$10 NLH - How to play this hand?

This is my first Hand Review request. I'll wait for a few responses before I post my read and the results. Thanks for the help.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed)

CO ($3.80)
Button ($9.85)
Hero ($10)
BB ($11.50)
UTG ($11.30)
MP ($10)

Preflop: Hero is SB with As, Ad. MP posts a blind of $0.10.
UTG raises to $0.5, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.45, BB calls $0.40.

Flop: ($1.60) 7s, 9s, 5c(3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $1.3, Hero raises to $2.6, BB folds, UTG raises to $10.8

Hero?

Please please please RR preflop, and raise him more than a minraise on the flop. As played though, call.

RR pre-flop to $1.50 and 4-bet if given the option... try and get it all in pre- with AAs.

As played, raise UTG to around $4 and get it in on the flop.

Don't minraise gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh TILT.

3 bet pre and felt this flop against an UTG raiser.

Originally Posted by Bbickes

Don't minraise gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh TILT.

3 bet pre and felt this flop against an UTG raiser.

+1

Thanks for the replies. It would be helpful to know the reasoning behind your answers before I tell what happened. Hope you don't mind.

For instance:
1) "please RR preflop, and raise him more than a minraise on the flop".

OK, I see that reraisingwill get $$ in the pot with the best hand. But that's only if he calls. Do we really want to chase him out of the hand? It could also win the hand now and prevent him flopping a monster.

Raise more than minraise? Is this because we don't think he flopped anything to beat our top pair and we want to win the pot now? Is it to get even more money in, hoping he'll call?

2) "felt the flop"? Don't know, but I think this means to go AI on the flop. Is that because he's not likely to be able to beat TP, so go AI and wait out the turn and river?

To call the flop would put me all in. Is that a good call with TP? Do you think his huge raise means that he's just bluffing and hoping I won't call?

Dude - Two things to start with... 1) congrats on posting the HH... that and reading other people's sh!t is the best way to learn and 2) congrats x2 on asking "why"... That's the thinking sh!t that's gonna get u good much quicker than "Okay... so i do blah blah when blah happens...."

So nh...

To add a bit based on your questions...

AA is the nuts pre-flop. You got the best hand in the mother-f-cka. If the game ended then, you would be guaranteed to win. But it's also a vulnerable hand. Only 2 cards can improve it. You can't draw to no straight or flush... unless you hit a set, your ass got what your ass got... which is top pair. And top pair becomes worth less and less as you go thru the streets, 'cause all the other cards can be improving other people to sh!t that beats your top pair.

Moral of the story? Don't f-ck around with top pair. Get the money in hard and fast. So raise and re-raise pre-flop to either get it all-in or take the b!tch down before someone gets a chance to hit their set, flush, straight, whatever.

Then the flop hits. Same rules apply. And in this case, it's a very drawie flop... there's a straight AND flush draw potential. So your AA top pair is prolly still pretty good, but you don't wanna let nobody get no extra card for cheap. So you slam them again... pot-sized bet, and if they raise, push them all-in... Your odds of being ahead aren't as good as pre-flop, but you're probably still ahead AND you may get them to fold by shoving over them and close the hand out right now.

You let them see the turn card or the river before they gotta commit they monies, your AA is getting weaker and weaker...

It's a pretty simple rule actually... monster pairs (AA,KK,QQ) get weaker through the streets. So play them hard and fast, esp. AA/KK -- pref to get allin pre-flop. DO NOT SLOW PLAY these hands EVER... you more than welcome to try that out, but over the longer term (which, BTW, is at least 30K hands...) you will lose money -- guaranteed.

Hope that helped a little bit and gl!

I couldn't have put it any better sarbox.

What Sarbox said +2.

Here's the deal with 3betting preflop and NOT min-raising the flop. Pot odds. On the flop, when Hero is to act, there's basically $3 in the pot. You raised another $1.30. So villain has to call $1.30 to have a chance at winning $4.30. He's getting better than 3 to 1 pots odds, so he only needs 25% equity here to call. It's hard to be that far ahead (and know it) in this spot. Holding any 8, 6, TT, 44, or a spade (he can't KNOW you have the As), villain is correct to call here because he's likely to improve enough on the next card. Villain is also likely to have a sc with 8+ outs or small pp that made him a set. Which brings us to preflop pot odds.

Even though AA is big preflop favorite (min of 60-40 chance of winning an all-in confrontation), against a wide range of opening hands from a loose villain it's not very often better than a 75-25 favorite. But 3betting is perfect here 'cuz 3bets tend to get flatted (just called, not raise) most the time with med pp's (QQ - 88), AQ+, A9s+, KQs and sc's. These are the perfect hands for villain to have when we hold AA since all the pp's and Ax hands are HUGE dogs to our bullets.

What size should a preflop rr (3bet) be? At least 3x villain's raise (in position), and 3.5x - 4x villain's raise (out of position). This get's villain calling WITHOUT proper pot odds for the equity he has.

Also, what happens when you get 4bet? Hopefully it's all-in and you snap call. If , you should rr all-in. The amazing crap that 10nl villains will call all-in's with is amazing: AJs, 55. And if they fold, we've got at least a third of their stack already in the middle. NH, hero.

I didn't have a really good read on villain yet, but he was the most aggro at the table, raising pre-flop (stealing blinds?) and betting through the turn getting many folds.

I just called the pre-flop raise because I didn't want to scare him off. I guess I got greedy. I see now that I miss-played the A's.

On the flop, I just did the min-raise because it was the quickest raise to make, just hit the button. I figured he would read that quick bet as a bluff. [I put him on a pair with an overcard. I thought he would keep betting with any pair. His final raise meant he either had a real hand or was just continuing the aggression, expecting me to fold.

Here's the rest of the hand:

Preflop: Hero is SB with As, Ad. MP posts a blind of $0.10.
UTG raises to $0.5, 3 folds, Hero calls $0.45, BB calls $0.40.

Flop: ($1.60) 7s, 9s, 5c(3 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, UTG bets $1.3, Hero raises to $2.6, BB folds, UTG raises to $10.8

Hero calls $6.90 (All-In).

Turn: ($20.60) 5d (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($20.60) Jd (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $20.60

Villain mucked [9h 7h]

So, my read was wrong. He flopped two pair and I was the one who needed to catch a card. When the board paired 5's, that gave me the higher 2-pair. If that hadn't happenned, I would have gotten stacked.

I doubled up, but was it a good call on the flop? Sometimes it's good to get lucky.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll be posting more hands in the future. It helps a lot.

Originally Posted by PlayToWin

So, my read was wrong. He flopped two pair and I was the one who needed to catch a card. When the board paired 5's, that gave me the higher 2-pair. If that hadn't happenned, I would have gotten stacked.

I doubled up, but was it a good call on the flop? Sometimes it's good to get lucky.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll be posting more hands in the future. It helps a lot.

Just one more lesson here. He bet the two pair right. You're almost always way ahead on the flop with two pair, but it's a fragile hand that can easily lose to a better two when your opponent has overs, a set and/or lots of other things. Also, it would be interesting to run PokerStove on the hand. I'm betting you're not that bad off in terms of equity. But it's a weird situation. I'll leave that to you, though. It's how we learn how to play.

Get as much money in the pot pre-flop as you can here with Aces. A re-raise was mandatory. It's highly unlikely he would have just called with 97 and taking down a pre-flop pot of 10+ BB is always a good thing. I suspected a set here before you posted the results, but either way you were behind and got lucky. Can't complain about that!