AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

stars 4/180 tourney about 30 players, approaching bubble

I'm basically new to the table. However, a couple hands ago, doubled up by stacking off another big stack who likes to donate, by value-betting a turned straight.

villain in this hand is unknown--I've got no reads. But he did make a comment after I doubled through the donkey:

villain said, "there it is"
villain said, "knew it would happen"

not much of a read...

anyhow here goes. I have questions about a couple streets. My concerns are about building a big pot. Is flop bet OK?

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Poker Stars
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
(Ante: t25)
8 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
Hero: t13490
UTG+1: t7985
MP1: t2710
MP2: t12513
CO: t9751
Button: t4305
SB: t12892
BB: t1775

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is UTG with A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
<font color="#cc0000">Hero raises to t1600</font>, 2 folds, MP2 calls t1600 <font color="aaaaaa">(pot was t2400)</font>, 4 folds.

Flop: J[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (t4000, 2 players)
<font color="#cc0000">Hero bets t3200</font>

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

Yes. Stack him if he comes along.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

Yes, you definitely should be betting the flop here. Gets you good value and should bet out those pesky flush draws. In the case that he calls your PF raise with JJ/55/22 (most likely not 22, but he does have position and a large enough stack to do so), I'm not sure what to tell you. AJ is likely, and you could make some decent chips that way.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

preflop is where you're in trouble. One, a bet of 1000/1200 was plenty big enough. You'd decrease the pot size by 1200-800 chips going into the flop. On the flop, you'd save another 1k on your bet.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

[ QUOTE ]
preflop is where you're in trouble. One, a bet of 1000/1200 was plenty big enough. You'd decrease the pot size by 1200-800 chips going into the flop. On the flop, you'd save another 1k on your bet.

[/ QUOTE ]

This could not be any more wrong. There are great arguments for making a bigger raise with AA agaainst unobservant opponents so that you can build a bigger pot and cut down on drawing odds.

This hand was played great. you are likely to get raised on this flop and that will allow you to get your money in as a nice favorite against his range.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

looks fine to me. Last thing you wanna do is give a free card and let him catch a flush. Your bet is big enough that he doesn't have the odds to draw to a flush but small enough that he might think you didn't hit and will call. Someone correct me if this advice sucks

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

Cornell

I like the size of heros raise here better with deeper stacks, like &gt; 50bbs. In that case there is a greater need to build a pot.

IMO with &lt; 30bbs, raising less is fine because you'll have no problem getting it in on the flop and turn anyway, so there isn't really an urgent need to build a pot.

OP's big raise is far from bad, but it isn't optimal IMO. I'd rather raise to 2.5-3 bbs (1000-1200) with these stacks because our opponents make lots of mistakes postflop, and an extra t400 might tilt their decision over to not getting in the pot with us.

Obviously I am using the same raise size for all the hands in my raising range here.

It's not a big issue though. Villain will probably still call with QJs and stack off on Q/J high flops.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

[ QUOTE ]
preflop is where you're in trouble.

[/ QUOTE ]Because getting villain to call more when you have the nuts is bad?

[ QUOTE ]
You'd decrease the pot size by 1200-800 chips going into the flop. On the flop, you'd save another 1k on your bet.

[/ QUOTE ]We have AA- we are not trying to "save" chips.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

there's no reason to raise 4xbb unless this is his standard raise.

Re: AA oop vs another biggish stack
 

OK so what I'm getting is that we need to get all our chips in the center, on the flop, or (non-[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]) turn, right?

Buzz