Can someone please critique this hand?

[Rock166]

Hello I was hoping for some help with this hand that I played. I obviously got killed on it but I'm wondering where I went wrong. Before going to the hand here are some of my thoughts:

1)I raised four times the BB and don't think that the player who played the AK would have laid down the hand if I had gone higher. Am I wrong with this thinking?

2)I was winning and raising all the way to the flop and got check raised on the turn. Here I should have possibly folded and although I suspected the AK I also figured that there was a chance for another spade or suited/connected hand.

3)I gave the player bad pot odds to call going into the turn with sightly move than 2 to 1 to his 5 to 1 draw so technically I think this may have been a mistake on his part.

4)I called both the turn and the river with fairly good pot odds.

Please don't hold back and correct me in my thinking. Thanks in advance.

Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.02/$0.05 Blinds - 7 Players - (LegoPoker Hand History Converter)

SB: $0.89
BB: $3.98
UTG: $4.03
UTG+1: $7.80
MP: $9.91
Hero (CO): $9.63
BTN: $2.84

Preflop: Hero is dealt Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (7 Players)
UTG calls $0.05, UTG+1 calls $0.05, MP calls $0.05, <font color="red">Hero raises to $0.20</font>, BTN folds, SB calls $0.18, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $0.15, MP calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.90) 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (4 Players)
SB checks, UTG+1 checks, <font color="red">MP bets $0.15</font>, <font color="red">Hero raises to $0.80</font>, SB calls all-in for $0.69, UTG+1 calls $0.80, MP calls $0.65

Turn: ($3.99) 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (4 Players - 1 All-In)
UTG+1 checks, MP checks, <font color="red">Hero bets $2.00</font>, <font color="red">UTG+1 raises to $4.00</font>, MP folds, Hero calls $2.00

River: ($11.99) A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (3 Players - 1 All-In)
<font color="red">UTG+1 bets all-in for $2.80</font>, Hero calls $2.80

Pot Size: $17.59 ($17.59 Rake)


UTG+1 had K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (a flush, Ace high) and LOST (-$7.80)
Hero had Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] and LOST (-$7.80)

[bm120]

Didn't really play it all that bad, but I don't necessarily like the call of the min-raise on the turn it is somewhat read dependent, but i have to put him on the ace at that point, however im rarely folding the second (technically 3rd) nuts there, either fold or come over the top ai on the turn.

[batair]

the only thing i would of done different is raise to 30c or 35c preflop,its kind of hard to lay down the king high in that spot in the mircos.

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
but i have to put him on the ace at that point, however im rarely folding the second (technically 3rd) nuts there, either fold or come over the top ai on the turn.

[/ QUOTE ]

Why, exactly? So you can bluff at the A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] by representing 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]? Good luck with that! (When your opponent minraises, he's representing precisely the ace. Even small stakes players aren't suicidal enough to get into a raising war with the third-best one-card flush.)

You're in a WA/WB mode, so once the fourth spade comes I think you should, according to your judgment of your opponent, probably check behind. Having bet, if your opponent is predictable and straightforward you can just go ahead and fold to the turn check/raise. For all your opponent knows you may have the ace, so only a frequent bluffer check/raises this without it.

In low stakes value betting the K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] is justifiable because you'll often get lower spades to pay off. But still, you're quite plausibly paying off the ace, and checking behind gives you one less round to do so. Low stakes players make weird slowplays and too-small river value bets, so you might get off without the A doing you much damage if it's in the hands of a compulsive slowplayer.

If it's checked to you on both the turn and river, bet 1/2 pot on the river. And if you get something like the 9 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (or for that matter air) to bluff into you where they wouldn't call a bet, so much the better.

Against better opponents who won't call two bets without at least the ace (or maybe the queen), check-behind is much clearer IMO -- but I think it's probably right here too.

Generally you won't want to dump the K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] to the single river bet because now you may have induced a bluff, so you want to call it. But check the turn to punish your opponent for check-raising.

[AKQJ10]

Oh, I also don't under the HH. Why does it say A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] lost?

[bm120]

[ QUOTE ]
Why, exactly? So you can bluff at the A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] by representing 6 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 4 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]?

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with you, I was just saying that if you have a read that the villan minraise bluffs then push, otherwise fold.

[AKQJ10]

Fair enough, but unknowns don't usually minraise bluffs. Unknowns might check-raise all-in on bluffs. Typically a check-minraise is just to get more money in the pot, because they're scared anything more than a minraise will fold you.

Even if you think Villain might be bluffing or might have the nuts, calling is better than pushing. Calling might conceivably induce another river bluff. 3-betting is going to fold a bluff. You have little reason to protect your hand, except against the board pairing or against additional straight-flush cards.

The only reason to push is if you think the EV of protecting against Villain bluffing with a set (or SF draw) is more than the EV of inducing another bluff on the river. Granted, they're both pretty remote.

[PantsOnFire]

I don't see any need to raise pf but if I do, I raise probably double what you did.

There is no need to bet the turn. If he has a lower spade like the Q, you will get one more bet out of him on the river. If he has no spade, he will fold. So check behind here. Call any reasonable bet on the river to catch all lower spades. You have to pay off the As here but you don't need to build the pot on the turn.

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't see any need to raise pf but if I do, I raise probably double what you did.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since my new intellectual "toy" is SPRs, let's evaluate that raise size by target SPR rather than just going with what's standard.

Here are some assumptions:

<ul type="square">[*]KQs is still primarily a top pair hand, but with some big hand value.[*]At 2c-5c, people will probably get all-in with worse top pairs so your max/target SPRs are bigger than most top pair hands, though not as big as AK -- say, 10 or so. In other words, you can bet every street (SPR=13) and might expect to get called down by KJ or QT.
[*]Because 3 have limped, but this is nano-stakes, if we raise to 40c we expect to play a three-way pot against two of the limpers.[*]If we limp, we'll play a 6-way pot[*]If we raise to 20c as played, we'll expect the pot size that OP actually ended up with.[/list]
So which is better:

<ul type="square">[*]a 40c raise (pot = $1.27, SPR from about 3 to 8), [*]a 20c raise (pot=90c, SPR from about 5 to 10), [*]or a limp (pot = 30c, SPR from about 12 to 30)?[/list]
Purely to match our target, the small raise or limp are fine. But what exactly does that mean? Correct me if I'm wrong (I just zoomed through PNLHE), but I think that means that we'd rather play with somewhat more money left in our stack because we assumed that people opponents would pay us off big when we hit.

However, I don't really like limping, because I think I'd rather play KQs as a top pair hand with some drawing characteristics in this game. If we encourage a very multiway pot, we're diminishing its top pair value and just playing it as a suited connector.

(Sorry if the PNLHE material is inappropriate for beginners. I'm just getting a handle on it myself. However, I don't think that book would be a bad investment for beginners.)

[Greg Miller]

[ QUOTE ]

3)I gave the player bad pot odds to call going into the turn with sightly move than 2 to 1 to his 5 to 1 draw so technically I think this may have been a mistake on his part.


[/ QUOTE ]

It doesn't matter what the pot odds are if you're going to put your whole stack in after he hits his hand. Either raise bigger before he has you beat (enough to ruin his implied odds) or fold when he outdraws you. The latter can be hard to do accurately.