Fold AA Pre-fl... errr, on the turn?

[FloppedFlush]

Here's a hand from last night's Stars 10+1 Rebuy.

Early in the second hour, I have about 13,000 chips which is good for about 70th out of 800 and 2nd on my table.

Blinds are 100/200. I get A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] in MP. UTG limps, I raise to 800. The one player who has me covered (about 22,000 chips) calls from the small blind and the UTG limper calls. Three of us see a flop of 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] with 2,600 in the pot.

The small blind bets out 1,000 and UTG folds. My thinking at this point is that I'm either way ahead or way behind, and either way, calling seems like a good option. If I'm ahead, then I'm slowplaying to let him keep putting more chips in the pot. If he has a 9, then I want to get away as cheaply as possible if he decides to only go for half my stack instead of all of it.

So I call and see a turn of 4[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. The small blind now moves all in. Call or fold?

[Ghazban]

Yes, you are either way ahead or way behind. The problem with calling the flop is that you don't know which one it is. If you raise it and get played back at, its much easier to fold than on the turn where you are now put to a difficult decision. I can't imagine ever being in this situation on the turn but, if I somehow got fastforwarded to that spot, I'd lay it down and curse myself for not raising the flop.

[krabby5]

With no draws out, I'm guessing he has a big pair in his hand..but not as big as yours..
Would he call your preflop bet with A-9 or K-9 out of position? I hope not....

But he could have gotten lucky and flopped a set of 4's or 2's for the boat...

I would have to call..you pretty much need to get lucky and take chances once in awhile in those huge MTT..

[gergery]

When you called his flop bet, you look like you have AK.
So you still don't know whether he limped with 88 or 98.

I think most players are more likely to call out of position with a pair rather than 98s type hand, so i'd figure him for JJ-22 (except 99 here). I could see JJ, TT playing like this, but also 22. and if he's very good, 88-33 as well. I also don't think he would push with a nine, but rather milk it with another potsize bet.

So call, but this is very read dependent.

[Sundevils21]

I'm confused. Is the problem because you can't find the call button on your computer fast enough?
I doubt he has a better hand than you, but if he does bless his heart. That is a tournament situation you dream for.

[durron597]

I would raise the flop to about 4000. If he pushes in behind you, I would call, but if he just calls I would start to worry about A9 or 22. When you have a big pair on a paired board, most of the time you have the best hand but you tend to lose a lot of chips the times that you don't. Thus the correct play is to raise to find out whether has you beat or not.

[FloppedFlush]

Thanks for the comments. I agree that given the way I played the flop, it seemed like an easy call. I put him on a pocket pair and that he was raising to try to get overcards to fold since I represented overcards by calling the flop. By slow-playing I was trying to induce a bluff, and it succeeded, so I called pretty quickly.

I think the more interesting part (even more so now than at the time), is how to play the flop. If the flop had come something like QQ2 instead of 992, then I think it's definitely right to raise the flop to find out where I am in the hand. If raised or called, I have no problem getting away from the hand without investing many more chips into it.

The problem with the 992 flop is that he's unlikely to be playing a hand with a 9 in it in this spot (and in his eyes, I'm almost as unlikely to be playing a hand with a 9 in it), so he's about as likely to be calling or re-raising with a hand I beat (KK, QQ, JJ, etc.) as he is to be calling or re-raising with a hand I lose to (A9, K9, 22, 99). So even after the raise, I still don't know where I stand. I think if I raise and he pushed all-in, I still wind up calling.

Any thoughts on this part of it?

[dmk]

Let me put it this way. Do you play any hand that is ahead of you like the SB did?

Do you really think he plays a boat or a 9 THAT strongly? Doubt it. Call.

[soxfan70]

Call. What hand would he have called your raise with that puts him ahead here? Maybe he calls the raise with 44, or 22, but i don't know. I can think of only one that makes sense and that's 99. What are the odds the guy flopped quads? And if he did, oh well, you've got a great story for SossMan's bad beat site.

[dogmeat]

In this spot I can see the SB calling with a nine, but I have trouble seeing him bet it this way. FWIW, I would have raised a bit more than 800, and when the SB bets a crappy little 1k into a 2.5k pot, I raise the size of the pot.

Dogmeat [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]