AK hand played strangely; interesting flop action

[Pokey]

<font color="blue">Here's a hand I played tonight that I found potentially interesting for the uNL crowd. Rather than my typical approach of talking you through it, I'll present it with reads but no comments. Later on I'll talk you through my thought process, but for now I'd like to let you folks hash it out.

Reads:

I have slightly more than 300 hands on each opponent, here.

MP is running 40/7 preflop and also has a postflop aggression of 3.

CO is running 32/20 preflop and has a postflop aggression of 3. He attempts to steal the blinds more than 1/3rd of the time and given how bad MP is, this could be an isolation play. I should also point out that CO is currently running hotter than the sun.

I'm playing a fairly standard TAG game, though a bit on the passive side preflop, running about 23/12. My postflop aggression is sitting at about 7 right now and I'm getting respect at the table.</font>

Full Tilt Poker - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $0.50/$1 Blinds - 6 Players - (LegoPoker Hand History Converter)

Pokey (SB): $165.00
BB: $100.00
UTG: $115.55
MP: $151.05
CO: $116.60
BTN: $49.85

Preflop: Pokey is dealt K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (6 Players)
UTG folds, MP calls $1.00, <font color="red">CO raises to $4.50</font>, BTN folds, Pokey calls $4.00, BB folds, MP calls $3.50

Flop: ($14.50) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (3 Players)
Pokey checks, <font color="red">MP bets $7.00</font>, <font color="red">CO raises to $35.50</font>, <font color="red">Pokey raises all-in to $160.50</font>....

<font color="blue">So: why did I smooth-call preflop? Why did I check the flop? After the action gets back to me, why did I push the flop? Were these good moves or bad? Was this solid play or just another case of Fancy Play Syndrome? What do you think of this hand?</font>

[RedSoxFan]

I'll give it a go:

smooth-call: MP is loose so will play anything; CO is riding his hot streak . A raise shows them strength and may kill any later action (especially if CO is raising light here)

check flop: because you probably have the best hand. Let the aggressors put in a cbet and raise it there. Hopefully CO has a weaker ace and will think his hot streak is still going- he'll call. Chances are no one has AA or 77 so shove it.

I like your play.

[Check_The_Nuts]

I'm pretty sure you only beat a bluff. At UB I never see potsized raises on that board with like AQ or whatever. Then again I'd never have AK here.

[Leviathan101]

I like this actually.

Smooth call is a combination of mixing it up, and the bad player stimulating action with weaker hands. We underrep our hand preflop, expecting to get heavy action when he have villian outkicked.

Flop looks good. Both opponents are aggresive, I see no reason to show strength yet. Check it lets them bet worse hands.

MP bets which is nice, CO raises big.

I think CO's raise is mostly for value here. He expects MP to play with worse aces, and maybe some pocket pairs. If's he's got air that's fine. CO could be trying to attack a pot he views as weak. MP is bad enough to fire with air and then fold to a raise from the PFR, so he sees it as a chance to steal. So you shove expecting to A) take down the pot if CO has nothing, or B) get called by worse Aces and 7s, and you expect to see more Aces.

If MP has a 7, you lose your chips. W/e I think it's rare enough. If CO has a 7, you lose your chips. That's rare too.

Um, I think your shove here is depedant on whether CO with laydown AQ here. You are repping a 7 here, since I think it's probably too high level for them to assume you are raising air here since you think MP is terrible and CO knows you think that...

so... I think that a shove isn't that good here actually. If you're beat you have at most 2 outs, if you're good you're only giving them 3 outs. Then again check/calling a raise from pfr might as well be saying you have a 7 as well. eh... tricky. I guess shoving is ok. I think a shove is best if CO is a deeper thinker, and calling is better if he isn't.

[vixticator]

Usually value betting flop, I assume. This seems fine against players that have been around a while. MP's bet looks weak, he wants to know where he stands or take down this small pot... any small pair or Ax plays same IMO. CO may know this or not, it doesn't matter, and raise AJ-AK, maybe some kind of sc with a seven. But most of the time they are waiting until the turn with a big hand. There are no draws here. If I know CO waits for turn more than not with something like 67s this is a good value shove.

The only problem is you could be folding out AJ+ type hands, no? Depends on your reads. Any time he folds AK is great though. Your hand looks very much like AA as played. I suppose it's *possible* a seven folds but this is definitely not the goal IMO. Pushing if and only if you think AJ type hands are calling...

[wslee00]

i have no idea why you would call AK OOP. What is your plan if you don't hit on the flop? just c/f? I think that's kind of weak.

as for flop play, you just called pf, so villain is expecting you to check. Once CO raises over MP's small bet, your only moves imo are to fold or go all-in, and since you have TPTK on a paired board, you basically have to get it in, so the flop plays itself after CO's raise.

[corsakh]

I really have no [censored] idea why you want to play ak multiway OOP without being the agressor. I think we can be certain that CO is value raising here and with two 7s and two Aces out, a 30/20 at his attempt to steal has almost as many 7s in his range as he does Aces. Not to mention it should be AT+ for the raise to take place. So I really have no idea why your doing what your doing and this is all obviously a gigantic level or a tutorial how to get stacked with a premium hand to a 72s.

[AZplaya]

hate pre flop
flop c/r ai seems pretty standard

[bozzer]

[ QUOTE ]
hate pre flop
flop c/r ai seems pretty standard

[/ QUOTE ]

[traz]

yea I'm not a fan of preflop for 3 reasons:

a) We crush the initial raiser's opening range and thus he's likely to play with a worse hand (especially when rushing)
a) If we flat, MP is likely to come along, and playing multiway with AK sucks
c) Being OOP blows

Once the flop hits, I'm honestly more scared of MP having a 7 than CO having a 7. MP limp calls and then donks the flop for half pot...that's scary man. That being said, against 2 donks like this I don't mind the crai. It really depends on what you've seen these guys show down with.

If I'm gonna stack off, I might be more inclined to just call the flop and look to crai on the turn. That shove on the flop is pretty intimidating to anything but a 7.