Trapping with unimproved AK Postlop

[Nicky O Donnell]

In a $109 buy in tournament on Pokerstars we are over half way through the field and I have a shortish stack on a table with a lot of big stacks belonging to laggy but decent players. Ubsolute, Pearljammer and some other TLB regulars are all on this pretty sick table. This villain in this hand is not a well known player but has featured on some decent final tables recently. At the moment he is about 5th in chips of 90 or so players left.

Any time it has been folded to him on the button he has raised my big blind. This would be 100% from 4 or 5 opportunities. I have picked up some hands on all of these occasions and either 3 bet him or called. I have lost every time by either folding to a 4 bet all-in or check folding the flop unimproved.

On this occasion the seat between us is empty so when he raises I am in the SB.

Effective stacks: Me 16.500, Villain 58,000. Blinds 400/800

I pick up AK in the small blind and when it's folded to the Villain he makes it 2400 on the button. I decide that calling is my best play here since the villains range is off the charts, he will always c-bet the flop and a lot of the time the BB will squeeze.

The BB folds and the flop comes 8c-3s-3c. I have the Ace of clubs.

Now I decide that I still definitely have the best hand a decent majority of the time, so I want to extract as much from him as possible. I can CRAI if I want but I decide if I lead the flop there's a good chance he will see this as a sheepish way I have devised to countermeasure his incessant stealing and he might shove all in.

I lead for 3000 and he shoves. I snap-call.

Thoughts?

[LuckyLloyd]

Nicky, my spidey senses tell me the villian and hero roles could well be reversed for the purposes of this post.

However, I really think hero should just shove preflop. Plus, if you are confident that you are ahead on this flop and part of the reason you flatted pre was to allow button to c - bet 100% of his range on 100% of flops I prefer just CRAI to donking into him.

For me, there is little need to be getting overly tricky with 20 BBs. On a simple level, you aren't always going to have AK when you want to play back at an aggressive late position stealer. Your range for defending should be quite wide and deciding to play the higher part of your range for playing back here in a specific // non - standard fashion to maximise value or whatever is going to be quite exploitable in the long term.

[zizazziza]

pf: You should be r/r this pf 99% of times.
I dont even flat here, but you did alright.
flop: this is the best flop for you. This flop most likely missed him and I would try getting it ai here. Lead-call is fine. I usually c/r here or c/c shove turn if I'm playing it slow b/c I dont want to give him a chance to leave the pot. Betting such a small amount works as well on flop

[adanthar]

[ QUOTE ]
flop: this is the best flop for you. This flop most likely missed him and I would try getting it ai here.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, I love when people do this

[LuckyLloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
flop: this is the best flop for you

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd argue AAK or Q-J-10 rainbow would be better tbf.

[zizazziza]

look, if your not shoving this pf this shallow. what flop are you looking for that you arent shoving? [censored].
im not flatting a btn raise with 20bb anyways with AK

[gibler321]

i think the best option would be shove pf. he might call you light because you have been playing agressively towards him anyway. he might call you down with Ax KQ, etc

[Nicky O Donnell]

[ QUOTE ]
look, if your not shoving this pf this shallow. what flop are you looking for that you arent shoving?

[/ QUOTE ]

None. Although its a big risk I played the hand in a way that gets all my opponents chips in the middle with what is most likely a worse hand.

[Mench]

shove pre. or 6k and let him shove.

[JSchnett]

terrible
shove pf or c/r AI on the flop. the fist option is way better.