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.
--------
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

-------

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.
------------

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.
----------

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
---------

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.
------------

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.

[ajmargarine]

[ QUOTE ]
Answers are rated on a scale of 0-10. 0 being donkorific, 5 being average, 10 being Orange-ish

[/ QUOTE ]

*chuckle*

[fees]

1. $6... 4+ 1 for each limper pretty standard, isolate with position.

2. Unlikely MP has the best hand (assume small pairs are the worst hand), I want to push him out b/c he added $12 dead money and I want his fold equity so im bumping it to $40+ to make him go hard or go home, he will normally go home and we will isolate way ahead most of the time.

3. Have to lead VERY big on this flop, it's a monster flop for us, but our hand's power is like disposable.. we can get there and smash most other hands or not, I want to play this fast to get the money in while we are likely a slight if not monster favorite.

4. Turn as played I call to trap and raise the river, only their we're worried about is like.. 1010 or A10.. uh? which we get stacked by anyway so raising her is horrible b/c all better hands call and we lose and all worse hands fold and we lose value.

5. Calling river is insane, VALUEEEEEEEEE shove its very very very unlikely he has the best hand. (we value shove as opposed to like.. minraising or something b/c it looks like we want to steal the side pot/isolate with the shorty for the main.

[orange]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Answers are rated on a scale of 0-10. 0 being donkorific, 5 being average, 10 being Orange-ish

[/ QUOTE ]

*chuckle*

[/ QUOTE ]

[Oki-Oki]

We have to bet the flop for a variety of reasons. The old saying never bet into a dry sidepot is wrong. The river is a super easy raise and most likely a easy shove for value as long as we have an aggroish image we are def going to get called by worse.

[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?