Live 5-table tourney A6s with paired board

[WJL]

Playing in a live 50-man rebuy tournament with about 15-minute blind levels. First break and rebuy period over, I am playing TAG and have been a little up and down; stack at 850 (opened at 750). Tourney breaks to 4 tables and I am on about the 3rd hand on new full 10-man table with no reads. Blinds are 25/50, soon to move to 50/100. Villain has slightly shorter stack UTG.

Preflop: Hero is in CO with A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
7 players limp in, including Hero.

Flop: (t350) 10[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] 6 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 10 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
table checks to Hero, raises 200; 2 folds, villain calls, 3 folds

At this point I have a strong feeling that the Villain does NOT have a 10; told me he was calling my bluff.

Turn: (t750) K [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
Villain checks, Hero checks

River: (t750) A [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
Villain checks, Hero raises 100, Villain raises to 300, Hero?

[TFGoose]

No way I'm betting that flop with 6 opponents. No way I'm trusting anyone who calls your flop bet with 3 people yet to act behind him, especially after he utters the words "I'm calling your bluff".

After the bet and call on the flop, you should be checking this down, including when you hit your Ace on the end. As it stands, you probably have to call this little raise, but don't be surprised when he shows you a winner.

--TFGoose

[WJL]

These were my thoughts at the time:

No PF raise likely removes AA-JJ from Villain's range

Check/call on flop made me think draw rather than trips; if he had a 10, would have been smarter to push me out of the hand rather than let me hang on and fill a boat. My bet at the CO might have looked like a steal attempt to him. At this point put Villain on small-medium PP or Ax/Kx.

Check on the turn makes me think he wants to limit the pot and go to showdown.

Ace on the River leaves Villain with 10-x, 66, KK and AK as winning hands. Possible he has a monster; possible he hit his A and put me on PP. Was a difficult decision at the time.

[WJL]

Couple of more thoughts on this and I'm done.

I knew this was an edgy situation . . . that's why I posted it. I had been pretty card-dead this tourney, and blinds were about to turn things into a pushfest. Table was tight, and the Button folded PF, making me last to act; after the table checked to me, thought it was not a bad time for a shot. Also, I've been trying to overcome the impulse to fold whenever I see a paired flop; seems to me when you see a flop like this and you don't have trips, there are a lot of things that can happen and most of them are bad. Yet I see people play these hands, so I figured it was just a leak in my game.

In the end, I was right and wrong both; nobody had the 10, but Villain had KK.