Common situation ( I think I'm messing up)

[DanK]

This is a situation I run in to fairly often which I think I may be handeling terribly. I'll illustrate it with a hand that came up for me a few days ago, and then ask my question.

two fold, I raises with AKo third, MP1 fold, MP2 loose (bad) player calls, MP3 calling station calls, button (good tight player) three bets, blinds fold, and all call.

flop: Q 7 5 r

checked to 3better who bets.
I raise.

So here is the question.
given that I know the player is either willing to bet AK, jacks, tens, as well as made hands like top pair or higher pocket pair of coarse, (though AQ is unlikey in this situation)
OR the player is just extreamly aggressive and will bet if checked to every time, should I be raising here or just getting out as fast as possible with AK (with one or two players still behind me)

Also should capping pre flop here be rutine to get money from the two bad players(with hands that are much worse than mine), or do I want to keep the pot as small as possable?

Thanks a lot

[steveyz]

against 3 opponents, I give this up in a heartbeat. I don't think your play will work often enough to justify the cost. If you want to do it as an image play once in a while, fine. But note that if you are drawing, you could be drawing very slim to AQ/KQ/KK/AA. And the loose players are unlikely to relinquish their pocket pairs even for a flop bet.

[elindauer]

Hi Dan,

Tough situation. First, let's look at folding. You're getting like 17:1 on your money. True, you don't close the action. On the other hand, you might not even be behind. So folding seems a bit on the tight side to me. Note that if the bad players behind you fold, you have enough hand to call it all the way down.

So, is raising better than calling? Well, you're running the risk of being 3-bet of course. You won't push the bad players off a pair, so all you're really doing is trying to make sure you win the pot those times you improve, and those are going to involve you catching top pair. So you save yourself from those times when a bad player holds, say, KT, and the turn and river are exactly a king and a ten. No, there doesn't seem to be a lot of value in raising to limit the field here.

So, I guess I like just flat calling in this spot. If the other two come along, you can consider folding unimproved on the turn, especially since, if your opponent bets again, he's really showing some strength. If it ends up heads up though, the odds you are against AK, coupled with the odds you will draw out, makes it right to (at least) call the turn bet, and then, having reached the river heads up in a big pot, probably to call the river as well unimproved.

my 2 cents.
-eric

[elindauer]

Oops, thought it was capped preflop. Getting only 12:1 on your money, your flop call would of course be weaker. It might be better to just fold in this spot. Difficult choice.

good luck,
eric

[elysium]

hi dan
even though your opponent on the button is tight, he is also good, so you really can't put him on a hand yet. he may be reraising with many hands that you're ahead of. go ahead and 4-bet. it should go call, call, call. that doesn't mean though that the button isn't holding RCL (rockets, cowboys, ladies), he could very well be. however, he is more likely holding something other than AA or KK, so trapping the opponents in between gives you a lot of good ev and you should 4-bet every time.