AKo in large pot

5-10 on truepoker


i'm UTG and raise with AhKd, 6 people(wtf?!) cold-call, sb folds, bb calls. 8 players for 2 bets each. pot is ~80$.


[Ks 5s 2h]


bb checks, i check, player on my left bets 4 people call, i check-raise, they all call. immediately i regret not betting out, maybe he'd have raised and gotten some of these people out.


anyways, the turn is the 2s, BB checks, i bet, 2 call including BB. pot is now ~170$.


river is 3s. classic. the BB now bets out, i know i can't call, especially with one left to act after me, i contemplate bluff-raising for a second, then i just fold. player behind me calls, BB has QxJs, the caller has QsKx for a better flush.


theres ~180$ in the pot when its on me, so 9-1 for a 20$ raise. should i have gone for it? the way these guys played i'm sure the odds of it working are next to nothing. oh well. next hand.

You're right - you shouldn't have gone for a check raise. In low-limit games, save your check-raising for when there's a late-position raiser and you did NOT raise before the flop. (If you raised and got reraised, there's too much chance in these games that the reraiser will chicken out and not bet, especially if he has something like JJ or QQ - most low limit players are cowards when there are overcards on the board).


On the river, you should call, not raise. You're right - your raise won't win the pot. However, the pot is too big to be laying down top pair in a low-limit game even with a four-flush on the board.


Make it a standing policy to never make dramatic laydowns in these games when the pot is big. In this case, it's a $10 mistake to put in $10 more dollars into a $180 pot when you have almost zero chance of winning, but it's a $180 mistake if it turns out you had the winner.


Plus, you don't want to get an image as someone who is capable of making tight folds. (Mason or David discusses this somewhere in some book or another.) If you get that rep, they'll be gunning at you even in these limits.


TRLS

This has got to be a tough call online, as you get no indication of what the player after you is going to do until you make your play.


The first better may be bluffing, but you can't know that or you would have known the right play. I would have called one bet, but folded if the caller after you raised and the BB called the raise, as they both can't be lying.


I think not bluff raising was a good choice, as anyone with paint of spades is going to show down, or at least should.