20-40 AK hand

[anatta]

I raise UTG with AKo. Very tight, passive old man who probably thinks I am tight too, 3 bets me. He has AA, KK, maybe QQ. Loose BB calls. I call.

Flop K, X, X. 3 diamonds. Both my cards were black.
BB checks, I check. TOM bets. BB folds. I call.
Turn blank. I check. He checks.
River blank. I bet, he calls. I win.

This was so wimpy, but what should I have done differently?

[MrGo]

You should of bet the flop. By you checking the flop and him betting, that forced you to check the turn, thus letting him see a free river for his singleton /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

My philosophy (which means nothing) - always bet when you have top pair,top (or good) kicker when the flop is one suit.

[sam h]

If that is truly the range of the hands the TOM could have and you are sure he wouldn't get tricky with QdQx, then you should bet the flop and fold to a raise.

[David Sklansky]

Your'e about a 2 1/2 to one dog on the flop. Betting can only be right against someone who will always call with queens and never raise with them.

[elysium]

hi anatta
the tom played very well here. on the flop, i think you should bet out, but check-raise him? whew,....i don't know.

no matter what you do here anatt, you're not going to have a lot of ev against this opponent. i like the check-calling him without the nuts philosophy. of course, if you do get the nuts against him, always bet into him strongly. even then, check-raising against this opponent is not a good idea. almost never check-raise these toms.

here i like betting out on the flop hoping he will fear the flush, and then calling a single raise and check-calling him down. but simply check-calling the flop is fine if you've been running badly and don't think you'll get the fold. either/or, just remember do not ever check-raise him.

[J'adoube]

If TOM has only AA KK QQ isn't AK a favorite to have the best hand since there
are now 3 ways for him to have AA, 1 way for KK and 6 for QQ. SO AK is
a 3-2 favorite to have the best hand.

[John Ho]

Can you really be that sure the Tight Old Man will only 3 bet you with those 3 hands?

It's probably better to bet out the turn and fold to a raise then give him a free card there. Unless you were planning on checking and folding the turn to a bet.

[anatta]

He cold called a raise from a loose player with AK. He played with me for about 3 hours and every time I raised he folded, and every time I raised and showed my hand it was a premium hand. This was the first time he 3-bet.

My plan was to check call all the way and then decide whether to bet or check the river. He foiled this nicely. I really didn't think he would check the turn, but I was relieved when he did! In the future against an opponent who doesn't 3 bet AK or JJ, I will try to consider the stop and go and bet the turn as you suggested, but only if I think the guy is incapable of raising the turn for a free showdown.

[anatta]

I really thought this guy was so weak tight that AA and KK were the most likely, but QQ was possible. Maybe he took this into account, and also included the flush draw with the Qd.

Lets see. If he can have AA or KK thats 12. Let say he is half as likely to have QQ. Thats 3. Flop had a king, I have AK. So 4 AA and KK. 3 QQ. 1.5 of which have a diamond which hit 1/3 of the time. So that like 2.5 QQ's. Does 4:2.5 = 2.5:1. No. Damn, that would have been cool if it did.

[Gabe]

No, because half of the QQ hands have a diamond draw he is only a slight favorite over them. (57%)
Anatta is a dog here against the TOM. However, I think anatta is only an 11 to 9 dog.
Ad Ah 6.7%
Ad As 6.7
Ah As 8.6
Kc Kh 0.0
Qd Qh 57%
Qd Qc 57%
Qd Qs 57%
Qh Qc 88%
Qh Qs 88%
Qc Qs 88%
Even if you where to include the BB's hand as random and played to the end, anatta is still not a 2 to 1 dog. There is no reason to include the BB since he folded before the action got to anatta.