Interesting 50-100 AK hand

[SA125]

This hand took place in a HOE 50-100 game and was interesting. My image is tight but that my best game is holdem. I've been more agro in this round than the others. I can play the other games good, but not as confidently as I play holdem and I think the others know it / have picked up on it.

Anyway, the other players are playing pretty snug on the holdem rounds. A limper and a raise from the CO. Villain is decent agro. He's not dumb, but I'd play him holdem till I was broke. He's picked up on me running over the table in holdem raising pf and dragging uncalled smoked flop / turn bets / pots.

I 3 bet AKo from the SB, folded back to villain, he calls, we're h/u.

I smoke a Flop of Q x x, he calls.

I smoke a turn of Q x x x, he calls.

I smoke a river Q x x x 8, he calls.

Comments?

[SA125]

Some real interesting thoughts on this hand I'll post later. Don't know if it'll get any feedback, as I'm not of of the annoited few, but there was some higher level thinking going into the river. We'll see.

[private joker]

I kind of need to know what the x's are on the flop and turn. And I need to know why the 8 was more important than the x's to annotate. And I need to know if the board was rainbow. And I wonder why you included the action of him calling the river.

Also, I don't think it's that bad. The river is a tough spot because if you check you're a bigger underdog when he bets. So I don't like c/c; on the other hand I don't see him ever folding a better hand, so you only want to get looked up by worse A-highs. It's close between b/f and c/f on the river for me.

[Overseer55]

Isn't this a classic situation where betting unimproved AK on the end has to be wrong. If he calls, you've lost...if he raises, you can't call (and 3-bet bluffing the river looks horribly, horribly wrong), if you're ahead then c/c will pick up an extra bet (if he correctly value bets his marginal hand). If the 'x's are all the same card (e.g. Q4448), then he probably has small pockets and is letting you bluff the whole way and extracting the max # of chips from you. If the 'x's are different, then we need to know what they are to provide meaningful analysis.

[ QUOTE ]
He's not dumb, but I'd play him holdem till I was broke.

[/ QUOTE ]
I found this line particularly amusing. Ideally, he'd be the one going broke.

[ssmallz]

My standard line for this situation is to check the turn and call the river or check the river after betting the turn, depending on if he's LP or LAG. Most of the respondants to your post will prolly advocate one of the 2 lines mentioned. I think you'll get much better feedback if you post your thinking as to why you bet all 3 streets.

[Clarkmeister]

[ QUOTE ]
I think you'll get much better feedback if you post your thinking as to why you bet all 3 streets

[/ QUOTE ]

Because his laggy villian doesn't raise him at all. AK seems pretty obviously good, so why not value bet. At most villian has a real small pocket pair that he doesn't want to get blown off if he raises. Also a chance he catches on the river, but there's simply so many times in this spot where he'll call down with a worse ace or even a king that you need to bet for value since, especially since you're out of position. This is a pretty standard hand. Well played.

[Howard Beale]

[ QUOTE ]
My standard line for this situation is to check the turn and call the river or check the river after betting the turn, depending on if he's LP or LAG. Most of the respondants to your post will prolly advocate one of the 2 lines mentioned. I think you'll get much better feedback if you post your thinking as to why you bet all 3 streets.

[/ QUOTE ]

I (and everybody else I know) uses 'smoke' to indicate betting blind. I'll have to wait for his (maybe) next post on this hand to find out. He also promised some 'interesting thoughts' and 'higher level thinking' which I'd like to know what they are.

I'd make a comment on the play but I don't know if he's betting blind or not.

Edit to add:

What Clarkmeister said esp. if he's betting blind. OP says Villain has seen him do this a few times already. Once Villain hasn't raised him by the turn AK is looking pretty good most of the time. Villain is going to call the river here with a worse Ace every time once he's gone this far and if it turns out he's got a pair under the Queen then, oh well.

[DeathDonkey]

I have a hard time getting called down with AJ on a Q high board, people just are way less willing to do it than they would with AQ or the same AJ on a non paint board. That said its clearly better than check/calling. Though I'm pretty damn impressed if you got paid off on every street by a worse hand in a 50/100 game.

Clark in Vegas the river play would be a bluff, right?

Oh I still hate the term "smoke bet" for some reason.

-DeathDonkey

[Clarkmeister]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a hard time getting called down with AJ on a Q high board, people just are way less willing to do it than they would with AQ or the same AJ on a non paint board. That said its clearly better than check/calling. Though I'm pretty damn impressed if you got paid off on every street by a worse hand in a 50/100 game.

Clark in Vegas the river play would be a bluff, right?

Oh I still hate the term "smoke bet" for some reason.

-DeathDonkey

[/ QUOTE ]

Personally I think it's more of a value bet (though who knows what people fold). Why can't the villian have basically any ace at all. Based on the description, firing up the limper with A5s seems totally possible, and given the distrust at play, and no raises anywhere, I think random aces are a decent part of the range and there's a good chance they call.

[brettbrettr]

Smoking bets is more likely to get you called IMO.