Common but tough spot: AK out of position

[Joker757]

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Two reasonable lines. Call and bet big on a safe turn card and fold to a raise. Alternatively, reraise to about 1100 now and fold to a push.

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Samoleus,
I really like this play of calling the flop and if you put him on something like 8s10s I'll go ahead and bet the turn hard but if I feel he may have AxQs or AxJs which is more likely from this tight a player and safe card comes on the turn I'll usually go ahead and let him take the lead since my check should insinuate that my bet on the flop was a continuation bet provided that you do a lot of that and then check raise him there. If he calls then you know he has an A and then you can play the river accordingly with a descent sized value bet and fold to a reraise.

[Joker757]

Think the plan with AsKs would be to still bet out as a standard continuation bet because a check would seem suspicious in this spot and if he reraises you just smooth call. No need to take him off the lead with your big hand. Would really like check calling the turn and provided that a Spade didnt hit the river one or two options. If you believe that your opponent will bet the river as a pure value play then I'll check raise the river, and based how this hand was played down I'm defiently getting a call from AxQs or AxJs or if you feel that your opponent will check behind you if you check then its right to go ahead and make about a half size or pot size bet depending on the size of the pot at the end and he will be getting 3 to 1 to call with a half size bet and 2 to 1 on a pot size bet odds that are sufficient for him to call given the way the hand played out. I think a pot sized bet would work better in this spot since you played your hand like a flush draw and are now betting a busted draw. This is of course provided that you have a proper table image. If you are know to slow play monsters to the end continually then you'll get no action here.

Without the As things get a little tricker provide that the As was not on the flop. My personal opinion would be to now call the flop and depending on what hand I put my opponent on (provided another spade doesnt hit) either check raise the turn if you feel he has an A and will bet the turn with or with out the As or bet hard into him on the turn if you dont think that he will bet AQ after you check. You can expect to get called in this spot but thats fine b/c you probably still have best hand and hope that the river blanks off.

If a spade does hit and depending on the ability of your opponent and the pot odds you may or may not call. If your opponent is capable of representing the flush on the river with out the spade then I would check call other wise depending on how big the bet was and how much I put into the pot and the pot odds I MAY and I mean MAY throw it away but not very likely!
Hope this helped.

Good luck!

[Joker757]

Yea my thinking exactly. You are only going to push out the hands you can beat and get called by the one's you cant. Build some value for your hand.

If your up against a set depending on the player, especially a good player, who can put you on a hand he/she will take advantage of that flop by playing his/her set like a draw and you may or may not find out until its to late if you dont play your hand right by finding out where you are at on the turn.

[IHateCats]

what happened on river after you checked?

[BLdSWtTRs]

I like 3 betting the flop. I 3 bet often enough with junk that I will be put all in by any ace by many players.

[HEK]

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what happened on river after you checked?

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oops forgot. He checked behind with K [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[MDMA]

Lol, wtf?

[IHateCats]

man that guy must be horribly scared of you. Or really bad. Or both.

[cwl]

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Lol, wtf?

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when i first saw the results i thought it was a goofy check behind too but what specific worse hand is HEK calling with here?

assuming the plan was to fold to a river bet i think the hero's line is pretty reasonable.

[samoleus]

Joker, I think the problem is that you don't have enough information to know whether he has a hand like 10s-8s or A-Q. If you knew that, the correct line (betting the turn or letting him keep the lead) would be a lot easier to determine, but I don't think you have enough information to put him on a hand yet.