How many bets with the nuts?

[JerseyTom]

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I have AKo on a AK8 flop against a fairly tight player who cold-called my EP raise and is just about all-in, so we only get in 6 flop bets (he has A3o... ok, maybe he wasn't so decent).

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Just curious, but do you usually go to the felt for 6 bets on the flop with someone you consider tight and decent with only the 4th nuts? Granted it is slim that he does not have AA or KK since he did not pop it again PF, but 88 is quite a possiblity wouldn't you think?

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I've been in this situation only 3 times, so I can't speak to what I "usually" do.

His stack size was definitely a factor (he was 2 seats to my left so I could see it clearly). I'm 3-betting this flop pretty much every time (vs 1 opponent or vs 9) and I can't fathom folding at any point, esp. not HU vs a nearly-all-in player (I've seen even decent-seeming players do some really stupid sh*t when they're nearly all-in). If I'm behind to 88, well that's too bad, but I have outs. I'm mostly discounting AA/KK at this point.

Once he makes it 4-bets on the flop, it's all going in on the turn anyway, right? The pot is 12.5 SB's (I was UTG and he now has 2 SB's left in front of him), so it costs me 3 SB's more (1 to call his 4-bet, and 2 to match the rest of his stack) to win 14.5 which works out to ~17%. I'm going to outdraw his 88 about that often with 2 cards to come, and I'm going to be way ahead another huge chunk of the time. Might as well pop it once more on the flop to punish his AQ or whatever...

Yes, I actually thought all this out in the middle of the hand.


Tom