did i play this right?

after a really bad session, this may have been one of the few hands i played allright, but i want to make sure.

colorado $2-5. i'm the blind (one $2 blind) with AJo. a middle position player limps, the cutoff who is a very aggressive player (has been raising preflop with garbage, and playing mediocre hands very fast) makes it $7. instead of calling i decide to 3-bet (i normally wouldn't with this hand, but i was sick of this guy's fast play, and thought i might slow him down)

MP folds, CO calls

flop

JJK rainbow. i check, CO bets, i raise... hoping for him to continue playing fast, but he calls.

Turn comes an A, complets rainbow. i bet, he call.

river. blank. i bet, he calls.

i'm good, he shows AK.

did i play this allright? any improvements?

[johnb]

I think you played it alright. you will probably get some posters telling you that you should have played the flop fast vs going for the check raise. given the super agressive nature of the player, i think there is not much difference in ev of the two hands.

I like the pre flop raise. it gets you heads up with the agressive player. you usually want to play big unsuited cards in a narrow field..jb

I don't play much he, but I'm sorry to say I think you played this badly in a critical way: you picked the wrong spot to make a stand against an aggressive player. When you 3-bet with A-Jo, you're basically trying to catch him bluffing or semi-bluffing. Instead you caught him with a better ace that had you dominated. You caught a perfect flop to bascially suck out -- your only outs were hitting a jack (or 2), a 4-flush to your ace or a 10-Q-K board for str8. I also don't like the checkraise on the flop -- why not either bet out and hope he'll raise you or wait for the turn to attempt a checkraise? Playing as you did was the surest way to announce real strength vs. a possible bluff/semibluff.

I think you played it ok.

Preflop. I think the 3-bet is good considering your description. However keep in mind that you are out of position leaving you with tougher postflop decisions. Also there was a limper so this is less likely to be a steal reaise. I dont think you would consider folding here unless the raiser would only raise with hands here that would dominate yours (AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ etc.) and/or one of the other players might reraise. So if you are going to come in against a loose raiser you should raise to limit the field.

On the flop given your description of the player I would perfer to bet out here and expect to get raised. Then I would either bet the turn an hope to get raise again or go for the check raise. However, after you check raised the flop you must bet the turn and river.

Just my opinion
Joe

[Daithi]

I think you played it fine. I too would have three bet the pre-flop. I'm surprised he didn't cap it.

I probably would have played the later streets a little diferently, but it looks like you made just as much money, if not more, than I would have made. Nice hand.

[bernie]

good read that the rest of the table was tight enough to fold preflop to your raise...

on the flop...

i may have bet out, and hope he raises. if he does, then i may just call and bet out on the turn, hoping for a raise there too, then 3 bet.

if he's that loose, you want to extract. the c/r on the flop is a little strong to keep him in there...but he stayed anyway, so it doesnt matter....however...

'hoping for him to continue playing fast, but he calls.'

this line should tell you something about your image to him. he probably figured you for a bigger hand than the others may likely have against him here. how do you think he'd have played this against other players at the table? maybe faster, like you thought. hence, the reason i thought the c/r was a little strong...but thats hindsight anyway, but it may help you on future hands with this player...
something to think about...

to the guy who said he didnt like it...your response is totally results oreinted. he picked a bad spot, you said because the guy had AK. was his hand face up? it was a great isolation bet that worked, and odds are that he WONT have a better hand. thus if he had the opportunity to do it and get away with it more, he could even do it with weaker hands. though not too weak.

did he get lucky? yes...but in the long run i think, against this player, its a +EV play as long as they fold behind him...

nice hand...

b

Some replies have suggested waiting for the turn to checkraise. There is less value to doing this in Colorado 2-5 spread limit games, because the max bet is the same on all streets. You might get an extra bet this way, but it's still a $5 bet either way.