Fold top two pair here on flop ?

[jbright]

textbook case of why to you must raise preflop here with AK.

If you raise pre you either take all the limp bets right there (not great but something), or you get called by 1 or 2 and find yourself in position with a decent pot to work with and a hand that probably dominates the callers, and even has 4 outs for top boat if someone by minuscule chance has TT and gets you all-in before the turn.

by limping, you have to worry about a zillion straight and flush draws, have only a small pot to work with or win on the flop, and might have your top two beat already by some shmuck who limped with QJo.

lastly, by raising pre-flop you sniff out the occassional AA or KK limper from under the gun, who will usually throw out a big re-raise which you can then fold or call and play with extreme caution.

[edge]

Raise preflop, raise the flop. You have position; see how the hand develops if you do those things.

The turn is the worst card in the deck, but if you raise the flop, it becomes a lot easier to play.

[Rockatansky]

1. Raising A-K preflop is like being nice to people: sometimes it's hard to do, but you should always do it. You may not always get the results you'd like, but you should always do it.

2. This flop has a little something for everyone, but you're probably ahead. Get as much money in as possible. If you push, I bet you'll get a call (or two).

[theredpill5]

I know . I screwed up. I was down a buy-in going into this table. I wasn't hitting the flop and that is when I sometimes limp with A Q, A J, A K . Here it cost me about $20 on this play.

Villain had A A . He hit a set on the flop. Had I raised preflop, he might have smooth called or he might have reraised me. I knew this player to be decent. Not a great player obviously since if I had two spades or a queen , he's dead and betting into me which didn't make sense. Not like my play was any good here , either.

So I find myself down two buy-ins today. I think I won one pot worth $10 today and the rest of the time I got my ass kicked.

Question #2. I think I know the answer to this. You have JJ in MP. Small stack pushes for $11 and leaves $6 left of their stack behind. Do you reraise all-in here ? I chose to fold which was the worst play thinking I was dominated here. Small stack had 9 9 and the other caller had A Q. I would have won a decent sized pot. I think this is a classic example of not playing for the long run. Most of the time, I'm ahead in this situation and I need to realize this.

[amoeba]

if you have people behind you ,I think folding JJ in that situation has some merit.

and try not to be results oriented. Remember, you were only coinflip with AQ. you had odds since it was 3 way pot but it wasn't that bad of a laydown.

[theredpill5]

Ok, thanks guy. JJ not that bad of a laydown, gotcha. Ok, same question but with Q Q. Just got QQ , I'm on my way back. Just got QQ and put big stack ($220) to the test with Q Q preflop, he called.... quick $60 for me. I feel better. He showed J J . Good play ? Ok, to go all-in preflop with Q Q if you are reraised. I raised to $2 (.25/.50) he reraised to $4 and I reraised all-in.
Big stack read is that he is very very loose with the money. Plays every and I mean every hand and bets about 85 % of the hands he does play on the flop.

[theredpill5]

This big stack is quite good at what he does, though. He will minimum raise preflop so he gets 6 or 7 callers = $6 or so in the pot. Flop is all rags. Everyone checks to him, he bets the pot and everyone folds. He picks up an easy pot. Anyone else do this and what do I need to know to do this effectively ? Also, what if there are two guys on one table who like to do this ?

[amoeba]

if he is that loose, all in with QQ is fine assuming your stack size is not that deep (less than 150bb).

you could also call his minraise.

[amoeba]

this is a dumb play and I hope you figure out why.

The reason that nobody called him on the flop is because they didn't hit anything.

But he allowed 6 to 7 people to see the flop and hit something.

He could have raised more preflop, had 2 or 3 people to the flop, had the same pot size on the flop, and take down just as much money without risking more people hitting their hand on the flop.

if you see a habitual minraiser (aka he does this with both AA/KK as well as marginal hands like AXs, Kj, and the like) , reraise with hands you would normally raise with AQ, AK, TT - AA, call for set value with 99 to 22, call to hit flush/straight with suited connectors. if you don't flop anything, fold.

[theredpill5]

He turned out to be a total fish. He had $270 at one point on a $50 max buy-in and left with $38.