AK revisited

[CardSharpCook]

Two hands from live tourney play. $500 tourney at the Bike, 350 players. Both hand take place with more than 150 left.

Hand 1

HiJack: 2000
Me: 1400
HiJack, a tight aggressive player (who's wearing a Party Poker Polo - PPP) bumps it up 4x to 200. Me with my A /images/graemlins/diamond.gifK /images/graemlins/diamond.gif decide to call.

(T475)Flop:
Q /images/graemlins/club.gif8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif3 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

PPP bets 500

His bet size was "wrong" it should have been 400. I figured him for an unpaired ace, or possibly an underpair.

I push for 700 more, possibly bluffing with the best hand. Who knows?

Hand 2:

Mustachio in UTG+2: 6000
Me in MP1: 4000
CO: 1700

Mustachio opens for 3x the blinds (300). Though I haven't seen many hands at this table, I believe this bet to be for real.
Me and my A /images/graemlins/spade.gifK /images/graemlins/club.gif decide to call. CO calls as well.

(T1050)Flop:
9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif3 /images/graemlins/club.gif

Check, I bet 600, CO pushes for 800 more, mustachio folds.

I believe he has an underpair, but include A9, /images/graemlins/heart.gif /images/graemlins/heart.gif, JT, T9, etc, etc in my hand ranges and decide that at 3:1 this is a pot odds call. Who knows, maybe he is bluffing his over cards.

Comments?

[Punker]

The first hand, I assume you have position. I'd prefer a substantial preflop raise than playing the AK in this manner, as you are almost certainly going to face a continuation bet on most flops and you seem to be planning to move in on essentially any flop, and will have zero idea where you are at, since the HJ could have opened with any two there, and continuation bet with those same any two, which may or may not hit the board. Its really random poker in that you are putting yourself in a situation where you have no way of putting him on a hand, then committing your chips and hoping he doesn't have one.

The second hand, the call preflop seems fine. However, I don't like the flop bet. Its a little unclear as you don't provide the blind size so the pot size is unknown.

The preflop action indicates that you may be behind to begin with, and that texture of flop is only likely to have improved a fair number of the hands you beat (drawing hands like face-face of hearts, middling pairs, hands like JT), while improving you against none of the hands that have you beat (overpairs to this board). I'd be expecting CO to be pushing here a very high % of the time, and mustache to be calling that push fairly often himself. I don't think your flop bet takes the pot often enough, while at the same time committing you to possibly calling an unpleasant amount of your stack heavily behind. Since I think the flop bet has minimal fold equity, I don't like it.

[CardSharpCook]

Hand 1: Having played with this player for over two hours, I knew he would continuation bet come hell or high water. I am in no way committed to calling the continuation bet on the flop. I am intending to call it to see what he does on the turn, but then his bet size was off for him. I sensed an opportunity to take down the pot.

Hand 2: The way mustachio checked the flop indicated to me that he was disturbed by all the action - not that he wanted even more action. I was pretty sure (75%) he would fold. There is a T1000 pot out there and then the odds that 983 doesn't help the CO. Am I really check folding here? Your point about committing myself is good though. Obviously it is exactly what I did.