AKo in sb v. an opening raise & flat call :: live 1/2 NL @ Mirage

[Maulik]

3 opponents in this hand, myself included.

the opener is a bad player, can't release hands, has gotten lucky to accumlate a stack of around $450 (max buy-in is $200).

the btn is a very aggressive, decent player, who is running very well and has accumluated $1200+ in chips. let me reiterate, he's running very well.

let me give one hand example of his before I go into my hand.

3 limpers to the aggressor, who raises to $15.
2 flat calls and a raise to $30. everyone calls flop comes
K /images/graemlins/heart.gif 9 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 3 /images/graemlins/club.gif

checked to hero who bets $90
one caller.

hero turns a flush w/ 10 /images/graemlins/heart.gif 6 /images/graemlins/heart.gif

okay, to the hand.


the opener raises to $6, the btn calls, I raise to $15 w/ AKo. my question is should I be raising more here to define my hand.

i'll post the flop, turn & river after some thought has been given to my hand & the range I may be representing.

[mosdef]

I would be hesitant to raise more than $15, because I don't like building a pot out of position like that. It's going to take a hefty raise to knock out the original raiser or the loose-aggressive button, so you're looking at a big c-bet if you miss, which is never a lot of fun.

In fact, I would have just called the raise and taken a look at the flop. I would guess that both of those guys are pretty eager to throw some money in on the flop if they aren't faced with any obvious strength (original raiser likes his hand, button just likes to bet period), so you can check-raise a flop you hit (with the advantage of likely stacking the original raiser if he has AJ or AQ because he would never drop it against your flat call preflop). I would lead a flop full of low cards to rep a low pocket pair (a reasonable hand that you would call preflop with) - if original raiser starts pushing back at you then you've got to drop it. If button calls you, you've got a tough decision to make on the turn unless it's an A or K. But I feel more comfortable with the call preflop since it keeps the pot of a managable size that allows for a range of plays after the flop. This may not be optimal, but I would feel good playing out this line.