AA on monotone flop

[PoBoy321]

Pstars .5/1

Hero is dealt A /images/graemlins/club.gifA /images/graemlins/diamond.gif UTG

I raise to $5, one caller, villain in LP reraises to $16. One caller from the blinds is all-in, I call, MP player calls.

Flop come 973 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. Very dangerous flop for me, but I put villain on a big pair, probably KK since it's pretty unlikely that both of us have AA. If he has KK, he'll probably call with this flop, and he'll definitely call if he has the K /images/graemlins/spade.gif. If he has AA, he'll call, and I'll be looking about a split pot 70% of the time and lose 30%.

I push.

I hate my play.

[TheWorstPlayer]

Stack sizes?

[PoBoy321]

Myself and the villain have around $60. The blind player who was all-in had like $10, and we both had the MP caller covered.

[TheWorstPlayer]

There is already $36 in the pot when you are facing the re-raise of $11 and you have $55 left. Pushing preflop is just a pot sized raise. I think I would certainly have pushed. If everyone folds, I'm cool with just taking the $36 home.

Given that you didn't, however, you definitely can't give any free cards on that flop, so it is either check/fold which you certainly can't do, or push which I think you have to do. The pot is too big to make a smaller bet.

[soah]

Just push preflop. It's only a pot-size raise at this point. The pot is big and you're out of position against multiple opponents. This is not the time to slowplay. Preflop is the best chance for your opponents to make a big mistake against you.

[Biff M.]

I agree about the preflop part, although everyone won't fold cause one guy is all-in if you didn't notice. I think he has a fairly good chance of getting called by the other guy as well.

[BradleyT]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree about the preflop part, although everyone won't fold cause one guy is all-in if you didn't notice. I think he has a fairly good chance of getting called by the other guy as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what you want - they're making mistakes calling PF.

[TheWorstPlayer]

Well, I was assuming you would beat the all-in guy. And you obviously don't mind a caller preflop, going in with AA, even though it is almost certainly greater EV for you if they fold (except for the all-in guy of course).

[TheWorstPlayer]

Actually, even though they are making mistakes by calling, I'm pretty sure you want them to fold (although it is a big more complicated here because of the guy who is all-in). They are building the pot, and you have the greatest pot equity going into the flop, so that is good. However, despite your pot equity being the greatest going in, it is still diminished by additional callers and I am not sure that they are putting in enough cash to compensate you for that fact, in this case, although I am at work now and can't work out the numbers.

[soah]

They need to be getting 4:1 to break even with a pocket pair.

[TheWorstPlayer]

OK, so even if you had to choose between 2 callers and none, you should choose 2 callers?

[PoBoy321]

My thinking for not pushing pre-flop was that there was an MP caller between myself and the the reraiser, so I kinda wanted to sandwich him and get value from whatever hand it was that he had. I knew that I'd get called by the reraiser if I pushed, but I wanted MP's money in the pot.

On that flop, I obvioiusly didn't want to give any free cards and I could very easily have the best hand, but since I don't have the A /images/graemlins/spade.gif, AKs is a possibility, but I think that moving all-in is a nobrainer.

[PoBoy321]

I did push. MP dropped out and villain quickly called. Turn and river came low and red. Villain shows KK with the K /images/graemlins/spade.gif and MHIG.