difficult situation against tough opponent...

[bholdr]

stars 5/10- this one kept me up thinking about it last night. i am lost.

I have the BI with [34]3, it gets folded around to the TAG guy on my right, who raises with an ace showing. he's a tough player who i have seen a few times. he is capable of making some strong, aggressive moves, so i've been avoiding him in general when i can. this time, though, I thought i had to call to keep him from stealing from me a lot in the future... I assume he's noticed that i play strongly as well, and i had been very aggressive at this table. I am getting to know this player (if it's one of you guys, i wanna know...)

fourth, i get very lucky and get another 3, he catches a 6.

i double-bet, he raises (bingo! they never give the BI credit for trips!), i call.

fifth I brick and he gets another 6, he bets i raise, he re-raises, i call. hmmm...

sixth, he gets another ace, i fold to his bet...


gotta let it go, right? too weak? call it down and/or hope to get a full? damnit. I shoulda let him take it on third, huh? or... re-raise on third for cheap info? grrrr...

[Jeffage]

Warning: I have had a lot to drink tonight so...forgive me in advance if this sucks.

But...I think you should go ahead and fold 3rd. You say this guy's a strong player who you've been avoiding in general b/c he makes strong moves. So now you're going to get involved with him in a tightly structured game when he opens with an ace and you have a measly pair of 3's? I would fold this. It would be one thing if you had (3,A) 3, then you at least can know it's less likely for him to have the aces. Or if he had a Q up and you had (3,K) 3 and one queen was out or whatever. In this situation, against a good player in particular, I'm done with it. Don't forget, if he doesn't have Aces, he probably still has some kinda hand. Some other buried pair bigger than three, three big cards, etc.

Ok, as played...if he's a good player, I may have actually waited till 6th to raise instead of 5th. He's clearly represented aces up and you're still raising which should tell him it's very likely you have trips. A good player might be able to lay down aces up here to the raise...and if he has less that than that (say buried 10's), he almost certainly will fold and you really don't want him to. Also, if he is just pushing, let him keep pushing. On the whole, I wait till 6th unless I know he's not capable of laying a hand down. Not a mistake, just my pers. preference.

As for 6th street, the pot is large so you have to think it through. The thing is, I doubt he plays 5th as hard without aces up. Even then, it's sort of aggro, esp. after you're raise of his open pair. I'd probably fold there also.

Only poss is if he had a different bigger pair down (kings, queens, jacks). Were these cards live? If ALL of them we're live, it's something to think about. But in general, I think you're boned on 6th. I'll revisit this in the morning after a shower and warm washcloth to see if I botched the post.

Jeff

[Roland]

3rd street is a fold, yeah.

Would he really raise a paired door with just aces on 4th? You did say he’s aggressive, but that’d be just stupid/over-aggressive (he should actually fold…). Looks more like A6A6 to me…

… which is why I don’t like raising 5th street. You loose the maximum when you’re behind and he might actually fold if he really is a strong player. I agree with Jeff that you should just let him drive the betting.

6th street is tough - I wouldn’t fold, personally, but I’d probably better.

[MRBAA]

Folding 3rd is the play. The situation won't come up that often and if it seems he's getting too frisky you can slap him back when he doesn't have an ace in the door. Jeff mentions a situation where you have (3K)3 and he has a Q, I don't even need one of his Qs dead to play there.

In this hand, folding costs little, you can't outplay later, so just fold. Now when you catch trips, no way does he have to have aces up to be aggressive on fourth. In fact, I think it's more likely he just has aces or even something like (JJ)A and doesn't believe you have trips. There's also a chance he started with (66)A and made trips sixes as well. A solid player against another solid player is not likely to three bet fifth without strength, so that's scary -- but if he's aggressive he might get carried away with aces up or even jacks up.

You're getting 10-1 immediate odds, but really only 5.5-1 if you plan to call river as well. I think it's close and you certainly did not make a big mistake by laying down -- I probably do the same against a solid opponent who I feel respects my play.