[Fantam]

Welcome to the forums! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

There was certainly a lot of action in that hand!

One thing that stood out that I noticed, was that you seemed to have a tendency to check and call bets, which is usually not a good poker tactic.

Occassionally it may be useful to check/call hands down, when you have a reasonable hand that might be best, but dont want to lose a lot of bets to find out. But usually it is better to either bet/raise or fold.

I think your pre-flop (PF) play was fine. AQ(s) is strong enough to call a PF raise, espescially against loose players and it plays well in a multi-way pot.

You could have led out and bet the flop. If you felt that there was a good chance of the player on your immediate left betting, then attempting a check-raise would be fine to build the pot up.

When the flop was first raised, I think you should have 3-bet. Thats because I would have considered the raiser unlikely to have a set (they didnt raise PF) or to be raising a straight or flush draw. I would have considered them to most likely have a weaker 2 pair than your AQ.

As it happened, UTG (under the gun) 3-bet and the flop raiser capped. That suggested to me that either of those players already had the straight made with KJ. Anyway, assuming that I had 3-bet the flop, I would have called the cap for 1 more small bet to see the turn.

At the turn you still had 4 outs to improve to a full house and the pot was big. So this is one of those situations that I would have checked and called. Even when the pot had been raised and it was 2 bets back to you, you would have been getting sufficient odds (about 10 to 1) to call. (The odds of hitting your full house were about 10.5 to 1)

On the river, when you missed your full house, I would have checked and called one bet back to MP, even though you were most probably beaten, because the pot was so big and you cant afford to fold to a bluff.

As the hand developed, I suspect that UTG was overplaying a flush draw, which busted on the river and that MP did in fact have KJ for the nut straight.