10-20 hand

Here's a hand I played yesterday. At first, I thought my river bet was fine but now I'm not so sure. To see what you would think, I'll reverse the hand so you can help, I was actually the first raiser in this hand.


A loose semi-maniac limps UTG, solid player (me)raises in early-middle position, all fold to you and you reraise with AK. Blinds fold and limper and raiser call. 10.5 SB and 3 players.


FLOP: T-7-6 rainbow. Limper and raiser checks, you bet and both call. 13.5 SB (7BB)and 3 players.


TURN: 5. Both players check and you take the free card.


RIVER: 4 rainbow. Limper checks, raiser bets.


What do you do? Limper would have surely bet with a str8.


You are getting 8:1 on your call.


Thanks,


Nicolas Fradet (The Prince)

What do you do?

raise

You would most likely have bet a pocket pair 88, 99 on the flop or check-raised a bigger pocket pair (although AA-QQ unlikely). A set would either fastplay it on the flop or intend to check-raise the turn; but with this kind of board (coordinated) I think you will most likely check-raise me on the flop and trap the limper.


Problem is the limper however who could have a small pair or something. You have a fair chance your A high wont be good against him. So you should either raise or fold here IMO. Now the problem is that what in hell could I have that I would have played bet-check-raise? This only might be the case with 88. I think it's close here, but if I feel good, and you are not capable of bluff 3-betting here with a worse hand (ballsy, but you could due to my strange play) I might raise you here. If the limper wasnt there I would surely call.


Regards

Picked you off, eh?


In most situations this is a fold with AK but here it's a thin call because you can put the river bettor on many hands: he isolated a loose limper, the flop and turn action suggests that no one has a decent pair, and the board screams "bet me." Most importantly, however, since he called on the flop looking at 12-1, you can't fully discount the chance of him having something like dominated overcards on the flop, even if he's a decent player. There's also the chaos thing: with an isolator and re-isolator following a very loose limper, it's hard to tell what anyone's got. If the pot is good-sized, it's often best to call.


Had I been him, I definitely would have bet the turn. OTOH, however, I wonder if it makes more sense for him to check with the intention of calling one bet on the river, figuring that the chance of somebody firing at the pot is very high.

I fold. My hand is not that great and combined with the potential for the limper to call, I think my chances are not good to win. Another consideration is if you have a tendency to check-raise the turn, my free card does not give me confidence that you don't already have a hand.


My question would be "If I raise, will he call anything smaller than two pair?" Now you can raise and need to be right 1 time in four to break even. Again, I would fold instead of raise or call.

Like I said, I was the 1st raiser in the hand and I had AQ. I bet the river and both my opponents folded. At first, I thought it was a good bet, I still think it was, because of the size of the pot. Then, I started thinking that the reraiser, had he thought about what I could have, should have called. Maybe he did not notice the limper was a semi-maniac and would have bet almost anything. Or maybe he thought I would play a hand like JJ the same way (I wouldn't).


Thanks for the comments,


Nicolas