Critique required

[Hotchile]

The raiser, Donald, is a very LAP. That's why so many calls. Two of the callers are loose calling stations and one of them is solid. Please critique this hand.

*********** # 7 **************
PokerStars Game #35191064: Hold'em Pot Limit ($1/$2) - 2003/01/04 - 12:39:52 (EST)
Table 'Alhena' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: cliffbarnes ($34 in chips)
Seat 2: <'))))((((>< ($49.55 in chips)
Seat 3: MarreMan ($275.30 in chips)
Seat 4: thkfl ($111.05 in chips)
Seat 5: Donald ($312.50 in chips)
Seat 6: mahan_69 ($142.20 in chips)
Seat 7: Q.E.D ($83.60 in chips)
Seat 8: misty ($189.50 in chips)
Seat 9: hoomer1 ($131.05 in chips)
<'))))((((><: posts small blind $1
MarreMan: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to <'))))((((>< [Ks Ad]
thkfl: folds
Donald: calls $2
mahan_69: raises $6 to $8
Q.E.D: folds
misty: calls $8
hoomer1: folds
cliffbarnes: calls $8
<'))))((((><: folds
MarreMan: folds
Donald: calls $6
*** FLOP *** [5c Kh 7s]
Donald: checks
mahan_69: checks
misty: checks
cliffbarnes: checks
*** TURN *** [5c Kh 7s] [2c]
Donald: bets $20
mahan_69: folds
misty: raises $22 to $42
cliffbarnes: calls $26 and is all-in
Donald: calls $22
*** RIVER *** [5c Kh 7s 2c] [Qs]
Donald: checks
mahan_69 said, "nooooooooooooooooooooo"
misty: bets $122
Donald: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
misty: shows [2d 2s] (three of a kind, Deuces)
misty collected $32 from side pot
cliffbarnes: mucks hand
mahan_69 said, "QQ"
misty collected $110 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $145 Main pot $110. Side pot $32. | Rake $3
Board [5c Kh 7s 2c Qs]
Seat 1: cliffbarnes (button) mucked [Qc 9c] - a pair of Queens
Seat 2: <'))))((((>< (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: MarreMan (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: thkfl folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Donald folded on the River
Seat 6: mahan_69 folded on the Turn
Seat 7: Q.E.D folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: misty showed [2d 2s] and won ($142) with three of a kind, Deuces
Seat 9: hoomer1 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

[Guy McSucker]

I'm not much of a player, but I can't understand your preflop fold of AK here. If this had been me, I'd have raised before the flop and got all-in against the QQ who would have won my entire stack.

Why did you pass the hand? I'm hoping to learn something here.

Guy.

[Hotchile]

Often I would do the same thing. It appeared to be a raise or fold situation to me. Either raise the pot or let the hand go. My concern was the 3 callers. I couldn't decide if I was drawing alive and with bad position didn't want to get into more trouble than the hand was worth. I figured that to pot it pre-flop would take $35 leaving me with next to nothing to protect the hand on the flop, if I hit.

I didn't trust the players in the hand to fold. I hadn't had time to establish an image at that point. Ak is a hand that I prefer to play with an established table image. I'm not sure if most would agree.

Is my thinking reasonable in this situation or should I have potted?

Larry

[Guy McSucker]

Here's how I would read the situation, for what it's worth. I'd welcome critique of this too!

There have been two callers between the raiser and you. One has a deep stack, as does the raiser, so he could be looking to outflop a raising hand with suited connectors or suchlike; a reraise from you would get rid of him in that case. That's more likely than that he's trapping with a big hand.

The other caller is short stacked and so has made a mistake: he was in a raise or fold situation, and called. We can probably read him as a shaky player who will likely call.

The opener who just limped may be planning a limp-reraise with AA or KK, but it's unlikely given your hand, and I've seen a lot of open limping online with much less threatening hands. He's probably going to pass if there are two raises behind him.

The raiser himself is difficult to predict: maybe he has a big hand, maybe not.

Since you can get most of your stack in with a good all-in hand, and since you may very well end up playing one or two opponents, I would lean towards the reraise. AK plays well in that kind of situation.

Guy.

[Hotchile]

I have looked over the history a little closer and concluded that you are right. I looked at the hand from far too defensive a standpoint when really it required offence.
I think I cost myself the opportunity to possibly triple my stack. I chose not to flip the coin in a situation where I should have.

Thanks for your response.

Larry

[Bozeman]

One caveat, though, to Guy's suggestion:

If you believe that some of the caller's will often have A's (or Kings) such as Axs for this move, you become a significantly bigger dog to the pairs that call you.

[tewall]

I like your play. I think you can wait for a better opportunity to get against the fish. I suppose that might be what happened. How did you do later?

[Hotchile]

I ended up making $120 in the game in about 1 1/2 hours.

Larry

[tewall]

Sounds like you made a good decision with "going back to Houston".

[Eric P]

if it was raise or fold you don't really have to do it pre flop. Since you are last to act on the flop you an just call and see what happens on the flop. When you flop your king or ace you can bet out or checkraise it all in, or you can still fold if you tell yourself you just want the straight, but if decided that you didn't want to fear aces or kings then you could call and try to flop something. In this case you would have flopped it, and either big out and won the pot, or check-raiesd all in (although it was checked through and you would have ended up losing)
But if you are in the situation where you are last to act now, but first to act next round, you have the ability to see the flop and then decid to go all in or do whatever, which is nice.