Did I take a steal too far?

8-handed $10-$20 game. I'm on the button.

Folded around to me, and I raise it with Ac3c, small blind (a borderline hyper-agressive player, who is better than I am) makes it three bets. Big blind folds, I call. I didn't think the three bet meant a whole lot as, I figured he was trying to catch a steal...Maybe two big cards.

Pot is now $65
Flop is 5 5 3, with two hearts and a diamond.


SB Bets, I raise, he three-bets, I call. Comments please? I was pretty sure he didn't get a piece of this flop, but I still had no clue what he was on.

Pot is now $125
Turn is an offsuit 8. He bet, I called.

Pot is now $165
To be honest, I can't remember the end card, but it was not a 3, 5, A, K, Q, or J and it was not a heart. He bets, I thought for a while and called.

Did I take this blind-steal too far? I'll be the first to admit that I look for reasons to stay in a pot rather than to get out of them when its heads up. I should point out that I was playing rather tightly up to this point, and got the feeling that I was being pushed off pots every once in a while...I had yet to show down a non-made hand, and I think I was hell-bent on calling one down. Of course, this could be a rationalization for taking this hand way too far.

All comments greatly appreciated, as blind-stealing/blind-defense still baffles me a bit.

Pot is now $205, results to follow.

-huh?

[JTG51]

You say he's very aggressive, but is he aggressive without a hand, or only when he's got something?

There's a good chance he's got a pocket pair, maybe as small as 66, but there's also a good chance he's got overcards and/or a draw and is trying to push you off of your steal with a semibluff. I'd call him down also.

[Ginogino]

Huh:
Does he have an overpair or just overcards? With a pot of approximately 10 big bets it's worth calling. Against an aggressive player, calling will, I'd strongly suspect, pay off enough to be worth doing.

Gino

[skp]

I would call him down too.

But the more interesting thing here is your flop raise.

Almost everybody instinctively raises in this spot?

Why?

When the chap 3 bets preflop, his most likely holdings are a pocket pair (which could be as low as 44) or an Ace (which could be as bad as A2).

Now, the typical reasons for raising in heads-up situations simply don't apply here very well IMO: Firstly, I don't think your hand is good enough to make a value raise. Secondly, your raise wont get him to fold and given the small pot, you may not want him to fold when you are ahead. So, really the only reason to raise here is the dubious "let me see where he stands" logic. But presumably, this chap is not one who will give you realiable information. For if he did, you would have folded at least on the turn because of his flop 3 bet. That is, you raised the flop to get info, got some info and acted contrary to that info anyway. So, that means that raising to get info against this opponent was not a good reason in the first place.

It's not very exciting poker but calling on the flop sounds like the best play to me against this opponent. Notice also that if you are ahead, the other guy probably only has 6 outs twice. So, let him try and outdraw you. In any event, you can perhaps raise the turn (and check the river) if you want.

I called it down, he mumbled something...not showing his cards, I showed my A3 and his cards hit the muck.

In response to why I raised...I wanted to give the blinds an oppurtunity to fold. I would have been very happy to take the blinds in this spot, and thought it was a good enough stealing hand. A small/medieum pocket pair scared me, but in retrospect I wonder if the turn was a raise or fold. I was actually very afraid of the Ace hitting, since it would counterfeit my small pair and force me to use the board as a kicker.

-huh?

[J_V]

You don't seemed to be showing solid understanding of the fundamentals here. The turn is far from a raise or fold. In fact, calling is likely the best play.

You are not going to push your opponent off an overpair, so you are either way ahead or way behind and would rather have him bluff off his money.

SKP was saying you shouldn't raise on the flop in this spot. He wasn't talking about your preflop actions.

He makes an excellent argument. Notice how his reason for raising is more than just "I'm ahead" or "I wanted to figure out where I stand."

Also, I worry that you wanted to fold the river. Once you call the turn, your default play should be to call the river. In fact, I would call it 100% of the time. I doubt your opponents are tough enough to where you need to randomize your play here.

[angry young man]

player thinks to himself "I'll raise to see where I'm at"
<gets re-raised>
"Ohhhhhh, so that's where I'm at"
<calls>

doesn't make a lot of sense. on the flop I think you have to decide what your intentions are,
Choice 1: if you're going to call it down (my pick unless the board comes bad of course), then look for the cheepest way to get to the river. Against a week player you could raise here for a free turn then call the river but you described this guy as hyper-aggressive/good so he might very well know what you're up to and throw some more bets your way, just call.
Choice 2: would be to throw it away. It's real easy to just give away money this hand with almost no chance to win and there isn't too much in the pot so I don't think this can be too wrong.
Choice 3: If you're sure of your read that your pair is good and you'll be able to tell if he pairs up then jam it with him and good luck with your psychic hotline.