TT vs possible steal

[ryanghall]

Empire 200 NL full ring. I have $220, Villain (10/3/3) has me covered.

I get T /images/graemlins/club.gif T /images/graemlins/heart.gif in MP.

2 folds, 1 call, 1 fold, I call, 3 folds, SB calls, BB (Villain) raises to $15. I am the only caller.

Flop is 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif A /images/graemlins/spade.gif

Villain checks, I check.

Turn is 9 /images/graemlins/spade.gif

Villain bets $5, I call.

River is 4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif

Villain bets $6, I call.

Comments? Could/should I have played this any differently? More aggressively? Perhaps raise the 9 of spades? Small bets like that from tight players are often signs of strength I find.

[soah]

It's much better to bet the flop than to call any bets on the turn or river. If your stats on him are accurate then there is about a 0% chance that you have the best hand without a set, but since he is a rock you might get him to fold KK/QQ/JJ. $20 is about the right amount to bet, and completely shut down if you get called. It's a little bit troublesome that he checked the flop here when his postflop aggression is 3... when aggressive players check in this spot it is frequently a stupid slowplay of top set. But your sample size might not be sufficient to determine much about his postflop play. Given the line you took, you might consider raising the river as a bluff, because generally a player who has tried to slowplay his set of aces will have woken up by the river. His bet is much more consistent with a hand like KK. It's just a matter of whether or not you can get him to fold it, as you haven't done anything so far to represent the ace and he may not believe you. It reeaeally helps to have a read on your opponents instead of just PT stats. The game is a lot harder when you are stuck just reading your own cards.

[ryanghall]

Yeah, that is a part of my game that I have to work on. I always 4 table so getting good reads is difficult.

You were pretty close. He had QQ and beat me. I was thinking that he may have just been stealing the pot in the BB, raising 7.5x BB but I guess not. I won't assume that anymore /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ryan