to the limper, who calls. Kill poster folds. I cap. Both call. 3 to the flop for 12sb's.

7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif5 /images/graemlins/club.gif T /images/graemlins/club.gif.

bad player bets. I think, and call. This bet means he has at least a part of the flop. Tricky player raises. we both call. 3 to the turn for 9BB.

2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

Checked to the tricky player. who bets. Both call.

River. Blank.

we check. Tricky player bets, bad player calls, i fold before bad players chips hit the felt.

Thoughts?

[BottlesOf]

I'd raise the flop. I don't love the board or bet, but 13 bets is big enough. Let's raise and take the freebie.

[private joker]

Did you consider raising the flop to try and push out the tricky player, leaving you against the bad player and possibly getting a free card on the turn? If game conditions were such that this would have been impossible, then I like the play the rest of the way.

[cnfuzzd]

i did consider this. But, my thought was that the button had a high, but not premium pocket pair. Also, he was aggressive enough that as soon as i checked to him on the turn, he would probably have auto bet. Also, i suspected the bad player to have some sort of pair with an ace kicker, and thought i might be drawing thin, so i wanted the button around to pay me off if i could get a decent checkraise in.

How is this thought process? It seemed ok at the time, but when i thought about it, it seemed a little dubious.

peace

john nickle

[BottlesOf]

It's good that you're thinking about things in this way. It shows that you are considering when you want calls and when you don't. However, I think you may be makig too many assumptions about their likely holdings, and letting information that you don't have unduly influence your decision. It's just one hand, so myabe it's not a real issue, but try and keep your opponent's hands in ranges, rather than specifics.

[cnfuzzd]

I agree. This is why i didnt feel quite comfortable doing what i did. However, button shows JJ, and the bad player showed A7 of clubs. I read g00t.

peace

john nickle

[7ontheline]

Good read, but if you trust this read, shouldn't you have folded earlier? Your hand is reverse dominated now, so that only a K will save you.

[cnfuzzd]

i didnt want to specificly put the bad player on a pair with an ace kicker. I thought it might be likely, so therefore i felt calling would be the best. Also, im fairly certain that i was getting the odds to draw to my outs, and any gap that there might have been would have been made up by my implied odds. The bad player would call any bet or raise on the river, and i could at least checkraise the aggressive player, and there is a fairly decent chance even he would call that.

peace

john nickle

[cnfuzzd]

The turn was where i was most concerned about my play. if i am drawing to three outs, i am barely getting odds, and thats only if he doesnt have the club draw. So, you did discover the trouble spot.

Having thought about this some more though, i think that "trusting my read" to that extent would be a bad thing. Yes, i think i can reasonably say that his play is displaying the characteristics of a auited ace having hit a pair with his kicker. However, this player is bad, and could also have anything from a pair to a big ace to two random cards. Hell, he could have a 78s flush draw. His lack of skill widens his range of hands. Given this, i thought about the other player involved in the hand. Given his trickiness, i highly doubted that he would have AA or KK given that he probably would have simply cold-called thinking he was "trapping" us to a pot when he would have a high overpair. This meant he would likely have JJ,TT, or possibly QQ. Given his poor playin standards, I think we could reliably add an overlpayed AK or AQ to the mix. All of these hands are hands that i am drawing stronger against, and hands i can fold to on the river if i dont improve.

As an aside. The few times he wuold have AK and AQ are negated by the easy fold i would have if the bad player still bets out on a river blank. Im not worry about folding a winner here because i believe i can reliably interpret his play on the river. Of course, if a blank falls, and he checks, i am stuck making a big river decision, that i would probably choose to fold in.

Anywho, so i figured that at i was at least getting somewhere between 3.5 and 2.5 outs. (at the time, the number i came up with was some") Given the pot size, and implied odds, i thought the call was +ev. Automatically folding in this spot is a bad spot, no matter how stong the read.

Bragging ensues. I am extremely pleased with how this played out. I often find myself playing ABC or "instinctual" poker with no verbal thinking about my reasons. I did exactly that here. Go me. Im even more glad that i am at least somewhat correct.

Man, this anti challenge thing is difficult. Its a good thing im at a friends house whose computer likes to lose connection. Bad for poker, good for me not playing.

peace

john nickle