When to milk in PL

[Phat Mack]

PL HE 2&5. UTG (weak tight) makes it $25 to go, two callers, I call with 7c9c. Flop is 6c8sAc. UTG bets $100, call, call, I call. UTG has AA or AK. I like my hand a lot, but like it better against AK than AA. I don't know how good my club draw is with the other two callers.

Turn is Th. UTG bets $500, fold, fold. I have $2000 left and UTG has me covered. I am 95% sure he has AA. I raise him $500, thinking I had the nuts and didn't want to drive him off.

I did very well on this hand when he came over the top, put me all in, and didn't fill up. But on the drive home I had second thoughts about how I played it. When I raised $500 on the turn I was trying to milk him and wasn't expecting a re-raise, and in fact gave him 4:1 for a 3:1 shot, whereas I get even money when I'm a 1:3 favorite. Does anyone else think it's wrong to give an opponent good odds on a milk bet? It was almost as though, by raising $500, I was creating a win/win situation.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

As a general rule, you want to give them a chance to make a mistake. There is no way he's folding AA here for your raise, but he might fold AK. Thus, the only mistake you're allowing him to make is to call with AK. If you raise $1000, then it is correct for him to fold AA here (if he knew what you held). However, given the size of your stack, that is a very awkward raise, as you could have raised all-in for $500 more and didn't. Probably best (because it's less suspicious) to raise all-in instead.

Also, how did he make it $25 preflop? It seems that $20 would be his max, and that's assuming he can "round-up" the $2 small blind to $5, as many clubs do. Is it just a rule at your club that you can always open for at least $25?

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Phat Mack]

Probably best (because it's less suspicious) to raise all-in instead.

I agree with this, and I was hoping for "least suspicious" when I made the raise.

Also, how did he make it $25 preflop?

I think it is a holdover from the days when they played with three blinds (all blinds rounded up); days that I miss. A 1,2&4 game played a lot bigger than a 2&5 game. I loved it when players felt they had to protect their blind, or were getting a discount to call.

Thanks for your comments.