Late night AA

[perfectm]

Curious about how people feel this hand was played. I'll give results later.


Texas Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1)
Seat 6 is the button.
Seat 1: UTG+2 ($88 in chips)
Seat 2: MP1 ($60.50 in chips)
Seat 3: MP2 ($57 in chips)
Seat 4: LP ($110.25 in chips)
Seat 5: CO ($93 in chips)
Seat 6: button ($101.75 in chips)
Seat 7: SB ($94.25 in chips)
Seat 8: BB ($26 in chips)
Seat 9: hero (utg) ($32.75 in chips)
Seat 10: UTG+1 ($18 in chips)
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to hero [Ad Ah]
hero: calls $1
UTG+1: calls $1
UTG+2: folds
MP2: calls $1
3 players fold
SB: calls $0.50
BB: checks
----- FLOP ----- [5s Qs 7d]
SB: bets $1
BB: folds
hero: raises to $6
1 player folds
MP2: calls $6
SB: calls $5
----- TURN ----- [5s Qs 7d][6s]
SB: checks
hero: bets $25.75 and is all-in
MP2: calls $25.75
SB: folds
----- RIVER ----- [5s Qs 7d 6s][6c]

[tbach24]

[ QUOTE ]
hero: calls $1

[/ QUOTE ]

NO

[VayaConDios]

Perfect. If some fish somehow sucked out on your aces, well, that's poker. Remember, it's all about the long run.

[Digs]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
hero: calls $1

[/ QUOTE ]

NO

[/ QUOTE ]

to expand a bit:

it's tough to push when you can't exclude a lot from your opponent's range of possible hands

[perfectm]

UTG, I believe the proper play with AA is a call. Hope for a raise so that I can re-raise. I'm not alone in this thinking.

I'm wondering if the turn push when the flush card comes is smart play though.

[tbach24]

If nearly all hands are being raised, it's fine to try for a LRR, but under normal circumstances in SSNL its FPS.

[perfectm]

[ QUOTE ]
If nearly all hands are being raised, it's fine to try for a LRR, but under normal circumstances in SSNL its FPS.

[/ QUOTE ]

FPS?

[tbach24]

Fancy Play Syndrome

[soah]

No point in going for a limp-reraise when you're already starting the hand horribly shortstacked.

[pokernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
UTG, I believe the proper play with AA is a call. Hope for a raise so that I can re-raise. I'm not alone in this thinking.

I'm wondering if the turn push when the flush card comes is smart play though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like others, I am not a big fan of limping in UTG with pocket aces. Doing an LRR is an example of FPS ;-) and it's good to occasionally mix up your game by doing that so you're not too predictable. However, because this is a small-stakes game, it's better to play straightforward (since people might not be paying that much attention to you anyway. ;-)). Also, you should take into account the table you're playing at. What percentage of pots are raised pre-flop? If the answer is "not much" then it's better to raise with a hand like AA because you DO NOT want a lot of callers. Ideally at most one or two callers.

In your case, you got four callers, so were in a five-handed pot, which is a near disaster for AA.

I am also not a big fan of pushing in when you did. Really, it's one of those cases where you would probably only get called if you have the worst hand with the chips going in. Given that two people called your pot-sized raise, one of your opponents either has a strong draw (e.g., flush or straight) and is hoping to squeeze the right implied odds, trips, two pair, or top pair. Outside of the draws, you can only beat top pair.

Given the strength you showed by betting the pot on the flop (and the fact that there were two calls) means that when you go on all in someone is only likely to call if they can beat top pair (e.g., have at least two pair or made the flush). It would be a REAL bad idea for someone to call with just a top pair.

Given that the board paired on the river you may have lucked out and won the hand anyway if you wre facing two pair, but I don't think your push on the turn was correct.

Just my $0.02. I'm curious to see what people had...