[UATrewqaz]

You have to think about it long run, what is the most profitable way to play this hand if you were forced to play it over and over and over again.

You have a very powerful hand and are ahead of alot of his likely holdings that he WILL you pay you off with (if he has a weaker ace, like AQ/AJ) or even if he has KK/QQ/JJ most players are too stubborn to let it go.

So the situation is fine for betting stiff and hoping he comes along, because a great deal of the time he will be putting money into the pot voluntarily.

Not every hand is meant to be played to win your opponents entire stack (although the possibility always exists, which is why NL is exciting).

You basically were counting on him to read you for weakness and then take a shot at the pot with a big bet with weaker cards.

But you need a very specific read on a player to pass up big +EV now to know he's capable and likely of doing this.

He very well might not even think about your hand, he might not be aggressive, he might not bluff period (alot of players are scared to, etc.)

Basically if you played this hand more aggressively in this exact same situation over and over you will win lots more than the tricky strategy you tried.

The guy will either have a worse ace and will probably call a big flop and turn bets ($ for u) or he has a lower pocket pair and probably folds (unless it's say QQ/JJ) then he might very well STILL call.

This situation is of course very different than if you cripple the deck. In the hand you describe AQ/AJ are very likely holdings that will pay you, if the flop comes like

AAK

then you can sandbag your AK all you want. There are no cards he could be holding that will pay you off.

Basically you slowplay when they would fold now but won't fold later. If they are gonna call now you just go ahead and bet.