AA in NL400 - Villain takes confusing line

[DonButtons]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Preflop raise was very small so his range is large. My first reaction was 98s.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know, but the raise fits very well with my metagame. My range is likewise very large here, probably much larger than his.


[/ QUOTE ]



LOL, who cares. Make it at least 18 here, with AA, you don't want to give the whole table good odds to stack you.

[thabadguy]

I reraise flop to about 200. Turn is a very interesting street to me, i am not sure what to do without reads and it would be made much easier with a flop reraise.
If he does tend to CR his draws, in gonna bet turn, else check behind.
I really think reraising flop is key here.
His turn check call after thinking and then pushing the river looks very suspicious to me. I am torn between a missed draw/monster and as you played the hand, i would have no clue what to do, and prolly convince myself to call.

P.S if he does tend to call such pf raises with anything, raise bigger pf.

[The Bear]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a recommendation that is unrelated to this specific hand : In this game, make your preflop raises 25 always - whether you have AA or connectors or whatever, just make it clear that if people want to play pots with you you're not [censored] around - Seeing a 15 preflop bet in a 400 game - even if that's the standard open, makes me cringe. Force people to make more difficult decisions whenever you can.

Just what I would do.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a good suggestion, and I've considered raising my standard open (I actually only open-raise to 11 in this game, which probably makes you want to vomit), but this number works very well for me. Remember that a lot of players are playing short online, so I need to be careful of getting jammed by the short-stacks and having to fold. Also, keeping my opens small lets me call many more reraises than if I were to open to 25.

Like I said, I like the idea, but in this particular game, I think my style works better.

[The Bear]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Preflop raise was very small so his range is large. My first reaction was 98s.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know, but the raise fits very well with my metagame. My range is likewise very large here, probably much larger than his.


[/ QUOTE ]



LOL, who cares. Make it at least 18 here, with AA, you don't want to give the whole table good odds to stack you.

[/ QUOTE ]

I care. And my bank account cares.

I don't log on every few days to play a couple of hours during peak Party Poker traffic, never to see the same players again. I log thousands of hands a week with many of the same players. Metagame considerations are CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to my success. Giving the whole table good odds to stack me is not my only concern when I play a hand.

[The Bear]

[ QUOTE ]
I reraise flop to about 200. Turn is a very interesting street to me, i am not sure what to do without reads and it would be made much easier with a flop reraise.
If he does tend to CR his draws, in gonna bet turn, else check behind.
I really think reraising flop is key here.
His turn check call after thinking and then pushing the river looks very suspicious to me. I am torn between a missed draw/monster and as you played the hand, i would have no clue what to do, and prolly convince myself to call.

P.S if he does tend to call such pf raises with anything, raise bigger pf.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure why multiple people want to reraise the flop. What do you do if he pushes? With a reraise, you build a large pot with a mediocre hand and put yourself in position to get run off by a draw. That doesn't sound good to me.

Calling the flop makes your hand slightly less readable and it allows you to keep the pot small and cut one street of equity from a big draw. And it's nearly as scary as a reraise.

[IHateCats]

Without a better idea about how your opponent plays, I'd suggest laying it down here, the way the hand developed I seriously doubt you're ahead enough times here to justify the call.

Two possible hands no one else has mentioned that would potentially be consistent with this play are 87 or KK. 87 could have just been testing you on the flop with the CR to either try to take the pot there or push you off two overcards that likely missed there. When the 2nd 8 comes on the turn, he shifts into trapping with a monster mode and when you call the turn, he can hope you won't let go of an overpair and is trying to maximize his $.

A limped big pair like KK or QQ could be simply betting what they believe is the best hand and trying to maximize their $ by playing in an unorthodox style hoping to get you call with JJ or 10-10.

[Stormwolf]

Your getting 2-1, he is probably 5-1 dog(maybe more, maybe less) to check-raise with JT then try a crazy bluff on the river

[gomberg]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't log on every few days to play a couple of hours during peak Party Poker traffic, never to see the same players again. I log thousands of hands a week with many of the same players. Metagame considerations are CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to my success. Giving the whole table good odds to stack me is not my only concern when I play a hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're vastly overestimating metagame considerations and think you're giving up WAY too much EV by raising the same amount all the time --- especially at 2-4. Start mixing up your raising amounts or make it more.

I usually raise bigger with my high pockets (all the way up to 10-20), and as long as you do this once in a while with a non-high pocket, you can hide the information effectively enough that people will still have some doubt as to what you have.

This is pretty important IMO especially if you find yourself losing large pots with high pockets because you made it easy for an opponent preflop to call.

[lapoker17]

If you never change your opening amount, you can never fall into any type of pattern. If you have AA in BB and the table limps and you make an enormous bet to take it down, fine, but I think changing your opening amounts is a leak - One I'm frequently able to use against players who do.

But I'm open to other perspectives, so convince me why it's good.

[Eegs]

I fold here...He's got a monster...that river bet screams I want this to look like a bluff so call me