How's your SSNLHE?: AKs

[ajmargarine]

OK, here's another one. Follow along in the hand, take the quiz as you go. It's a variation of a hand I played the other night with some sidepot issues, as well as preflop issues. Answer ratings to follow. Comments welcome.

.50/$1 NLHE 6-max

SB ($13)
BB ($145)
UTG ($98)
MP ($160)
Hero ($180)
Button ($84)

Reads: SB is a weak player who is in the process of donking off his second buy-in. MP is pretty loose preflop and chases with a wide variety of hands. Here's how the hand starts:

Preflop: Hero is CO with A [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]. SB posts a blind of $0.50.
UTG calls $1, MP calls $1, action is on Hero....

[ajmargarine]

Answer Ratings:

















Thanks for playing along. Comments/discussion is welcome. As stated before in these, Hero's actions in the quiz hand is not always the optimal play. Answers are rated on a scale of 0-10. 0 being donkorific, 5 being average, 10 being Orange-ish, meaning awesome.
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Question #1 --

(0) Call -- Likely to have the best hand, get some preflop value and buy the button.
(1) Raise to 3 -- too lite
(3) Raise to 4 -- don't price everyone in
(7) Raise to 5 -- Better
(9) Raise to 6 -- Best, 4xBB+1BB per limper is a good guide

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Question #2 --

(3) call -- meh, kinda weak. MP hasn't shown strength in both her chances to raise. You're best most of the time, so raise it up again and put more pressure on her.
(3) Raise to 26-39 -- might as well just call if you're going to raise so little.
(9) Raise to 40+ -- nice, price MP out, win a nice pot HU with SB. Or if she calls, you have position and likely to have the better hand.
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Question #3 --

(7) check
(2) bet 10-20
(8) bet 20-30
(7) bet 30+

This is an interesting decision IMO. It's likely you still have the best hand, and you now have the best draw. The sidepot is $0 however that you are contesting with MP. I think I lean towards betting around $25 here, but discussion is very welcome on this, as I don't think it's cut-and-dried.
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Question #4 --

(0) fold -- You cannot fold
(8) call -- MP made a nice sized bet. She may be have missed a c/r on the flop with a set. She may have AT. OTOH, you may be crushing her made hand and you still have outs to improve if you aren't. Calling is best here, IMO.
(4) raise -- risky
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Question #5 --

(5) call -- now we've got alot of info, raising for value is probably best here.
(8) raise -- MP should call a nice value raise on the end. If she suckered us into a raise here while she has something like TT, she just outplayed us. More times than not this is a weak A trying to see showdown, and will call a small river raise.
(6) push -- We want a call. I prefer raising.
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Question #6 --

(0) 15%
(10) 19.5% -- This is correct
(0) 25%
(0) 33.3%

EDIT--Hand results. Hero raised to $40, MP called. MP held AJ and SB held 77. Hero scoops both side and main pots. Thanks for playing along.

[PoBoy321]

Great post. One of the big problems with my play is when sidepots are involved.

[Buzz-cp]

I don't like betting this flop. We have to make a big enough bet to fold MP, and she can easily do so and see our cards for free in our SD vs SB. Now we are paying a big bet to get it HU, and we are about 50% to beat SB's small pair.

[beavens]

whoo.. played like i wouldve played it.

great post - i love these, AJ.

[Isura]

I check the flop with the $0 sidepot.

I call the turn and the river. Raising the river seems a bit thin. How much do we raise and do we call a push?

[wdead]

I would have played it much more aggresively but the passive line is ok I guess. If mp has something like 77 and wins pot cuz you didnt push her/him out on flop (and you dont hit) wouldnt u be annoyed?

Edit: Hmmm, but CO is all in..., passive better may be? Other opinions?

[kurto]

That was a fun quiz. The only problem with it is all the actions are based on what actually happened so if you answer the first question different then the actual play, the corresponding choices aren't offered.

For instance... After the small stack goes all in and MP calls, your choices are call or raise various amounts. If we raised, MP may have folded and the hand would be over. Also, how we act on the flop might change MPs play post flop.

Its a shame there's not a way to have branching options. (if you picked 'd' on question one... you get an entirely different set of choices.)

Also... what if we bet the flop and MP decided to test us with his pocket 7s and reraised us? Also, I suspect if we raised his turn bet, he would fold his 7s.

[PokerFink]

ajm,

I like checking the flop behind, but I can see an argument for making a smallish bet that builds a sidepot and might allow us to stack our opponent if we make the nuts. However, I don't like making a big bet (30+) because if our opponent calls, we miss the turn and he pushes, we're in a tough spot.

I like your river value raise a lot. I actually voted call, but the more I think about it, the more I think you're right. So few people would 3-bet push with air that we can safely fold if villian pushes. I think calling is better than pushing though. Pushing should be like a (3) while calling is maybe (6) and raising (8).

This is a good one.

-Fink

[djoyce003]

I voted call on the river...that's the only difference on where we were at...I guess the reason I called was that I had a hand with showdown value and a reraise would make me puke...hence the call....I think its close between raise and call though...didn't read MP as being that donkish.

I do like the huge preflop raise though and capturing MP's dead money.