Misplayed Flop/Turn?

[Twitch1977]

This is a hand I played last night:

Party Poker 0.5/1 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero calls, <font color="#666666">6 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Button raises</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, Hero calls.

Limping in with AJo probably isn't the best idea but I was having a pretty crappy session and I wasn't playing my best.

Flop: (5.50 SB) A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets</font>, Hero calls.

I was happy to see this flop, my opponent has been raising a lot of hands preflop and he usually leads out betting after the flop. My plan was to just check/call the flop then check/raise the turn to get some more cash in the pot.

Turn: (3.75 BB) 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Button 3-bets</font>, Hero calls.

I didn't expect to get reraised after my check raise, decide to go into call down mode now.

River: (9.75 BB) K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="#CC3333">Button bets</font>, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 11.75 BB

Now my question is, in a hand like this heads up is making plays to maxamize the amount of money going into the pot the proper play to make, or am I better off check raising the flop to get a better sense of where I am in the hand? Any other comments are of course welcome except with the preflop limp that I recognize is a mistake.

Thanks
T

[jrz1972]

Given that you failed to raise preflop, this is a good time for WA/WB.

You would adopt the same line if you (properly) raised preflop and then got three-bet.

So in other words the flop is fine, but you should check-call the turn and bet the river.

[bosoxfan]

What's WA/WB?

[Isura]

I would check-raise the flop and go into call down mode from there if faced with more aggression.

[jrz1972]

[ QUOTE ]
What's WA/WB?

[/ QUOTE ]

Way Ahead / Way Behind.

On this hand, you are way ahead of something like KQ, JJ or AT, but way behind AQ or AK.

In these kinds of situations, the problem with getting real aggressive is that you will fold out the hands that you are beating (like JJ) while you will be just spewing against the hands that are beating you (like AK).

Thus, you check-call the flop, check-call the turn, and bet the river, ensuring that one bet goes into the pot on each street. This is a standard line when you flop top pair against a preflop aggressor HU OOP.

[aK13]

Question: Suppose on the flop, we check, button bets, we raise, he 3bets...do we take a WA/WB line here? (Check/call the turn, bet the river?) I ran into a few situations similar to this yesterday, and I'm not sure if we should bet the river or not.

[Twitch1977]

Thank you all for your comments, that's what I get for not raising preflop.

This guy had been raising a lot of hands preflop so I didn't give him credit for a better ace then mine, but I definetely should have made sure with a check raise on the flop.

In the end I lost to AQ.

T

[davelin]

Raise pre-flop. Yup, WA/WB line.

[waynethetrain]

[ QUOTE ]
Thus, you check-call the flop, check-call the turn, and bet the river, ensuring that one bet goes into the pot on each street. This is a standard line when you flop top pair against a preflop aggressor HU OOP.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I understand the river bet as being correct in all situations.

Let's just say it's 50-50 you are WA or WB.

Assuming a reasonable opponent:

If you are way ahead, he will either fold or call (depending on what he has) - making you an extra bet "some percentage" of the time that he would have checked behind.

If you are way behind, he will usually either call or raise - costing you an extra bet "some percentage" of the time if you decide to call the raise. If you decide to fold to the raise, you could be folding best hand to a bluff some small percentage of the time.

I don't see your river bet getting him to fold AK/AQ or other better hands etc...by betting.

If on the other hand, you think it's better than 50-50 you are ahead and/or you know your opponent is a calling station that will call with anything then by all means it makes more sense.

I'm probably missing something here, but I don't see it.

I think it's dependent on the opponent and your estimation of what the chances are you are ahead.

[Grail]

Everyone says to raise PF, but doesn't SSH pretty clearly say that AJo UTG you should limp?

Every chart I've seen based on SSH recomends limping with AJo UTG. Raise with it either LP, or MP depending ont he chart.

AJs is a totally different animal and should be raise from anywhere.