4-betting AKo preflop (NL25 SH)

[restless]

Villain is ~35/12 over a smallish sample. I've seen him minraise before (no good read on his range though)
My image is reasonable.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool (http://poker-tools.flopturnriver.com/Hand-Converter.php) from FlopTurnRiver.com (http://www.flopturnriver.com) (Format: 2+2 Forums)

CO ($13.75)
Button ($17.15)
SB ($19.30)
BB ($42.51)
Hero ($43)
MP ($15.87)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with K/images/graemlins/diamond.gif, A/images/graemlins/spade.gif. SB posts a blind of $0.10.
<font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $1</font>, MP calls $1, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Button raises to $1.75</font>, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $4</font>, MP folds, Button calls $2.25.

Flop: ($9.35) T/images/graemlins/club.gif, 4/images/graemlins/club.gif, K/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets $6.5</font>

Is preflop stupid? I really think his re-raise OTB looks like something less than premium. Is my 4bet too small?
How would you play the flop (given preflop)?

My reasoning:
The pot is pretty big by now that I figure i will have to play for stacks, if villain wants to.
Given his stacksize relative to the pot, i'm assuming all his money is going in somewhere along the line if he chooses to continue this hand.

My options
a) Open-push. I don't like it cause I deprive villain of an opportunity to bluff.
b) suck-in bet. bet a sum that he can consider weak enough to either call me down with a weakish hand or try to bluff with a wide range. If he calls im pushing most turncards.

[ama0330]

3bet minraise preflop is almost always something large. I think that particularly given that you are OOP you need to be thinking about pot control, and 4 betting here is no good as it bloats the pot. I think I would just call here and aim to play a small pot with TPTK.

I think that leading the flop here is bad given that you are wa/wb, and again you need to be thinking about pot control. Bear in mind that you are still way ahead of QQ/JJ but way behind AA/KK.

What I would do is c/c the flop then lead the turn for 1/2 to 3/4 for value and fold to a raise. This will make your opponent really suspicious of exactly what you are doing and he'll be duped into calling with QQ-TT type hands because he would have expected the K to be more aggressive on the flop. However with a hand which you beat like AA or KK or another set he will have to give some credit to a FD and will proably raise to fold you out and bingo he turns over his cards for you and you can fold.

Christ, that makes so much sense its sick. I'm trying that [censored] out tonight.

[restless]

thx, i see your point about preflop. in retrospect it felt pretty bad (and as usual bad stuff preflop often leads to more postflop badness...)
your suggestion postflop.. is that given this preflop action or if I had just called his minraise? your line looks great in a smaller pot. in my case if i c/c flop and then lead turn he will already be allin. his stack is so small in relation to the pot that I can never rule out a desperation push right??

[ama0330]

Yeah I meant in a smaller pot where you guys would be deeper relative to the bet size, sorry I should have clarified that.

One thing in general which I have noticed is a huge leak of mine is playing too aggro OOP with the wrong hands against the wrong opponents. When you are playing several thousand hands a month you dont have to worry about being passive with AKo OOP because there will be plenty more profitable situations for you.

As played, its a tough spot but given your stack sizes you really have to make a decision right now whether you want to play for stacks or not. Given that you have 3 bet it preflop you should have some pretty nice FE, but even so, you're never folding out AA/KK. I think that given this, if you think you are ahead you should c/r ai. This will trap QQ-TT into making a cbet which you can get over the top of and take the pot down without further worry. I really don't know what other advice to give here but I just hate leading into such a big pot with TPTK as you are really only getting calls/raises from better hands and folding out worse ones.

Tough spot. My advice to you would be to avoid spots like this entirely rather than try and learn how to play through them.