Slow played AA and it cost me

[DaNoob]

Micro-limit HE table at Poker Stars. Don't know much about my opponents at this point, but the table seems relatively loose (as it usually is at micro-limits). I get dealt AA in EP. 2 fold to me, I limp, hoping to draw more people into the pot. 1st mistake?

To my relief, 1 caller then a raise after me. SB and BB call, then called all the way around. 7 players to the flop, which is:
4 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif J /forums/images/icons/heart.gif 8 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif

All check to OR, who bets. SB calls, I raise, OR 3 bets, SB and I both call. Everyone else folded after the first bet. 3 to the turn ->
4 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif J /forums/images/icons/heart.gif 8 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif J /forums/images/icons/spade.gif

Now I'm wondering if OR has pulled trips, and begin to lose confidence. I think this may be a result of the "best-hand" syndrome (or whatever they call it), where you always put your opponent on the best hand. He bets, SB and I call. In retrospect, I know I screwed up here...

The River: 4 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif J /forums/images/icons/heart.gif 8 /forums/images/icons/diamond.gif J /forums/images/icons/spade.gif 2 /forums/images/icons/spade.gif
Painted. Now I'm spooked for sure, as is OR. Checked all the way around. SB turns over A /forums/images/icons/spade.gif K /forums/images/icons/spade.gif . OR mucks with KK.

I think I played this hand WAY too slowly and should have made SB pay a lot more for that draw. Is this the case, or should I have slowed down after the 2nd J was flopped (like I did)? Feel free to slam my tactics whist you provide suggestions on how I could have played this better.

I realize the stakes are v insignificant, and I may not have been able to bet anyone out of the pot anyway, but please treat the hand as though it were played at a real table when providing comments.

Thx.

[JTG51]

You pointed out that the table was loose, then you say you limped to try and get more callers. At that limit you are likely to get a couple of callers even if you raise.

The only time I'd ever limp from EP with AA is if the game was very tight and aggressive. If you are sure a raise will come behind you when you limp, you can try to limp raise. Someone came to your rescue by raising after you, you really should have 3-bet when he did. You have the best hand, get the money in.

All that said, you probably didn't cost yourself the pot. SB certainly isn't going to fold preflop, and will surely call a bet on the flop. The only chance you had to get him out was if you bet and KK raised. Even then, many low limit players would happily call 2 bets with AK on the flop.

[Bubmack]

Your slowplay didn't cost you one red cent - It saved you a bundle actually. It probably saved you a bet on the flop and a river bet (if you were pressing the action and checked the river MP would have bet the flush). Now if the flush would have been 4,7 of spades - then it would have cost you - and that is way more painful - trust me.

Bubs

[hutz]

Although it's very unlikely you cost yourself the pot, there are some ways you could have played the hand better. As JTG points out, unless you're going to limp-reraise, you should have raised your AA. After you were bailed out by the late raise, you should have 3-bet. I would have bet out on the flop and hoped the pre-flop raiser raised so those between you would have to call two bets cold to continue.

[Homer]

Preflop: I wouldn't try for a limp-reraise after two people have already folded. I probably wouldn't try it even if I was UTG in a loose game (maybe if it was loose and aggressive). If the table is loose you might get multiple coldcallers anyway by raising. Did you reraise preflop? You don't indicate whether or not you did....I hope so!

Flop: I would cap here 100% of the time. OR probably has an overpair with QQ or KK (maybe AA), or AJ.

Turn: I would checkraise again here. The second Jack makes me more confident that OR has an overpair. If three-bet I would fold if against a sane opponent and call it down against all others. If three-bet you are probably up against trip Jacks, because an overpair is very unlikely to three-bet you given your actions to this point in the hand.

River: I had a feeling it might be checked around. OR is probably happy to get to showdown with his overpair. He really should have bet the river.

-- Homer

[Rockfish]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Micro-limit HE table at Poker Stars. Don't know much about my opponents at this point, but the table seems relatively loose (as it usually is at micro-limits). I get dealt AA in EP. 2 fold to me, I limp, hoping to draw more people into the pot. 1st mistake?


[/ QUOTE ]

You obviously weren't planning to dump on the flop if you didn't hit your hand, so I don't see how you can justify playing the best starting hand in hold'em like a small pair. Raise! If someone re-raises, throw in more chips and raise again.

The rest of the hand, especially losing on the river, is routine after that.

