[Buzz]

Steamboatin - Interesting puzzle.

You raise before the flop from SB, getting BB to fold (which is good for you). Your raise should probably look like A2XY to your opponents (which is good for you since it is deceptive).

UTG+1 and MP1 bot call, which should have been expected. When people limp, they usually call a raise coming from from the small blind.

You bet the flop, which is of no use to you at all, except to continue to make your hand look like A2XY. UTG+1 and MP1 both call. <font color="blue">I wonder what they have.</font>

You bet the turn, which again is of no use to you, but probably is also of no use to your opponents. UTG+1 calls. MP1 raises! You call<font color="red">???</font>

UTG+1 also calls. <font color="blue">Now UTG+1's hand looks a lot like the A2XY you have been representing.</font>

The river enables low, yet you check. <font color="blue">Now it may look very much to UTG+1 as though you have finally gotten wise that he has the nut low too.</font>

UTG+1 checks. <font color="blue">UTG+1's betting makes sense if he has A2XY.</font>

MP+1 also checks. <font color="blue">What can MP+1 hold? It's a mystery to me. Does he have A2XY too? That seems too bizarre.

Too late for you to do anything if he does.</font><font color="red"> Meanwhile you already have over-played your aces.</font>

<font color="blue">Note that except for the first betting round you have been very much out of position on this hand. You had the right of first bluff, and you used the Hell out of it. But your opponents didn't budge. MP+1 even strangely raised the turn and then checked the river.

The play on the hand points out the disadvantage of being out of position. Also it illustrates overplaying aces.

Going back to your starting hand:
A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] J[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] is an excellent starting hand, except that it isn't very likely to connect well with the flop. I think you do well raising with this hand if you have a good chance of stealing the pot, or limiting the field. And you did get BB to fold by raising. But then you missed the flop entirely, and the flop was such that both your opponents probably did not miss it. With two low cards on the flop, and with two clubs, even though you have the ace of clubs, both of your opponents are not likely to have missed the flop too.

I would not raise from the small blind with this starting hand. It's hard to criticize your raise, though, because you didn't get any luck at all on the flop, turn, or river. The lack of luck certainly wasn't your fault. But that's sort of what happens to me when I try raising before the flop with hands like this. I subsequently just don't seem to have much luck at all.

This hand needs a flop with
• an ace or
• two or three hearts or
• a pair of queens or
• a pair of tens
to be very good for you. You also get something with two pairs or a straight or straight draw.

But this flop was none of these. And if you figure how often you get one of those flops, it really isn't very often.

So it's a fine starting hand, but I disagree with those who advise raising before the flop with it - at least in a game with the limits you were playing.

Raising before the flop just doesn't work well for me with these type hands. I like the starting hand a whole lot better if it has decent one low card to go with the ace.

I'm going to see the flop with this hand, but I'm not going to raise with it. (I realize you can find players better than I am who think you should). And the raise even worked out for you, in that you knocked BB out of the hand, slightly improving the chances of winning with unimproved aces or two pair, aces up.

With this starting hand in the small blind, I would generally complete the bet on the first betting round, and then check/fold on the second betting round when the hand missed a flop fit. I think anything else is over-playing the aces, a common mistake.

Buzz</font>