TPTK

[TakeMeToTheRiver]

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First, the raise is a good idea, but make it more than $4...When he plays back at you after your $4 raise, he could be playing you for a steal....or could have you in bad shape.


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I agree with the rest of your post, but I don't know why a bigger raise is in order here. First, if $4 is his standard pre-flop raise he needs to stick with it. Second, $4 is 4xBB (I believe -- I play mostly on PS) which is significant as the first player entering the pot. Third, in my experience, a bigger raise than 4xBB in this situation would almost always make lesser hands fold while keeping better hands in.

I don't believe the concept of stealing and re-stealing is that important in a cash game. The blinds are always going to be relatively small and will never go up. Unless someone is habitually raising my BB from the button in a cash game, I give up my $1 to this raise with a mediocre hand. And if you play a hand like ATs for a raise and you are reraised (as is the case here), I think you release the hand unless the reraiser has shown himself to be over-agressive.

[knucklehead]

Could he have reraised preflop with QJh?

[SpiderMnkE]

How often was this guy reraising.

A reraise usually means AT is in serious trouble.

[JohnG]

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Making it to the turn and then folding is generally a poor idea.

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Please explain?

Justin A

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Because of the ratios and the type of hand he had.

On the flop, the ratios are too short to generally call a bet with this type of hand. It's related to getting better hands to fold, worse hands to call, and not getting bluffed on a later street.

With this particular flop ratio, the pot was so big relative to the remaining stacks if he called, that the pot was worth taking now and needed protecting if he did have the best hand with top pair. If he was ahead, he may not be that far ahead. Some players will call the allin with hands he buries, due to the drawing nature of board, psychology of the moment, and pot odds due to ratios. In other situations, they may fold hands he is happy to see fold. Lots of scare cards can come on turn that get him bluffed out of a relatively big pot or lose action from worse hands.

In this situation discussed. On these ratios with a drawing board, and you just call the flop bet, plenty of hands we have beat follow through all-in on turn when the draws miss. So calling the flop and folding the turn is just giving a significant % of your chips away.

Usually you move in if you are going to play with these types of hands and only 1 bet left if you call. If you make it to the turn, it is usually because you have taken the mental committment to play for your chips, and think this is better than moving in on flop. I.e. a very aggressive player you read as having very few outs and will fold if you move in on flop, but bluff allin on turn if you just call the flop bet.

Save the flop calls, when there will only be 1 bet left, for draws, bigger made hands, or a bluff. You can then fold on the turn if things don't go as planned, as you can not beat many of the hands he can move in with, like you could with top pair. You will be making a good decision on turn with these hands, whereas you will often be making wrong decisions with top pair type of hands.

Calling a flop bet to see what happens on turn would be ok with the type of hand discussed above if there would be more than 1 bet left if he called. In this example, it would mean both players having about 115+ left on the flop. Calling the 15 bet and then folding the turn to a further bet would then be ok with the AT.