[Nick C]

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Can you explain the initial call on the river? The 3-bet makes perfect sense with some hand reading on UTG+2 (we're almost never behind, and often ahead of KQ/KJ here).

Maybe i'm just overthinking. Is the call simply becuse we're unsure where we stand against MP2, but getting an overcall from UTG+2 seems probable so we take value that way?

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Going into the river, I felt like my cards might as well be face up. I mean, I guess I could be on some bizarre slowplay or I could have two big cards other than exactly AK, but I thought my hand seemed pretty obvious.

All the same, I wouldn't have been shocked if UTG+2 woke up on the king. But he didn't. Then, after that, I sort of half-expected MP2 to go into check-call mode. But he went ahead and bet.

At the time I was kind of playing on instinct and decided to go for an overcall. It's entirely possible this is bad, but here's a retrospective rationale for it:

(1) It's possible MP2 is folding to a raise. Some players who were committed to showdown would check on the scare card.

(2) If UTG+2 has a worse king, he may curse MP2 for leading into me and fold if I raise (and then UTG+2 will thank MP2 if the hand goes to showdown).

(3) It's really not out of the question for MP2 to have a better hand. People like to cold-call with pocket pairs. He could have intended to slowplay or checkraise on the flop with his set. Or he could have turned a set with 88. (Nevertheless, during the hand, I was figuring my hand was probably best on the river.)

(4) What actually happened could take place. If UTG+2 has a worse king, he may gain confidence and checkraise after I meekly call. I didn't anticipate this happening, but apparently it is a potential consequence of the line I took.

So there's all of that. But Meep makes a good point about how if UTG+2 has KQ he may call two bets cold on the river and with AQ/AJ he's unlikely to call no matter what. I suspect I should have just raised the river at the first opportunity.

Once I just called and UTG+2 checkraised and MP2 folded, though, I thought the 3-bet seemed easy enough. But maybe I'm wrong about that. (I'm not sure how to interpret Evan's post in this thread.)

In any event, it turned out that UTG+2 had K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] J [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]. So I didn't have to chop with him like I was worried I might. (His checkraise made me think there was a good chance we both had the same hand.)