AK vs a good player - opinions

[lancastrian]

Hi all,
A hand from last nights game. 10-20, B&M.

Opponent in this hand is the BB. He is a good, solid player. Ive played with him a bit (maybe 4 or 5 times). I respect his play. Similarly, he is of the opinion that Iam a good player(this opinion may or may not be correct!), although perhaps overly tight in his opinion. OK, on to the hand.

Im UTG with AK off and I raise. All fold to the BB who calls. Now although he is not the type to call with any two here, the range of hands he is likely to play here is wide.

Flop: 4s 5d 10h

BB bets, I call.

Turn: 5h

BB bets. I think for a few seconds and raise.

I know the BB likes to push his overcards hard and also pushes his thin value bets pretty hard too. So my thinking was that there is a good chance Im ahead at the moment and if Im behind I can probably push him off a weak holding.

Anyway, he thinks for like 20 seconds and calls.

River: Qs

BB checks, I fire again, and the BB calls pretty quickly.

I table my AK and the BB shows AQo.

This hand generated about 20 min of discussion afterwards and opinion was divided as to who played it best. The BB said he was convinced I had AK, and that was the only reason he called my turn raise. My response to this remark was two fold. Firstly, there is no way from my general playing style that he could put me so confidently on AK. I had been raising preflop quite a lot in this session due to a nice run of cards and to put me definitively on AK was poor (but in this case correct!). Secondly, if he did believe I had AK then I would have thought the correct play (given the cards he had) would be to fold to my turn raise.

Obviously on the river he got lucky and hit his 3 outer. C'est la vie.

I'd really appreciate the opinions of the forum on this one. The opinion of some of the more knowledgeable players at the table was that I played the hand well. But one player in particular (whom I respect), believed my opponent played the hand well since my opponent thought I had AK. I thought this was garbage. If my opponent thinks I have AK then surely (given that he has AQ) the appproiate move is to fold to my turn raise.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, I wanted to try to get all my thoughts on this hand out.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

Graeme

[Clarkmeister]

Your action in this hand is confusing. You are UTG, but you have BB acting as if he had position on you.

[lancastrian]

Hi clark,
Im an idiot. The action should read that on the flop he bets and I call. On the turn he leads out, I raise, and then he calls. On the river he checks, I bet, and he calls.
Thanks

Graeme

[Clarkmeister]

You should just check behind on the river. On that board you are generally getting called by any pair, even with the Q on the river. Now if you think he can muck Ah4h or 99 or something for one bet on the river, then betting is OK. But most players are going to look you up here.

[Blake Lovely]

The call on the turn is debatable if he is 100% certain you have AK. He is getting a little better than 6-1 on a call. He has 6 outs to chop and 3 outs to win. Its correct to fold but its not the worst play ive ever seen.
If he was 100% sure you had ak he probly should have raised the river when you bet. If I were you I would have just checked the river. I dont think he is going to lay down a better hand, and will probly fold any worse hands.

Considering he could have a pair. I probly would have raised the flop and not wait til the turn. However, an argument can be made for checkraising the turn, I guess its player dependant.

[SinCityGuy]

You played the hand well until the river (where you should have checked behind). Your opponent played poorly on the turn (he should have folded), but he got lucky and spiked his 3-outer.

[astroglide]

wtf is with people defending AQ and leading the flop? it seems to have become an epidemic

[nopepper]

If he is so certain your on AK why didnt he re-raise your turn bet and try to pick up the pot right there or re-raise your river bet. I think he is Full of S and IMO not a good player