Rockfish

[davidross]

Yes you cost yourself the pot. I have no problem with limping first in with AA, I do it a lot (I like to play small pairs and suited connectors and it gives me some cover), but you are praying for a raise so you can 3-bet. Here’s how your hand should have played out. You limp, a caller, then a raise. You say 7 see the flop, I’m not sure where the other players came from. You mention the blinds but that only makes 5. When it comes back to you you 3 bet and the KK guy will cap it. Everyone at the table now knows one of you has AA. On the flop you bet and KK will raise again. Now AK suited has to decide whether to play his 22 – 1 shot at runner runner spades because he knows his A and his K are no good and I think he folds to two bets. End result you win the pot.

[lil']

At this level I don't think the guy with A-Ks would fold. Players just don't put that much thought into their hands.

[elysium]

hi danoob,
well danoob, i've never seen a pre-flop like this one so i can't adivise ya there any. my first impression is that you're missing bets, but i don't for sure because it gives you a tremendous check-raising opportunity. i'll say this, if you had turned them up and shown everyone, your AA was hidden so well, i doubt sherlock holmes himself could detect them. whew were they well hidden. but look at how big the pot is here. hey everyone, look at this one.

look at how although his rockets are totally hidden; and look at that by the way; but look at the size of the pot here. he double limped; he says 7 here but i'm counting 5 in. o.k., he screwed up the flop.

o.k., danoob, you know...the thing here is how well hidden your rockets are. but you might as well have just started blasting away on the pre-flop.

you have to look at your game here da. forget about the turn and river for now. you're just ....you don't know what you're doing. and forget about planning stategy right now.forget about that.

when you get dealt AA or KK in the future, ask " do the opponents suspect i actually finally have them?" if they do, if you think "well i botched that up pretty good. now they know", and that's o.k. danoob. yes, we can work with that as long as you know you botched it up. in other words, in this example you gave us here, you botched up getting more bets in pre-flop. o.k.? and that's fine. with you we have to figure out what you botched up, and use that as our strategy. no problem there. and actually, we can still make it work. we just have to see how you screwed up, and proceed as though you used the exact opposite strategy sucessfully. do you follow me so far?


in this case, you screwed up getting more bets in the pot. well, we simply proceed as though you successfully hid your AA. but now we need to finally do things right da. on the flop now we set up to use those very well hidden AA. and if i may, can i? i've never seen AA hidden so well! we didn't get a whole lot of bets in the pot, but gosh danoob, did you ever hide those aces. now we have a plan.

no, i lie. we don't have a plan, we have a pre-plan. we are on the flop , right? o.k. we will proceed under the assumption that you hid your aces to get in a good check-raise on the turn, follow me? o.k. so, what don't we do? exactly. we don't check-raise on the flop. we're o.k. here as long as we don't make a double screw up. yes, on the surface, you'd think a double screw up equals a correction, but it doesn't danoob and for the life of me i don't know why. so don't screw up again in this hand.


we will set up for a check-raise on the turn, using those aces you hid so well. simply don't check-raise the flop. you can. it's not a screw up. but we can get more money in with a check-raise on the turn. do not check-call the flop. that would be the dubby. do not do that. that leaves only one choice danoob. you have only one choice. you can't possibly screw up this one. bet out. if raised call. if reraised, we then start betting and raising like a couple of mad men. but if only raised once, call. on to the turn.

what are you going to do? exactly correct. check-raise the turn.

remember, if you mess up at the beginning, that's fine. don't panic. you're good there. simply proceed as though you correctly carried out the exact opposite of what you did. in this case, you successfully hid those aces danoob, where nobody could ever find them. great job! now let's put them to work. ok? alright ....and don't forget, keep pre-planning!

[DaNoob]

It seems like I confused everyone with the first statement that there were 7 on the flop and then down to 3 for the turn. There were indeed 7 people to the flop, but since they all folded after 1st bet hit them, I didn't discuss them any more after the flop. Also, I did mention that it was a relatively loose game, but wanted to clarify that 2 bets pre-flop (if they hadn't already called one) would usually scare off otherwise willing participants. So with one bet early (maybe two late), u would usually see 5-7 ppl to the flop, while with an early raise, the field would normally narrow to 2-4. So, I was hoping, as Elysium suggests, to hide my Aces for some strategery later in the hand. Unfortunately, when the Jacks with the board, I got spooked and didn't play my hand the way I should have. I should have read OR better to know that he had pocket Ks or Qs instead of thinking he had somehow hit trip Jacks. Lesson learned. Thanks to all for the feedback/blasting - it's lessons like these that will hopefully save me money in the future.