25 NL. Facing all in re-raise on river, holding low pair

[Quester]

I'm going to disagree with earlier posts that said fold preflop and modify that advice to - "fold preflop unless you know how to handle a dominated Ace out of position." I think there is value in raising this hand in this spot, but it's something that you really need to have a plan for. The fact that you're willing to call for all your money with third pair leads me to think you really had no plan for this hand. This is not a hand you should be so willing to commit with, bar a very very good read (which you didn't have).

As far as your PFR and VPIP relationship, the ratio should be much closer in 6-max. 6-max is an aggressive game and you must be raising the majority of hands you are willing to play preflop. So, your PFR should be near your VPIP. One of the statistical tells I use when picking out weak players is large gap between VPIP and PFR, because this indicates that they are either playing too many hands, or don't understand how to play well postflop.

Edit: Ominous post #666, woot.

[zasterguava]

Thanks Quester. I guess I need to tighten up pre flop as I'm hardly ever limping - though my stats seem to suggest so.

I used the timeback to the last second or so looking at how the hand went down and did deduce some logic that he could not be raising with a hand. However, in the long term I need to apply the logic spoke of here; whats his range pre flop, what % makes it + ev, etc. And shouldn't have put myself in that position to begin with.

[Pokey]

There's no way I fold this preflop. You've got a suited ace and there are three players in the pot -- you're getting over 5-to-1 POT odds on a call. If you play for two-pair, flush draws, and trips you've got a +EV situation calling preflop. If you're savvy enough to spot good steal situations you might even get more +EV than that, but just playing for good hands and good draws will alone be +EV enough to continue.

If you DO decide to raise, $1 isn't enough. You're no longer playing in tournaments -- a good preflop raise size will be about 4xBB first in and adding an extra 1 BB per limper if your raising after limpers. From the blinds many people will add an extra one or two BBs to punish drawers even more heavily; that means that your preflop raise probably should have been between $1.50 and $2.

As played, betting the flop is mandatory. You've hit a sneaky hand and there's no reason to believe you're behind after a limp-call. Your bet size might be a tiny bit on the light side, but it's in the neighborhood; most players like to go about 3/4ths pot, give or take a bit. I think 2/3rds is just fine, so that looks good.

As played, your turn bet is a bit small. Less than half the pot looks weak, and it's the kind of bet that gets you into trouble later in the hand, since you won't know if a raise is for value or a bluff because you look weak. I'd either check/call the turn or bet $4. At this point, the two plays look about the same to me, and deciding between them would be driven more by my table image than by my hand: if I've been caught stealing a great deal I'd bet, but if I'd been weak-tight with folds I'd check-call.

As played, I probably check the river and call a reasonable bet. After I bet I'm really unhappy with the situation but I have to fold -- 3/4ths pot is just too much for me to comfortably back 3PTK, especially without a strong read on my opponent.