Here's a hand...

[MonroeSt.]

You said this guy built his stack up by being a complete donk then what makes you think that betting out representing AK/AA is going to make him lay down AQ? He did call your PF re-raise so he prob. has somethinbg. Sounds like you had a minor read on him so you might as well go with that. First thing I consider in a situation where someone performs a massive river overbet is to check any and all possible draws both made or more importantly missed. You have not provided the info neccessary to make that conclusion. You have to decide wether this is the type of player that will go all-in on a missed draw. By checking the betting patterns somtimes you can come to a conclusion. He calls your bets the whole way to the river, no raises. He has to be looking for something, draw or overcard, to help his hand. You could tell he prob. didn't have an overpair unless he played it badly. When the A hits on the river you have 3 options. 1. Go all-in representing AA/AK but as I said a donk like this is prob. not going to lay it down, maybe if the stacks were deeper but the pot size is to big now in his case. 2. Checking, like you did which I thinks hurts your chances of winning this hand because it gives villain hope that your hand is not as strong as he thought. You have given him hope to push in, which is what hey did. In real life when you checked he was sitting on AQ and from your check prob. deduced that you did not have AA/AK. Can you fold to this all-in river bet. Math wise it might not be the correct move but sometimes I think people just calulate those odds to make them feel better when they lose when they KNEW they were beat. I'm not saying you KNEW you were beat but it had to be better than a 30% chance. If its not an A its a busted draw. 3. The best option I think since a river fold is acceptable is to bet out a small amount. A tester bet, if he raises you after having been passive the whole hand then fold. If he calls we go to the showdown and you'll know for sure wether you've won without having to call a monster all-in bet.

[creedofhubris]

[ QUOTE ]
definitely was not looking for any sympathy. Readily admitting my own poor play here. Just looking for input on this particular situation, and no I didn't register simply to post this tale. No need to get feisty.

In any event, he showed A/Q.

[/ QUOTE ]

You didn't make any mistakes.

You made it 4x his initial raise pre, which is a good size for a reraise. You bet the pot on the flop and 2/3 pot on the turn, that's also a good bet size. (Check-raise allin on the turn would've been fine too.)

On the river, as has been pointed out, the ace is a blank as far as you're concerned. Unless he's superbluffy he's likely to check behind here, so it's probably best to put the last of your chips in yourself.

BTW, after you lose a hand like this you say, "lock my seat down, I'll be back", go to the ATM, and immediately take out enough to cover the guy who played AQ like that.