Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

First time user here at 2+2 so forgive me if my post isn't clear. At a recent USPC event $350 buy in NL Hold-em the following hand occurred. 1st level of the event blinds $25-50 starting chips $3,500 only abt 10hands into the tourney. UTG player raises pre-flop to $150 next two players fold a look down to find pocket aces Ac Ad and re-raise to $375 everyone else folds except small blind, who has been in almost every hand so far, calls the raise for another $350 as does the orginal raiser who is now getting great pot odds to call. Flop comes 10s 5c 3d sb both players chk to me i bet $600 into a pot of $1,175 sb folds original raiser now chk raises me all in! My first gut reaction was did he flop a set of tens on me? I then decided he had either JJ's, QQ's maybe even KK's but felt he may have reraised pre-flop with K's. Didn't think he'd stay in with the preflop re-raise with 5's or 3's . I ultimately made the call putting him on the overpair...I was wrong he did flop a set of tens and i was out of the tourney. As a beginner/intermediate player with some success in low limit tourneys, just trying to get some feedback as to who would have made the laydown or the call? Just trying to improve my game. Any thoughts appreciated.......

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

First, don't post results, as it skews the responses you get. So end your post with something like "He check-raised all-in, and I..."

Second, I suck, so don't take my advice seriously. But having said this, I think you made the right call, as villain certainly could have played JJ-KK (and maybe AK) the same way. 5s or 3s probably don't pre-flop, as there are probably not odds to play a set profitably. So there were a lot more possible hands that you beat than that beat you.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

good call.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

Your call here is reasonable. I would expect a set of Ts to play it slower and try to extract, since you have, at best, 2 outs. I think you'll see overpairs here often enough to make a call profitable.

One thing I might do differently is to reraise more preflop to make calling a bigger mistake. I find these live tournaments to be pretty loose preflop so I'm not reraising less than 3x (9xBB). This also makes the loose doofus in the SB make a bigger mistake by calling. By raising 300 more you make his call with TT pretty marginal--he is going to have to stack you frequently when he hits his set for calling to be profitable. I also think that reraises of less than 3x look like they want action and will often be read as a big pair, while raising a little more than 3x might be read as not wanting action.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

I'd raise more preflop. You're asking for more action with the small re-raise. Make 500 or so, so the SB will think about folding at least, and the EP guy will have to think hard about investing that much of his stack with TT.

Call post-flop. You've got 70 BB to start. The pot's 22 BB with the calls. You're going broke on that flop. This isn't deep-stacked, where you can afford to wait it out, you need to get some big pots here and there. You're stacking JJ, QQ and KK, and probably even 88 and 99 on a T-high flop.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

Your raise is weak pf. Make it at least 600 pf. As played given no reads, villain could have KK, QQ, JJ, AT, 99, 88. Given that you don't have a deep stack once you put in 600, folding to an ai c/r is bad. Sucks when your AA gets cracked in a short stack mtt. Had this been a deep stack mtt, you probably don't get stacked but you'll still lose alot of chips. This is one of the brutal aspects of poker losing with an OP to a set.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

raise to at least 400 PF. I'd make it 450. Your reasoning on the flop is solid. Call is good.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

I r/r more preflop...the small raise amount likely gives SB right odds to play for set because he knows if he calls, utg has decent odds to call also.

I think SB made a decent play on you by putting you on an overpair that would be willing to go to the felt with it. Reraising the utg shows strength from you and the r/r amount is inviting utg to at least call so an overpair would be a reasonable read. I don't play live so I don't have a feel for how players react to different plays but in the early goings I wouldn't imagine people r/r utg with much less than JJ+/AK??

As played I wouldn't rule out SB having a set but as fast as he played it I think I'd call his crai too. It's a non drawy board and if I was in sb with a set I'd check/call the flop and try to get more action on later streets.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

I remember watching the USPC on ESPN, and it was amazing to me how many times cautiously played AA pockets were being cracked. Likely we were seeing these hands because because they made good TV, but it did make me think about making sure I played AA aggressively in most cases. That was a tough spot, and sometimes you just run into a cooler.

Re: Folding Pocket Ace\'s postflop- no brainer or tough decision??
 

1. your reraise flips your cards up but doesn't chase anyone and gives everyone implied odds to stack you. i hate these wimpy reraises.

2. online this hand is much more likely to be in your favor at lower limits.

3. live this is much more likely to be the goodies and a fold is not terrible give there really isn't many other possibilities and hes going for the homerun bc he knows you have a monster.