Extremely interesting hand

[Bluff1]

30$ 2 table sng at stars. I’m in one of those midday nightmares at stars. The game has been nothing short of war 9 players remain 7 of are pretty tough, there is 2 loose players who have been running exceptionally well. The game is hyper aggressive and almost ever hand there is a pretty good size preflop raise. Here how it played it

Has stated above 9 players left the final table just filled up 2 hands ago and the blinds are 100/200 a25. Utg a player who is extremely aggressive and tricky limps in he has T2600 after limp. It’s folded around to the button who also limps in T3100 after limp is also a good player. I’m on the big blind with K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and have 3300 after posting.

Now my first intention is to raise and usually I would, but lately I’ve been trying harder to think more about what my opponent has and less about what I have. Here is how my analyses for this situation. Utg would raise with almost any opener with the ante in play. I have played with him many times before so my read on him is pretty solid. So I don’t put him on qq or any pp worth raising with and I also rule out a high ace as I figure he would put a raise in with them as well. I know in a game this aggressive he wouldn’t try to limp in with a lower pp when someone will probably pop him for a big raise preflop. So I figure he must have AA or KK and is going for the good ol limp reraise. I rule out KK for obvious reasons and put him on AA. I put the button limper on a hand like Ak, Aq, or a lower pp.

So I decided to limp in here. For three reasons if my read is right and the player does have AA the flop action should let me know. Position is my next reason I figure if I check utg will surely bet his aces, if he has them, on the flop and I can see what the button does and play my hand according. Third if my read is wrong my hand will be very well disguised and they will have no clue as to what I hold.


The Flop comes 3 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

I check as planned, utg bets t1000 and the button moves all in. I think for a second about it and figure that a fold is best. I fold, utg calls.

Utg has A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], and button has 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. Utg gets no help and is busted out.

Thoughts and bashing welcome.

[CrisBrown]

Hi Bluff1,

This is a variation of the Three Hand Squeeze, and you played it correctly. There really aren't a lot of hands a good player would limp with from UTG, and when the button called you had the ideal setup to assess the value of your KK.

The best part of this situation is that you're going to check the flop regardless. On a K-high flop, you're going to get a nice payoff. On a non-K flop, with a bet and all-in raise behind your check, you know one of them has either a set or AA (in this case both), and you're out with zero bets lost (only the BB) on a hand where most players would have gone bust.

Excellent play, and a good example of why it's often better to check big pairs (other than AA) against 1-2 limpers when you are in the BB, especially if the limpers are aggressive post-flop, and especially if one of the limpers was UTG.

Cris