Pre-flop play - 3 bet?

[Play Tight]

I am running well catching great cards and have won more then many at the table in my time there. This table is full of calling stations, there are probably 3 people at the table I respect, a couple I don't know but I have not saw anything particularly special about them yet. The blind is someone I have played with many times so I know his raising standards are very high (A's, K's, Q's only AKs in a very strong game which this was not.) I am next to the blind and limp in as does EVERYONE to the blind who raises. I have AQ of spades and because I want to eliminate as many calling stations as possible I re-raised. Now there have been a couple of 3 bet pre-flop hands already and there has been multiple callers but some players did drop which was what I was hoping for. Would you of just called here or 3 bet as I did?





RESULTS: Everyone dropped, and the blind starts mumbling about how I killed his "action." Turns out I flopped a set and never looked back. Another players told me nice raise because he would of called the 1st raise but did not call the re-raise and he would of flopped a boat.

[SossMan]

Let's see...You know he raises only w/ AA, KK, and QQ and maybe AKs. You have AQs...which of his hands do you match up well against?? Now I don't know how confident you were of your read, but he sure seems to be representing a big hand. Also, don't you usually do an isolation raise against an opponent w/ a weak hand that you want to play heads up?? It seems that if he has one of the 4 premium hands, you don't want to play heads up, you want to play multi-handed and hope for the spades, or trip Q's.
I could (and have often been) wrong, so I'm interested to see what the good players think of this... /forums/images/icons/tongue.gif
later,
SossMan

[SossMan]

I don't think you lose much by folding, either. However, I would probably just call.

[chainSmoker]

you already stated the probable starting hands of the BB. knowing this, why are you trying to eliminate as many players as possible? with a strong drawing hand like AQs, i want to keep as many players as i can in the hand to give me better pot odds. also, if your aim was to eliminate players, why didn't you open raise instead of limping in?

[chainSmoker]

i think a call is better in this situation

[Play Tight]

I will agree that I had the weaker hand and knew it before I raised. What I negelected to enter into the earlier post was that the blind had been getting snapped on every raise and as I said I was on an unstoppale run. I know, I know, whats a run of luck have to do with odds? Call it a gut feeling, ESP, or intuation I just knew I could take down this pot.

Why didn't I open raise, I was the first to act and there was no money in the pot and at this point I didn't know that the blind was going to raise. I was acting correctly with the drawing hand I had to get as much in the pot as possible.

Did I play this right? From the majority of the responses I guess not but I did end up with a great catch that netted me approx $45 or so. Maybe I don't understand, why does everyone want calling stations in the hand with draws? I know there is atleast one person who is going to bet (The blind) and possibly one of the other 8 players is going to catch a pair, two pair or a better hand. I personally don't believe in being a calling station hoping I can hit a draw. I understand that I had a great catch on this hand, if I didn't I would of been out of there. I would much rather play from a postion of power then be a lame duck crossing my fingers for a draw. Please explain to me.

[JTG51]

I just want to make sure I understand the action. You limped UTG with AQs, then 3-bet the BB who you know has AA, KK, or QQ?

I really don't like the limp, I hate the 3-bet. If you know he has AA, KK, or QQ, you are in big, big, BIG trouble. You'd be better off folding than 3-betting. You definitely don't want to chase everyone out either. If you are going to win this one, you are probably going to have to make a very big hand. You want more opponents to pay you off when you hit it.

[Joe Tall]

I am running well catching great cards and have won more then many at the table in my time there.

This means absolutely nothing going into your hand but everything to do with the way you played it. I have this big problem of 'I'm running good-tilt' where I feel I own the table and my good run cards has completely over inflated my ego that I feel destined to win. It feeds my aggression and I try to get fancy and/or over play such a hand.

I think you demonstrated both the fancy play and over-aggression. Knowing what you know about this player, I'd call the raise coming out of the big blind. In addition, I would have never limped UTG with such a hand.

Do a search for 'the hand that driving me crazy' that I posted about a month ago here. Or more recently 'Another variation of tilt' in the Pysc section.

Peace,
Joe

[Binkus]

very rarely would I limp with this hand and I definatly wouldnt 3 bet it aggainst a raise from the BB with high raising standards. calling his raise would have been the beter move therse a good chance that his hand is already stronger than yours but you still have a ecxelent drawing hand but with the reraise your just knocking out the players that or giving you the odds to draw to your hand.