Hard to believe I got another chance w/ AA

[PSW]

Tried to play it differently. Do I do better or not?

Thanks for looking.

Texas Hold'em $0.25-$0.50 NL (real money), At PokerRoom

UTG+2 seems willing to play with most any hand.

View Previous | Next hand for this table.

Seat 1: CO ($23.35 in chips)
Seat 2: Button ($67.05 in chips)
Seat 3: SB ($22.95 in chips)
Seat 4: BB ($24.80 in chips)
Seat 5: UTG ($33.90 in chips)
Seat 6: UTG+1 ($26.50 in chips)
Seat 7: UTG+2 ($12.25 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero (MP1) [AD,AC] ($27.25 in chips)
Seat 9: MP2 ($15.40 in chips)
Seat 10: MP3 ($25.90 in chips)

ANTES/BLINDS
SB posts blind ($0.10), BB posts blind ($0.25).

PRE-FLOP
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls $0.25, Hero (MP1) bets $1, MP2 folds, MP3 calls $1, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls $0.75, UTG+2 calls $0.75. ($3.85)

FLOP [board cards 9D,AH,7S ]
BB checks, UTG+2 checks, Hero (MP1) checks, MP3 checks.

TURN [board cards 9D,AH,7S,2C ]
BB checks, UTG+2 checks, Hero (MP1) checks, MP3 checks.

RIVER [board cards 9D,AH,7S,2C,6S ]
BB bets $3, UTG+2 folds, Hero (MP1) bets $6, MP3 folds, BB bets $6, Hero (MP1) bets $20.25 and is all-in, BB calls $14.80 and is all-in.

[Kaz The Original]

I raise more preflop and bet the flop. I save my slow playing for flopped boats, but others will tell you differently and I'm not sure they're wrong.

[Raiser]

Why did you check the flop and turn?

[amoeba]

at least bet the turn.

[PSW]

Well, my instint would be to bet the pot on the flop but doesn't that just scream AA/AK? I want someone to pay me off. Does betting half the pot get callers?

I was hoping that by checking the flop, I was saying that I had KK/QQ and that an Arag might start betting the turn.

$1 has been my standard raising amount for this session PF (almost always raised if I entered the pot). I didn't want to change that w/ AA.

Was limping w/ 9Ts and low pocket pairs.

[Los Feliz Slim]

I would've bet the pot on the turn, or a weak lead that you hope gets raised.

Also, have you been able to get the hand converter to work with Pokerroom or did you do this manually? I've tried and I'm stumped...

[Kaz The Original]

This has to be manually... no suits. Thanks for setting it up like this. You might wanna use the Instant Graemlins located below to make it a bit more readable.

[PSW]

I convert them manually. What a pain. The guy who runs the converter says it no longer works for Pokerroom and he hasn't had time to change/upgrade the converter.

[djoyce003]

I think you played it way to slow. You should have bet on the turn. The river action makes me nervous and makes me wonder if you let a guy spank you with a straight. My guess is that he went too far with 2 pair though. Definitely bet the turn.

[kurto]

This relates to the other thread about min-betting.

Since you were a preflop raiser... I think if you made a min-bet, you'd get called. To many of the good players, they see a min-bet as a sign of strength. But bad players min-bet is often a sign of weakness. Many people would fold to a real bet, but often will call a minbet thinking they're getting another card cheap (and since they think you're weak with your weak bet...).

You're near the end of the betting, you know on the flop if you check, there'll be no betting. I sometimes take the line that almost anyone will stay in a raised pot for a minbet. (and like I said... you've already decided to give them a free card, so clearly you're not worried about being outdrawn)

There was a debate by others if minbetting had any value, but I still argue that in a situation like this, you may have won 3-6 bets with a weak bet on the flop and turn.

(if you're going to slowplay... why not slowplay for small bets then for absolutely nothing.)

You risk having some people fold who may have hit a second best hand on the turn and/or river... but I think more often then not people don't want to fold for a weak bet.

I'll probably be yelled at for this post /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[TheWorstPlayer]

This is why you are going to get yelled at for your post:
Do you min-bet there when you miss the flop? Most likely not. So if you only min-bet when you hit then you are giving away WAY too much information against good players. Yes, he is probably not playing with good players. But still, min-betting is a very bad line. Just go out and make your normal bet on the flop. There are so many players in there that it is very likely one of them has hit that flop. If you are at a table where everyone folds to the preflop raiser when they bet the pot on the flop then just steal like mad or switch tables. You have an absolute monster. You want to build the pot so that you can double (or triple) up. You can't do that by checking.

[kurto]

I knew someone would yell at me! lol And that's fine. I enjoy these debates.

Don't get me wrong, I'm aware of the various reasons to bet certain ways. And I don't think a min-bet raise against a bunch of 2+2ers is going to get you much of anything. But my strategies are based on extracting money from people who aren't generally as thoughtful as this gang would be in the same situation.

"So if you only min-bet when you hit then you are giving away WAY too much information against good players." I'm assuming few good players.

And what does a minbet say at these tables? A GOOD player minbetting may mean he has a monster, but at the micro-NL tables, a minbet (in my experience) means; they flopped a draw, flopped bottom or middle pair, they flopped TP but are worried about overpairs and/or they had a pocket pair and think there's a small chance its still good but don't feel strong enough to REALLY bet it. A good players should assume that THEY will assume you will minbet for the same reason.

"Just go out and make your normal bet on the flop." I would argue that if he made a normal bet with THIS flop, it would likely have folded all around UNLESS someone else hit a set. His preflop raise and the ace on the flop, coupled with the strength of his making a 'normal bet' very likely would have made everyone fold on the flop.

I've had lesser sets, with aces on the flop, where everyone folded to my normal raise when I thought for sure one of them had to have an ace... yet they feared me because I showed strength preflop.

"There are so many players in there that it is very likely one of them has hit that flop." He was second to last and they all checked to him. So either someone's slowplaying him or no one hit enough that they wanted to bet it.

"You have an absolute monster. You want to build the pot so that you can double (or triple) up. You can't do that by checking." I agree. But I'm not advocating checking. Many people choose to slowplay trips. I think that's appropriate at times. I am merely saying that, if you're going to slowplay it, why not make a weak bet that many are likely to call? You're still slowplaying it but earning additional bets in the process (and committing more people to the hand.)