10-20 hand: critique my play

here's a hand i played today, i would like to hear your thoughts on it:


i am in the big blind with A3o. utg is an any two card player who calls and bluffs too much. he calls. everyone folds to the small blind who is an okay, but not great player. he thinks for a second and then raises. i feel like he is probably just taking the initiative because this pot will be shorthanded against a bad player and a player he knows is capable of folding his big blind (as i have been doing all day). i call his raise and utg calls.


flop: 33T (rainbow). sb bets, i call, utg calls.


turn: K (full rainbow). sb bets, i call, utg calls.


river: 6. sb checks, i bet, utg and sb call.


i win. they dont show their hands.


any comments?

You should have folded before the flop. There is too much risk of being dominated by SB. SB had to have something, since he's going to be playing UTG out of position.


Otherwise, your play was fine. If you had raised on the flop or the turn, you probably would have lost your callers.

First, I would be very reluctant to make your before the flop call. You are too likely to make a second best hand.


Also, some players are very aware of their poor position and won't raise out of the small blind unless they have a very strong hand. This is actually wrong. If a weak player limps in and no one else is in you should frequently raise out of the small blind with medium strength starting hands to try to get the pot heads up. Now for instance, your king high might win against one player but not two.


The rest of the hand is played fine however.

You should dump ace-little offsuit preflop for a full bet. The threat of domination by a bigger ace is quite real. When you call, you have to ask yourself what you are trying to make. A top pair of aces with no kicker? A pair of treys? The first hand frequently costs you a lot of money when you are outkicked. The second hand doesn't rate to win. All other flops that give you two pair or better are about 28-to-1 against. The pot odds are simply not there.


Your post flop play was good. You wisely refrained from raising in order to lure your opponents into paying you off on each street.

Agreed Jim. How much action can you expect if you flop your ace and he doesn't have one? You are obviously not getting any "I have a better kicker with my ace" action.


Often I find myself raising on the turn here, which screams of 'I flopped a 3', because I hate slowplaying so much. Is this a time to slowplay to the river? I think I should be.


Miles...So What.

How much of a favorite to you figure you are IF the sb has KQ? How much of a dog if he has JJ? AJ? How many hands featuring no Ace and no pair do you figure he'll raise with?


You'd be better off with 87s.


- Louie

"Now what an A fell are you good eneough to dump the hand I think not."


um, actually i am.


for instance: if an A came on the flop, he bets into me, i raise and he 3 bets, i call and then drop on the turn when he bets again. if he smooth calls the flop after i raise, i check behind him on the turn (unless i improve)--then he may bet a smaller pair on the river, in which case i call. this guy in the SB was not particularly tricky or aggressive (nor particularly tight) so i felt there was a decent chance i could outplay him postflop (and i knew i could outplay UTG). part of "outplaying" being of course knowing when to fold. so i felt i had enough the best of it to make a call for one bet worthwhile here., it's certainly not a call i make often.


when i called the preflop raise i was thinking more about the times i could steal the pot when he held AK, AQ (or other non pairs) and no help came. i was also thinking that he may have noticed that i was folding every single blind i had that afternoon and that he could easily make me drop again so he could be heads up with the awful calling station UTG. this really widened the range of possible hands the SB could have--again, this guy was okay, but not particularly tight.

I normally don't like slowplaying either. But, in this case, given that board, the hand is so strong it is very unlikely to be overtaken. It is worth slowplaying here. Raising on the river would not be bad if you know that you will get a crying call from the bettor.