Combatting Aggression

In a recent online SNG, down to six handed I was dealt A,Q o/s middle position with blinds 30/60. Action folded to me, I raise $180(?) and small blind calls, big blind reraises to $360. We are both pretty even in chips ($1200 and $1350 respectively). I call(?) and the small blind folds.Flop comes K,Q,2 all diamonds. I have middle pair and Ad. I bet out a feeler $250(?) and BB calls. Turn brings a blank (4c), I bet out another 250 and BB raises me all in ($340). With over 1200 in the pot it is about right to gamble for the diamond (4-1) so I call. River is a blank (8s) and I lose to 3 Q's. I never even considered him for pocket queens ( obviously a flaw in my thinking), but I am constantly pushed off marginal hands by agressive betting and everytime I take a stand, my opponent has something. Please analyze this hand and let me know how to avoid these situations with proper play. In hindsight, I should have believed his pre-flop reraise, as a player protecting his blinds would have just "called" hoping to catch. But this guy was borderline maniac. What do you think?

A lot of this depends on how the BB had been playing thus far, however against a normal player I would have folded to the reraise with AQo. Most people won't reraise with less than AA, KK, QQ, or AK and any of these hands has you beat on the flop. After calling preflop, You would have been better off (imho) to check the flop. He may have checked behind you giving you a free card to give you a chance to catch your flush, or gone all in allowing you to get off the hand with some chips left over. I wouldn't want to be all in with only middle pair and a flush draw no matter what and after your $250 feeler bet you were pretty well pot committed. The flush is the only way you're going to win this hand at that point and I wouldn't want to bet the whole sng on a 30% shot that I'm going to catch another diamond. Wait for a better hand.

I think your feeler bets are a mistake. First off they cost you nearly 30% of your stack, and they give your opponent pot odds of over 4.5-1. He isn't going to go away if he has anything at all. With 840 in your stack and 900 in the pot after the flop, I would probably just move in here. If the villian doesn't have a diamond he might be scared off and your 2-1 to make the nuts. Your middle pair might even be good, and if your opponent had a K then A's and Q's could be outs as well. There was no way to know he had a set, but even if you did moving in is still the play I would choose.

Thanks for the help! I usually bet the pot(or more) if I am pretty sure I am ahead post flop, but I am a little weak when it comes to marginal hands post flop as to bet amounts or betting at all. I am constantly reading articles..."when in doubt, Bet!" that its better to err on the side of agression. But there is a nuance there that I have yet to master. There is an ever growing # of aggressive players (blind stealers) online, and I usually wait for a decent hand to come over the top. But more times than not I still end up second best. I guess my general concern is: Against aggressive players is it a general rule to fold hands like pocket 7's, AQs, etc. against there reraise?

i had almost the exact same situation..... and i regretted that i didn't go all-in after flop hit.

because decent chance you aren't in lead, but you have 22 outs (2 x 11), fold equity and his bluff equity. so you're 40% to hit, 10% he folds, 20% he's bluffing and stays in. so 30% win on bet and 70%*40% or 28% on completing draw. so you're 58% chance to win (you could change the #'s slightly). harrington always gives some minimum % (can't remember what it was) to your opponent bluffing (i think it was 20%). didn't give any credit though in my case to opponent having draws but he won't have many.

and you're gonna have to bet alot of chips if you stay in. so get all-in off flop...... i basically lost 3 hands and went out early in a B&M large-cash no-limit tournament and this one was my biggest regret (and it isn't hindsight 20/20, it was just that i didn't take the time to compute the odds at the table).

thinking my math computations (calculations, assumptions are whatever you want them to be) might be slightly off. but i don't have time now to check.

harrington is full of this type of analysis and i've never seen it elsewhere (i'm sure it's out there though).

[Yahweh]

I agree, you should fold the AQo to a reraise preflop. I had a situation in a tourny the other night where the blinds where 200/400, I raised to 1000 UTG and got reraised by the button 1000. Even though it was the button I KNEW he has AA or KK but called anyway. Flop came Q62, I go all in and get beat by KK. Follow your first instict and always fold AQ to a reraise preflop.

Had another situation at PS where I got AA and reraised a guy who was UTG preflop. Flop came Q97 of hearts and I held the Ah I bet it strong he came over the top of me all in and I called(missed my heart) and lost $120 to a set of Q's. Not sure I could have played that any different though?