Broken-wing act with AA

Good, loose $C10-20. Four limpers to my aces and I raise on the button. BB calls, limpers call.


Flop is K-K-9, 3 suits. It's checked to the cutoff, who is a very loose and fairly aggressive player[1] who bets. I am quite certain I have the bettor beat. I flat-call, two others call. I feel I definitely should have raised to chase out QJ, QT, JT and backdoor flushes. Turn is a J. Cutoff bets again, I call, others fold. River is some rag, she bets, I think long and hard about raising but decide to just call. In the end, it doesn't matter; she says, "I missed", I table my hand and take it.


I'm interested in hearing what you think the optimal way to play the hand is. I'm personally leaning towards calling the flop and raising the turn because if someone actually holds a king they will fear I hold AK. If I get a cold-call from anyone I check the river down. The other best alternative is to just jam the aces until someone represents a king, which really, no one did.


Thoughts?




[1] note to skp and other Vancouver players: player in question is Teri.

Terrence,


I think I like raising the flop to get rid of the gut-shots and see who is still interested in this hand. With more than one caller I would check the turn and maybe pay off one bettor on the river but probably not overcall. With one caller I probably bet the turn as I can still represent A-K and not fear a check-raise unless I'm up against the kind of player(real clueless) who will check-raise a K w/out considering that there are four of them in the deck and that I MIGHT have a better one than theirs, in this case, checking the turn, to induce a bluff or hit the needed miracle card for free, is not out of order.


JMHO,


Mike

I think you should raise on the flop and get the gutshots out now; they are going to be a lot harder to get out on the turn if they make a straight. After you raise the flop, I would check the turn if anyone cold called two bets on the flop; for most players, that would be a dead giveaway they have a king. If only the cutoff was left on the turn and checked to me, I would still probably check to both induce a river bluff (or call) and avoid a check raise: this seems like a classic way ahead or way behind scenario.

Coilean,


If only the bettor calls the raise on the flop, is it not worth a bet on the turn to avoid giving the bettor a free draw to what might be two to four outs versus the risk of being bluff-check-raised? Just wondering what you think about this, though I'm sure that you considered this possibility in your response.


Mike

I think calling on the flop is a big mistake.

When the aggressive guy bets I would probably begin to think that

1 -he does not have a King

2 - I need to raise o make it incorrect for any gut shots and other draws to call.

3 - My raise will help me to define my hand


There is nothing wrong in my opinion in betting the turn as long as you are able to let it go for a checkraise and be right about that decision at least 9 out of 10 times.

The idea here is to charge sloppy gutshot draws maximum price to draw as well as make 2nd and 3rd pairs to act as sheriffs.

If you are beat - big bleeding deal - you lose a few chips but the solid fundamentals are to bet the possible best hand and not to give free or cheap cards to draws.

Anytime you do this with a solid holding like AA you are never far away from correct play IMO

I would often check just because I really hate being check raised on the turn in this situation (your laydown has to be correct 80% of the time, which makes it hard for me to do), and I think the money you lose by giving out free miracle cards might be equaled by the money you pick up in bluffs and weak calls. Since it's probably pretty close between betting and checking, I go for the blood pressure friendly option. In this case opponent might have as many as 6 outs with a hand like QJ, which I didn't think of in my first hasty reply, so I might tend towards betting here. Maybe after I go to bed and get up I'll feel spunky enough to check out the EV for a few different scenarios and see if one option is clearly better than the other.

I like raising the flop. Too may people in too just call. They may chase 2 or 4 outers for one bet to hit there miracle. I don't like giving this many people a cheap look at the turn. If anybody behind calls I'm probably gonna check the turn. If bet into on the river I call because my check may have induced a bluff.

I would probably raise the flop because it was rainbow i.e. anyone coldcalling 2 bets almost has to have a King and you can therefore play the turn/river accordingly. Plus, you get out the gutshots etc.


If it was 2 suited, I would lean towards raising the turn assuming a blank hits. If a flush card hits and everyone checks, I would bet it. If someone bets after a flush card hits, I would play the player (assuming that I don't have the right ace).


BTW, on Saturday night, Teri bought in for $150 and cashed out $3200 - one of the biggest 10-20 wins I have ever seen.


I made it to her table with just 30 minutes to go and saw her win about 8 big pots in those 30 minutes. Simply incredible. I had my usual weekend night result - down $20 after an 8 hour seesion. Can't seem to score on the weekends. I guess I better reread the loose games section of HEFAP.

I would probably raise the flop because it was rainbow i.e. anyone coldcalling 2 bets almost has to have a King and you can therefore play the turn/river accordingly.


Does this mean laying down to a check-raise (against most players) from a flop cold-caller?




BTW, on Saturday night, Teri bought in for $150 and cashed out $3200 - one of the biggest 10-20 wins I have ever seen.




She's unreal. It's great when she's winning. She was stuck Friday and I actually saw her fold her big blind once!




I made it to her table with just 30 minutes to go and saw her win about 8 big pots in those 30 minutes. Simply incredible. I had my usual weekend night result - down $20 after an 8 hour seesion. Can't seem to score on the weekends. I guess I better reread the loose games section of HEFAP.




Ahh, it's just variance. I'm probably getting some of your luck with my sickening $60/hr average over the last 150 weekend hours (those are the only kind of hours I play now, sadly).

"I would probably raise the flop because it was rainbow i.e. anyone coldcalling 2 bets almost has to have a King and you can therefore play the turn/river accordingly.


Does this mean laying down to a check-raise (against most players) from a flop cold-caller?"


Yes. It could also mean that you simply choose to check the turn and try and catch an Ace.


"Ahh, it's just variance. I'm probably getting some of your luck with my sickening $60/hr average over the last 150 weekend hours (those are the only kind of hours I play now, sadly)."


Probably the reason why I am sporting a very high win rate on weekday sessions - you're busy hitting the books rather than picking our pockets /images/smile.gif