Largest NL hand for me so far....HELP!!!

[ssomega]

Live $100 Max buy-in NL game at area casino.

$1/$2 blinds.

Stack sizes: I had approx $190 and my opponent had $170.

I was CO and opponent was BB.

The guy to my left was on the button and was raising alot after it was limped to him. I had lost many of my $2 limps to him.

I pick up pocket aces. Everyone folds to me so I figured I would limp and the guy next to me would bet his normal $15 or $20 in this situation. Instead, he folded. SB folds and BB raises to $10. I just called.

Flop comes 6, J, 10.

BB checks.

I bet $20 and he called. Should I have bet more?

My thoughts at the time were that he had either AK or 99-QQ pocket pairs. Something told me to be careful by the way he called.

Turn was a 4 or something. No flush draw on board.

He checked again. I felt I might be behind, but hoped he had AK or QQ. I bet $40 and he called again.

River card was an ace!!!! Now Im hoping he has 10,10 or J,J.

He checks again and I go all-in with my remaining $130 or so.

He thinks for what seemed like 2 minutes and finally calls. I was thinking if he has to think this long then I have it for sure.

I show my 3 aces and he flips over KQ for the nut str8.

Please tell me how I should have played this hand and if there was any way I could have not lost my stack here. I never considered he had KQ. I think I was so relieved when the ace fell that it clouded my judgement.

Thanks in advance,
-Steve

[josie_wales]

Check behind him on the turn. Unless he is terrible, chances are he is on some kinda straight draw as he is betting and raising with a set OR an over pair on a board like that....

...not that its super-coordianted, but and J-T flop can be scary.

Each bet you made was about 90% pot....which, I think should be a bit more.....like 100% pot....but 90% is not bad.

On that river, he aint calling with Kings, or a draw that he missed and he aint calling with a smaller set (since you woulda heard from him already.)

Check behind, and either take down a nice pot or save yourself $130.

How does this sound to others?

I am not saying this to be results oriented. I have lost similar pots. Is checking behind a -EV play in the long run?

jw

[Richie Rich]

[ QUOTE ]
On that river, he aint calling with Kings, or a draw that he missed and he aint calling with a smaller set (since you woulda heard from him already.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Your theory makes sense, but the fact that villain took two minutes to make this call seems to indicate that he DID NOT have KQ for the str8 (even though he actually did). A slowplayed set obviously doesn't seem too likely, either...I would've put him on something like A10s.


[ QUOTE ]
Is checking behind a -EV play in the long run?

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't think checking behind scary cards is necessarily -EV, epsecially against tricky opponents in a no limit game. In fact, I'm a proponent for doing so if a flush/str8 card falls on the river, and I was putting my opponent on a draw the whole time. A missed draw won't call, and a made one (or good bluff) will raise.

[Sponger15SB]

This is what I would have done:

Cuss him out for slowrolling.

Did he really take 2 minutes to call with KQ on a board of 6 J T 4 A?

edit - i'm deleting my other advice.

[phil_ivey_fan]

I think you played this hand fine. You potted on the flop...which is fine. Now your turn bet should have been potted...or more.

With that said, he was chasing. After he smooth called $40 on the turn, I'd of check behind him on the river. If he missed his draw, he would have just folded to your river bet anyways. Tough decision...sometimes you can't help the drawers, but you can try to minimize the damage when they hit.

[russian ace]

Why not reraise preflop?

Ace

[Zag]

Preflop: Raise! Limp-Reraise is OK, too, though it defines your hand so well that you want it pretty well over with by there. Your stack is deep enough that it won't be, so you should just bet out. (On the other hand, if you are quite sure of the raise, then you can always limp-reraise huge. They know what you have at this point, but there's nothing they can do about it.)

The point of playing your aces the way you did is that you are sure you can outplay your opponent post-flop. To be blunt, you ain't there yet.

Flop: Your bet is fine. He check-called, which should immediately put up two warning flags.

Flag 1. What draws might he be on? AK/AQ/KQ are the most obvious ones that might also have raised preflop. However, AK/AQ are such thin draws, they would probably bet out looking to take it right there, so KQ is exactly the hand I put him on, if it's a draw.

Flag 2. What monster hands could he be slowplaying? TT and JJ both would have made that preflop raise. JT might slowplay here, but probably wouldn't have raised preflop. So I also include TT and JJ in the list of hands he might have.

This is a horrible situation, because in one case you need an ace, and in the other, you don't want to see it. The only board you'll be really happy with has AA or A6 for the last two cards, and that's pretty darn unlikely. OK, now that your warning flags are in position, let's head for the turn.

Turn, a blank: Note that, if he has KQ, he is drawing pretty thin, because you hold two of his outs. On the other hand, if he has a set, you don't want to bet into the check-raise that is coming. I would check behind.

River: An ace! Hooray! Or maybe ick. He checks. Note that the pot would be a lot smaller if you had checked behind on the turn. You would bet and he would come over the top. It would hurt, but you would be able to lay it down. But, if you had checked behind on the turn, there is very little chance he would try for a check-raise on the river. He would probably have bet out, and you just call it and then curse your foul luck, but you've still just lost a medium-small pot. Not quite as good as if you had made a huge turn bet and he laid it down, but a whole lot better than losing your whole stack.

[Ianco15]

Reraise preflop to 30 or 35. If he calls, make about a pot sized bet on the flop or even push. The pot is already big enough and you want to take it down right there.

[Zag]

[ QUOTE ]
Reraise preflop to 30 or 35. If he calls, make about a pot sized bet on the flop or even push. The pot is already big enough and you want to take it down right there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Either you missed my point, or you thought it wasn't important.

The limp-reraise screams AA/KK. If he knows what you have and you don't know what he has, then he has all the implied odds and you have none. Therefore, your reraise has to be big enough that he can't afford it, even with implied odds.

If the opponent calls the reraise to $30, he still has $140 left to play with. However, with your approach -- that is, putting the wedding ring on your finger -- the opponent can call your bet for $20 more, he knows EXACTLY what you have, and he stands to win $180 if he can beat you. You, on the other hand, have no idea what he has, so you have to go all in. You've already stated that you do not have any way to get away from these aces.

That's why I think it is better, at this 85-90 BBs range of stack size, just to bet out with the aces. If you are going to limp-reraise, do it for a big overbet, more like $50 over his $10 bet. Sure, you've told him what you have, but he doesn't have odds to do anything about it. If he routinely calls these, then he wins $180 one time in six, let's say, and you win $60 five times in six, for a nice profit for you.

At the raise to $30, he wins $180 one time in six, and you win $30 five times in six, for a small profit for him, and more gray hairs for you.

Another alternative is if you sometimes make the limp-reraise with other hands. If he can't reliably put you on AA when you limp reraise, it cuts down his implied odds significantly. This doesn't mean that you should be doing it constantly. It just means that half of the times you limp-reraise, it is with a hand other than AA/KK. Note that you don't get those very often, so you should not be pretending to have them very often, either. However, our hero already said that he had not yet fought back against the theft of his limps, so we can assume that the opponents probably know he is tight.

[okayplayer]

I would re-raise PF. And I agree it should be a disproportionate amount (sometimes I'll even push here making it look like I think that he's trying to steal, and thus blow him off his good hand and will more often than not get a call - though it's usually with shorter stack sizes compared to the bets). I seem to be in the minority that I like the turn bet (maybe make it ~ $30), but why give him a free card when it appears that he is drawing (or has a big hand)? If he does have a set, I think this is where you find out, and it will be cheaper than finding out on the river. Because if you check behind him, then what are you going to do when he bets the river (likely pushing)?