80/160 #5: AA in CO

Nate tha' Great · #1 06-23-2005, 01:23 PM

80/160 main game, early Tuesday evening.

Let's get the player reads out of the way first.

LMP is a solid player who also happens to be from Chicago but has a rapport with some of the locals and has obviously played in this game a fair bit. My sense is that he's a little too aggressive, especially preflop, but only slightly so.

HJ is an Asian dude, probably in early 40s, with expensive-looking glasses and spiky hair. He's apparently a semi-regular in this game and is considered a donator. He plays like a maniac at times, and is in that mode now, and is probably raising about 35% of his hands before the flop. He's also very aggressive after the flop and makes some reasonable-but-not-expert hand reads. He's good-natured and well-spoken but clearly seems to enjoy making moves and drawing out on people. I had also made the silly mistake in an earlier session (at a time when I didn't yet realize quite how aggressive he was) of showing him a "tough" fold; he showed too and my hand would have been good.

My table image is a little funny. I don't think I'd won a pot since moving to the main game, and had shown down one losing bluff and one losing bottom pair hand (A2s) in which I had attempted to isolate the HJ. At the same time, I hadn't been playing many hands at all, and had been joking some with HJ about how he was going to need to quit raising so that I could play some cards. FWIW, I felt at the time that both LMP and HJ regarded me as a tightish player.

Anyway LMP open-raises, HJ 3-bets, I 4-bet on the CO with AA. They both call. HJ asks me what I have and the table has been pretty chatty so I decide it's better to say something rather than nothing and say "uhh, queens. Aces."

The flop is 9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. I think I have the A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] but am not sure. LMP bets out, HJ calls, I raise, LMP 3-bets, HJ calls, I 4-bet, LMP caps it at 5, we both call.

The turn is a small heart that doesn't make straights. LMP bets out, HJ says something along the lines of "I killed your queens" and raises, I fold.

autobet · #2 06-23-2005, 01:41 PM

Aren't you getting pot odds to draw to a full house?

steveyz · #3 06-23-2005, 01:44 PM

Sure looks like someone hit a set. Someone may have JT[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], but the other one probably has you beat. I think it's a tough fold but the correct fold.

steveyz · #4 06-23-2005, 01:46 PM

The board isn't paired, so he's drawing to a set, not a full house. By my count, there's about 17 BBs in the pot when it's 2 cold to him on the turn, so he's getting about 8.5:1 immediate odds.

IndieMatty · #5 06-23-2005, 02:07 PM

This fold is reasonable when playing reasonable opponents. Not playing a maniac, guy who likes to pull moves, etc. I don't like it. For sanity's sake, I call.

brick · #6 06-23-2005, 02:27 PM

Next time say "Diamonds."

YoureToast · #7 06-23-2005, 02:41 PM

Can't fold here, but you can fold if 3 bet by LMP, cuz then a set is a virtual certainty....You could be looking a QQ, JJ, KK, AK, TT, JT (unlikely from LMP), AQh, AJh, KQh...from either or both players....They think you're tight and may be trying to knock you off your top pair (which they are fairly certain you have). Tons of cash in the pot so I just don't think a fold here is right. I also probably would have slowed down one bet sooner on the flop, although I'm not sure of this.

mach3 · #8 06-23-2005, 03:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Can't fold here, but you can fold if 3 bet by LMP, cuz then a set is a virtual certainty...

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed - you said the HJ takes delight in making a move. Would LMP have called 2 raises preflop w/ 88 or 99 out of position?

Nate tha' Great · #9 06-27-2005, 09:13 AM

Laggy Asian guy had 9 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] and made a straight on the end. Decent player mucked rather disgustedly and said that he had folded a set. The five-bet cap made my decision easier here as it makes an overpair versus overpair situation less likely. And it was good to know that I was behind the whole way, and would have been in third place at showdown. Still, this is the sort of hand that keeps one up at nights.