Shorthanded Question

[3rdEye]

I'm sure that this is a common question, but I'd like some feedback.

I play .25/.50 at PokerStars. Often, I'm dealt AQ-AK on the button after no limpers. I raise, and SB and BB both call. If I miss the flop, I'm not entirely sure how to act. I play aggressively preflop, so my thinking is that the blinds are aware of this and are trying to play back against a potential steal.

My question is, at what point, in general, do you give up a hand when the flop misses you and you have big cards when playing against the blinds?

I realize that in many respects this is player dependent, but my intuition is that there are some general guidelines to follow in such situations.

The problem I'm having is that I seem to be losing more by bluffing when I miss the flop than I'm gaining by betting for value when I hit the flop (as most microlimit players are willing fold to a preflop raiser when there are big cards on the flop).

Should I simply give up betting out on the flop when I miss? My instinct is that I should not, as this will make me too predictable.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. I think I'm bluffing too much money away in these situations.

[k000k]

Against the blinds, A-hi is the best hand a lot of the time. I'd bet the flop no matter what flops. I might take a free river card, depending on the players in, and what the board looks like on the turn.

Predictable, not.. You could have an overpair, a strong draw, all kinds of things.. Nobody is gonna assume you missed the flop when you bet it after a PF raise. If you take a free turn card, THEN I'll assume that!

[Fiddler]

[ QUOTE ]

Predictable, not.. You could have an overpair, a strong draw, all kinds of things.. Nobody is gonna assume you missed the flop when you bet it after a PF raise. If you take a free turn card, THEN I'll assume that!

[/ QUOTE ]

Which can then make it fun to sometimes check the turn in last position with AQ, AK against the right opponent even if it hits you.

[DMBFan23]

checking! GASP! We'd give a ... free card ...*shudders*

...


I'm being sarcastic, I really like mixing up my play like this in the right situations.

[Fiddler]

[ QUOTE ]
checking! GASP! We'd give a ... free card ...*shudders*


[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, and one of these days I'll reveal what the button marked 'Call' does. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Dave H.]

If you have SSH, please turn to page 273. It's an AJo hand example where the flop is missed. This does happen so often and that example goes into depth about the author's thinking when faced with this situation. There are so many variables involved that I would never have thought of...who's doing the betting, where is he betting from, is the board coordinated, etc.

It's definitely worth a read!

[Smasharoo]

Overcards are just a pain to play. They'll allways be a pain to play, especially shorthanded against two blinds from a steal position. I used to agonize over what to do with them, now if I don't have a clear play based on reads I try to randomize between playing them agressively and letting them go. I don't know what the game theory approriate ratio for that would be, but I find myself agressively playing them about 1/3 of the time from steal positions and letting them go 2/3 of the time.