2/5 6 handed AK hand...

[AZK]

Home game. Button is a smart LAG. Tearing through the game since we are mostly weak-tight. CO is a decent player, one of those that relies on his "gut" compared to the odds and what not, a close friend who respects my play since he knows how tight I play. I have about 500, both have me covered.

CO makes it 15, standard raise. Button makes it 50. Button frequently raises pots from all positions and takes most of them down on the flop with a 1/2-3/4 pot bet. Haven't seen too many re-reaises from him though, he doesn't really cold call another raise or reraise often. If it's limped to him he raises, or he open raises. I have AKo in the SB. Hero?

I kind of froze in this situation. Wasn't sure what to do. Short handed, deepstack NL is difficult. I thought about the whole not building a pot out of position idea, and also how 50 was out 1/10 of my stack, or possibly what the CO was going to do so I just flat called, but in hindsight it seems like cards don't really matter here. CO looked puzzled, folded. Button would bet any flop when checked to or nearly raise any flop that was bet if he sensed weakness.

Flop is rainbow rags. I check, He bets 30, I call.

Turn is another rag. I check, He bets 50, I fold.

After several hours of playing in this game I realized how weak I was when I was playing in these stakes. In hindsight, I probably should have repopped it from the SB preflop and taken it down, as villian has showed down his fair share of ugly hands and had been rolling over the table. A huge c/r on the turn might have also worked... Thoughts?

[pilamsolo]

The $30 on the flop seems a little out of line. You mentioned he usually makes 1/2-3/4 pot bets on the flop regardless of his hand, so $30 here would strike me as fishy. If he's smart and he's noticed you're a tight player, he might even be scared of you. I think if you're going to put a move on him you should do it on the flop. If you wait till the turn and he bets a reasonable amount you're pot committed with any decent raise. If you have enough BR to handle some swings, I say make it $150 on the flop. If, on the other hand, that 500 is all you brought with you I would probably muck it PF and wait for a better spot.

Overall, I think tangling with a LAG here can show a lot of benefits later even if you lose this hand, since the rest of the table will be more likely to call your raises and the LAG will be less likely to put moves on you down the line. Of course, down the line is meaningless if you can't rebuy.

-Solo