AK with position, miss flop, bet into you

[EchoOfThunder]

I happen to be lucky enough to be going to the main event next month for free, so I'm trying to up the amount of live games I play lately. And since most of the players here are stronger than I am, I'm going to be posting a lot more in the near future to prepare myself as much as possible.

Last night, there was a .5/1 NL game with 60 max buyin. A few players got knocked out and some new ones came in. The villain in this hand was relatively new, so I didnt have a read on him.


Hero Button: AKo, roughly $100
Villain UTG+2: roughly $60

Villain limps, folds to me, I raise to 5. Folds back around, villain calls.

Flop J77 rainbow. Villain bets out 5.

My thinking here is he has something like QJ, but could have KJ, AJ, so if an A or K falls I dont feel safe calling. I thought about trying to win the pot right here by going over the top with say a raise to 17, trying to represent a big pair. Instead I folded. Should I have taken a stab at the pot there hoping he would fold or not? Not having a read made things harder.

As the night went on and my read improved, I think it's safe to say I could not have gotten him out of the hand if he had J with a good kicker.

[rikz]

Fold. I think the board pairing makes this even more of a fold than if the flop was 26J, for example, because in addition to having Jx, he could easily have limp/called with 67s, 78s, or even a two gapper, if he's loose, like 79s or 57s. My point is that against Jx, at least you have outs if you bluff over the top and he calls you. But with the board pairing, he might have a 7x so that if you bluff over the top, he calls, then you hit your A or K on the turn - you're in a lot of trouble and possibly losing your stack.

[EchoOfThunder]

I'm near positive he didnt have a 7 because when the flop hit I saw my friend on the other side of the table start shaking his head and muttering, so i knew HE had a 7, i doubt this guy had the case one.

[swolfe]

easy fold

[jaydub]

I fold unless I have a strong read that the villain is very aggressive.

[amoeba]

its a fold because at these limits and these short stacks people are unlikely to want to let go of top pair and you can't afford to put in significant amount of your chips on a bluff.

if you were both deeper (150 +), I might call the flop, and lead any turn if checked to as thats how I play my overpairs as well.

I don't like raising the flop with overpairs as it defines my hand and creates a large pot that I don't like to manage with just single pair but that might be a leak.