How's your SSNLHE?: AKs

[DoomSlice]

The only one that I disagreed with is the size that you should bet on the flop. You probably have a sizable equity advantage against a good range of hands, however the ones that you will have the biggest advantage against are hands that won't be calling large(r) bets. Combine that with the fact that you have a dry side pot makes me inclined to bet a very small amount in order to induce him to call now and make a larger mistake if you do make your hand. A larger bet will usually just make him fold right now and you won't be able to capitalize later, and a check will keep the side pot empty and make it unlikely for him to make any major mistakes later on.

-Doom

[Big_Jim]

I don't feel like reading all of the replies quite yet... but I definately think that a flop bet is in order.

With no money in the sidepot, as of yet, there's nothing to fight over. Since the villian here is described as passive, I doubt he raises us often enough to worry about it, then we can take our free card if we want it, or have something to win if we hit.

There's nothing tricky about checking behind and waking up when the flush hits.

Edit: Not to mention, against this donk, we probably have the best hand, and any two cards have at least 6 outs, or are ahead.

[c_strong]

I'm always raising the turn here. AT and a set seem so unlikely compared to someone chasing with Ax (particularly given your read on MP). Betting out when the ace hits just says "hurray, I've hit!" to me. I think we're way ahead or freerolling often enough to raise here.

[djoyce003]

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Thanks, aj, these polls are great and this is one of the more interesting ones so far.

Was curious on the idea of reraising preflop after SB's push. I thought call might be better because you're going to have to hit anyway to win this pot. So raising to shut out MP seems somewhat pointless. If MP is weak/loose, might make sense to let her in alongside and let him pay you off in the side pot when you hit. But I'm not at all sure about this logic. And of course if SB can make this move with AQ or something then this doesn't apply.

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The reason you reraise is twofold. One you are likely ahead and you don't want to let MP see the flop for nothing when you have the opportunity to charge them. Also, their money is in the pot and you are currently in a threeway pot with the shorty all in. If you can reraise and fold them out, you are likely in a coinflip with shorty, but you have the added benefit of MP's dead money in the pot, making this a very +ev coinflip. You don't know for sure what MP has...maybe they have something like QJ...in that case you don't have them dominated and their equity is considerably better than if they have AQ or AJ....you just don't know so charge them preflop the max. If they are willing to call that large reraise with one of those hands, it's ok, because you are still a favorite. Basically it's an opportunity to increase your odds of winning a nice pot with an all in opponent while not really risking the money you are betting, assuming that MP folds. I routinely make this isolation play against an all in short stack with a wide range of hands...some of them considerably worse than AKs.

[yad]

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Thanks, aj, these polls are great and this is one of the more interesting ones so far.

Was curious on the idea of reraising preflop after SB's push. I thought call might be better because you're going to have to hit anyway to win this pot. So raising to shut out MP seems somewhat pointless. If MP is weak/loose, might make sense to let her in alongside and let him pay you off in the side pot when you hit. But I'm not at all sure about this logic. And of course if SB can make this move with AQ or something then this doesn't apply.

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The reason you reraise is twofold. One you are likely ahead and you don't want to let MP see the flop for nothing when you have the opportunity to charge them. Also, their money is in the pot and you are currently in a threeway pot with the shorty all in. If you can reraise and fold them out, you are likely in a coinflip with shorty, but you have the added benefit of MP's dead money in the pot, making this a very +ev coinflip. You don't know for sure what MP has...maybe they have something like QJ...in that case you don't have them dominated and their equity is considerably better than if they have AQ or AJ....you just don't know so charge them preflop the max. If they are willing to call that large reraise with one of those hands, it's ok, because you are still a favorite. Basically it's an opportunity to increase your odds of winning a nice pot with an all in opponent while not really risking the money you are betting, assuming that MP folds. I routinely make this isolation play against an all in short stack with a wide range of hands...some of them considerably worse than AKs.

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I see your general point, and I agree that raising puts you in a nice +EV position. But this doesn't really answer my question, that calling could be more +EV. What I was trying to say is the following:

Assume SB has some kind of small PP. If this is not true, I admit my argument is completely wrong. Assume MP has QJ/AQ/something similar. Now two ways this can play out:

1. You don't hit an A or K. SB wins the pot, and fact that MP is in there doesn't really matter to you.

2. You do hit an A or K. So you're way ahead of QJ, or AQ/AJ/whatever else MP might have. If MP has also got a piece of the flop, he's still way behind you, but is likely to pay you. Only way this costs you is when MP flops two pair or straight or something. Perhaps this is not worth risking given the dead money in the pot, but it's not obvious to me that it isn't worth the risk.

Just trying to learn a bit here -- consensus on this thread seems to be that raising PF is better but I'm not sure I understand it.

[djoyce003]

you win money when you get money in while you are ahead...that's how you win money at poker...the results are irrelevant. If you get more money in the middle with AK when your opponent has AQ you are winning money. If he's called $13 with AJ he's likely to call $40. If not, that's ok, but if he does, that's good for you. If he's calling $40 with QJ that's good for you, you could still lose, but it doesn't matter, you got money in while you were ahead...

You are right, if SB has a small pocket and you force out MP but don't improve, you aren't going to win so it doesn't matter, but you took a coinflip getting 2-1 odds on your money, that's a good thing.

Also if villain calls you here preflop with QJ he's folding unimproved....if the flop comes AQX there is no way he's calling bets with second pair.

[Sweir]

At first I was thinking raise the turn but I can see that a call is probably the better play, good poll I agree with your ratings.

[bohus04]

nice quiz [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[NL Newbie]

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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?

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[The Vookster]

I love these pools... please post more of them!!

As an aside, I like the preflop raise isolation idea. provides great pot odds to take down a big pot where you are at worst probably 50/50 and in many cases would have the SB dominated.