Battle of the blinds (9 handed)
 

I am in the big blind with $1100. Villain is the SB and covers. Villain is a winning player. I would not classify him as a LAG, but he is aggressive and does bluff. Villain probably views me as very tight.

It is folded around to the SB. He makes it $35. He would do this with a wide range of playable hands. I have A [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] in the BB and reraise to $100. He calls.

My plan is to bet on any flop, but to check behind if an ace hits on a relatively safe board.

Flop ($200):
A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

He checks. I check.

Turn ($200):
A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

He immediately fires out $200. I call.

River ($600)
A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 8 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

He immediately pushes all-in. It is $800 for me to call.

I checked because I wanted to send the signal that I didn't like the A on the flop (which seems to work sometimes even though I would almost always continuation bet with an underpair there). But now that I had gotten what I had wanted (him betting into me), I wasn't feeling so confident about my "trap". I wasn't expecting him to bet this hard and was now thinking AQ was no good here.

Call or fold?

Re: Battle of the blinds (9 handed)
 

call

Re: Battle of the blinds (9 handed)
 

PO,

Sometimes I feel AQ is good enough to trap with in a spot like this, others I don't. If I decided it was good enough to trap w/ vs. this opponent, I'll stick to my guns and call at the end.

Had he checked the river, you would have bet right? Probably go ahead and push?

Given that, seems like him pushing is a good thing.

Re: Battle of the blinds (9 handed)
 

push

Re: Battle of the blinds (9 handed)
 

You got exactly what u wanted out of this hand no? Your opponent is agressive and views u as tight...an Ace flopped as well. Since he views you as tight, he probably thinks he can move you off your hand. Call.

Results
 

[ QUOTE ]

Had he checked the river, you would have bet right? Probably go ahead and push?


[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, I would have bet. I would not have pushed, because I think he would be more likely to call a smaller bet (like say $400). But I definitely would have been pot committed anyway.

Results in white:
<font color="white">
I folded. He showed 9s 9d.

I can't disagree with anything you guys have said.

I had gotten exactly what I wanted. An ace flopped, I tried to represent that I maybe didn't like that card, and he tried to run me off of my hand.

The fold was foolish considering that I had reraised him to $100 preflop and had also checked the flop. If I am gonna play AQ like that, then I need to be willing to call this bet in a "battle of the blinds" situation. </font>

the end

Re: Battle of the blinds (9 handed)
 

I think he thinks you have TT-KK enough here that he can be bluffing this river to make it a call.