Bahamas hand

[Tyler Durden]

Level One. 25/50. I have about 11k.

Two EP limpers, I make it t350 in MP w/ AK. Folded back to the first limper who reraises to 1200. Folded to me.

Do I call? It seemed to me and really felt like he had QQ or JJ. Let's just assume he doesn't have AA or KK, for sake of argument. So if I hit the flop I can win the pot. But he may check and fold if the flop comes A or K high. Meaning I won't make any more than what is already in there.

Or should I reraise, and show him I'm committed to the pot?

You guys see my problem here?

[Tyler Durden]

If I put in the third raise, obviously I'm willing to go all-in and take the coinflip in level one for all of my chips (not sure if I had him covered, it was close either way).

But should I take the flip this easy?

Do I have any folding equity? Would I put in a third raise w/ KK or AA or would I smoothcall for deception?

Or could I flatcall his limp reraise and push over him on the flop, representing AA or KK? This seems too risky.

Thoughts?

[MLG]

If you make it 3.5k I can't imagine that his push could be anything but AA/KK and I would then fold to a push. If he calls its much much trickier to play the flop.

[ClaytonN]

I like the reraise to gain more information in the hand. If you just call, you'll be hard pressed to make a move if your ace or king does not hit, and furthermore you don't know for sure if you're ahead if you hit your A or K (though it's safe to say a majority of the time you will be).

[MLG]

[ QUOTE ]
If you just call, you'll be hard pressed to make a move if your ace or king does not hit

[/ QUOTE ]

Its harder to make a move on the pot if you miss with AK after you put in the third raise. Now on the flop the pot is 7.5k and thats about what you have in your stack. You have to make a big decision here with very little wiggle room.

[ClaytonN]

He does have position, though. Plus, the third raise is not going to give off a read of AK to villain, don't you think?

I will admit though that I wouldn't know how to address the flop properly if I put in a third raise and the flop missed the AK. If the flop was all rags, how can villain get away from their hand, assuming hero's read? I could see them maybe laying down JJ or TT, but for the most part you're screwed with the pot about the size of your chip stack

[MLG]

That's right. If he calls the reraise (not a given by any means as I think there are lots of players who will lay down JJ and might lay down QQ here) you also cannot rule out AA (that's how I would play AA in this situation).

So, if you see a flop, 70% of the time you have a pot as big as your stack and no clue if your opponent can lay down a hand which is certainly ahead of you. Not fun. Personally if my 3rd raise is called and i miss im pretty much done with the hand. If he won't fold QQ preflop there, he's not gonna fold it on an undercard flop.

[ClaytonN]

One thing I did notice was how narrow Tyler's read was, though.

In this case, I guess our assumption is that villain is a tight and solid player?

So how to address with a looser/weak player. On one end, your AK is probably better and more valuable to reraise with, but on the other hand you're getting on the gambling side in a big pot with a lesser-skilled player. Whether or not that's good or bad is up to the tournament structure and situation.

And furthermore, how to play AK in this scenario against a loose aggro? This seems like the opportunity to call the raise.

[MLG]

loose weak players dont limp reraise very often, when they do I'm inclined to think they have the goods.

Against a LAGy player im willing to call with position here, and hope he bluffs a ton of chips to me.

[Ross]

In your position I am through with the hand at this level there is no way I would be looking to put a signifcent number of chips in a pot which could be at best a 50:50 shot. Incedently if I was the limp reraiser it would be AA or KK every time without fail.

One of the reasons I deploy the tactic is it is amazing how often an aggressive player will try to blow you off the pot with a big bet with an AK.

Ross