limp rr w. AKs

[student_of_game]

400NL, 6-max. Villain has about $220 in front in the big blind, and I cover. Villain doesn't strike me as a good player. He is fairly aggro pre-flop, raising lots of hands, over defending blinds, 3-betting light, etc., with weak offsuit connectors and similar hands. He seems to be much less aggressive post flop.

Pre-flop: one fold to me, and I pick up A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]. I normally come in for a raise in six-max (in fact, I don't think I've ever limp re-raised in my life), but decide to limp since villain seems to be raising light. Cut-off folds, button limps, small blind completes, and like clock-work Villain in big blind raises to $20.

I re-raise to $84. Only villain calls.

Flop comes 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]

The pot size is $176. Villain has a little over $130 behind.

Do you push?

The preflop bet sizing was a little awkward because I wanted to raise enough that it cut down on villain's implied odds, but also didn't want to re-raise too much since a smaller raise tends sell a stronger hand.

Curious to know your thoughts - especially since I played this hand very differently from how I normally play these situations.

Is limp re-raising utterly horrible in these situations or is it a line you might take given the read on the villain? How do you size bets here, and how do you play this post flop?

[JooWish622]

awwr in

[DaCooler]

eeezzz push, you are WAY ahead of his range and that flop isnt bad, you have overs and a runner draw .. get it in

[JKratzer]

[ QUOTE ]
3-betting light

[/ QUOTE ]

just raise the first time around, you'll catch people in between and can then 4-bet if/when he 3-bets. as played push. i can't say that i ever limp/reraise but there could certainly be spots for it. i don't think this is one of them.

[student_of_game]

hi JKratzer,

Sorry I should have clarified - I felt that villain would three bet light to defend his blinds if someone raises in stealing position. I'm not sure if he would have three bet an EP raiser (he might have just called here), but don't have enough experience with him to judge -- this was just my feeling based on limited information. I did feel, though, that he would raise if a few people limped though.

Another general question - what do people think of limp rr'ing AK? This hand was unconventional for me on two accounts - not only do I never limp rr, but I imagined that if I were to do so with a real hand, it would be with AA/KK, and not really AK. I guess there's a time for everything, though. :-)

[student_of_game]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

My understanding is that pushing is supposed to be the standard play in situations like this where opponent has roughly a PSB left and where I'm either ahead or my cards are at least both live (and I have good fold equity).

However, I usually seem to ran bad in these same situations (i.e., I get called too often by better hands, and then don't suck out).

In part, I was posting this hand as a sanity check that I am making a correct play given the situation.

In this hand, I made a PSB to put my opponent all in without much hesitation. My opponent called pretty quickly, and I thought "doh... here we go again". Turn and river were blanks, but then my opponent felted... A2o(!) and MHIG.

This was definitely a head scratcher hand.