Two Ace King Hands Bellagio 25k event against Josh Arieh

[bruce]

I haven't played in a tournament lately, been playing mostly cash games. Had lunch yesterday with a friend. He's one of the best limit players around. He doesn't play in too many tournaments but was on the Travel Channel once. He won a satellite to play in the 25k Bellagio WPT event so that's why he's playing.

Hand 1. Everyone starts with 50k in chips. Josh has lost half his stack and it's still early. Josh raises in early position 3x to make it t1200. Hero with 85k calls with AKs with position on Josh. No other customers.

Flop comes A T 3 rainbow. Josh bets 3/4 the pot and hero calls. Turn brings a King (no flush draws). Josh checks.
Hero bets around 6k. Josh checkraises all in. What's hero's best play?

Hand 2. Josh raises 3x to 1800 in midposition. Hero on button has AKs and reraises to t5000. Hero has Josh covered. Josh instacalls.

Flop comes Ac 4c 7d. Josh checks and hero bets t6000. Josh calls. Turn brings a third club. Josh bets t12000 and hero
calls. River brings an Ace. Josh checks. What's hero's best play?

Comments appreciated.

Bruce

[dmk]

hand 1: call
hand 2: stacks? does josh really bet out w/ a flush on the turn? doubtful, i probably bet like 12k. he'll call w/ something like AxQc

[seke2]

Hand 1: He played it like he has a set or possibly another AK, but I don't think I'm capable of getting away. Josh has ~25k total, and has ~19k left when he pushes. Pot has 28k or so, Hero is 1.5:1 or so on pot odds. What hands could Josh be bluffing here? Maybe AQ for TPTK + gutshot. I dunno. He did seem pretty LAGgy when I've seen him on TV, would he possibly have KT here? In any case, I don't think you're ahead of much of his range, and you only have 4 outs to the river full house. I really, really want to call...but man, I just don't know. I have to give Josh credit for a reasonable EP raising range, and I can't think of many hands we're beating in that range that cbet the flop and c/r push the turn.

Hand 2: yeah, like DMK said, stack sizes?

[bruce]

They both have around 50 ish in hand 2. Stack sizes were not revealed to bias responses for hand 1. Also stack sizes for hand 2 were related to other hands involving players so don't think hero lost hand 1.

Bruce

[supercomputer]

I've seen Josh raise UTG 9-handed with K9o on TV. No way I would get away from either of these hands.

[Imrahil]

He might possibly have KK. That would justify his EP raise (although supercomputer says that he can raise in EP with junk as well). That would also justify his 3/4 bet on the flop, to see where he's at. Since you called it probably looked like you have an ace. On the turn his king comes so he check raises you all in.

[Masquerade]

Hand 1: Arieh is representing AK so strongly that even a blind donkey can spot it and fold a weaker ace. Therefore it's highly likely that AK beats his hand. I call. Although as I'd have re-raised pre-flop I'd have never got here.

Hand 2: I just check. Too many ways this one could blow up in your face.

[AceLuby]

1. Fold, I put him on a set of tens or QJ.

2. Check, you'll be raised by a bigger hand and a worse hand will fold.

[locutus2002]

Hand 1:
I'd check behind on the turn.
After leading the turn I'd call the c/r given that hero just smooth called PF. Your going to need a pretty good read to fold this.

Hand 2:
I'd value bet the river. Josh's hand plays like Ax of clubs. I doubt he's c/ring if you called in hand #1 without the nuts. It's not consistent to just check behind after calling the turn because if you were ahead then, you are still ahead.

[kutuz_off]

Hand 1 - my first thought was that Josh has AT or 33. Note - with this board 33 can occur in 3 different combinations, AT in 9.

Hand 2 - I'd check probably.