Going limp with aces

[Coilean]

40-80 at the Commerce again. I have AcAh on the button, and raise after 3 players limp in (let's call them L1 - L3). The SB folds, and everyone else calls.

Five of us see the flop of Tc 6d 3c. L1 (a loose player who's running bad) bets, L2 (a very loose player) calls, L3 calls, I raise, BB folds, L1 reraises, L2 calls, L3 folds, and I call.

The turn is the Ts. L1 bets, and both L2 and I call.

The river is the Jh. L1 checks, L2 bets, I call, L1 folds. Comments?

[Ulysses]

I'd play it the same way. Had the ten not paired, I would have probably raised the turn.

[mike l.]

i think you have an easy raise on the river. it's clear that L1 doesnt have a T when he checks the river and the most likely hand for L2 to have is a J or a bluff or something. a T doesnt make sense for L2, wouldnt he raise the turn w/ a flush draw out there rather than try to keep you in?

one good thing about a river raise is you can fold to a reraise. one bad thing is you may not get a call from L2 if you have a tight scary image.

you play well but do you have guts to beat the game for the most you possibly can? (i know i dont). seems like the people i see beat the heck out of that game wouldve raised the flop again, raised the turn, raised the river, raise raise raise never believe the looseys, never slow down, and there hand wouldve been good in the end. was your hand good? did you leave a bunch of money on the table?

[Coilean]

That was my plan exactly.

[Kevin J]

I think calling is preferrable to raising on the turn. IMO-

[Coilean]

L2 had J9 (I told you he was really loose! [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]), so you're right about raising the river. I did consider it, but I decided to try for the low risk low return overcall from L1, which turned out to be as low return as I thought.

[Coilean]

If you don't like waiting until the turn to raise, you should cap the flop, no? One of my main reasons for the delayed raise was the loose player in the middle, who I think will call a turn raise without much thought. Waiting until the turn allows me to squeeze an extra BB out of my opponents assuming 1) L1 won't bet the turn if I cap the flop, 2) L1 will bet the turn if I don't cap the flop, 3) L2 will call both a flop cap and a turn raise, 4) my hand is good. Since all of these factors seemed in play, I went for the delayed raise but was stopped short by the scary turn card, which brought #4 into question (since it seems the most likely hands for L1 are a T or a club draw). Which points out another benefit of waiting until the turn to raise, namely that if I think the turn card beats me, I can save 1SB. Thoughts?

[Kevin J]

I normally don't like putting in maximum bets on the flop when a). There are numerous cards I don't want to see on the turn, and b). There's a chance I could be beaten already.

So I agree. If a club or a ten slide off, you're glad you didn't put that fourth bet in on the flop. If a blank falls, you're glad you didn't take L1 out of the lead, because now you can collect two big bets from each of them. As it was, you still collected one big bet from two players even though you caught a card you can't feel very good about. In short, I think you played it well. IMO-

btw- I'm way out on a limb in disagreeing with MM about how to play a flopped set from this position. Now I don't mind putting in maximum bets on the flop even on a two flushed board. For one thing, it covers for the times I might play a big flush draw the same way. And if a flush does turn, oh well... I still like my chances to fill up in what is now a very big pot that I helped build.