newbie needs analysis on these 3 hands

300$ buyin (blinds are 2$-5$) B&M casino.

Hand 1: Hero is in MP3 with A-Qo. suit not important.
UTG+2 and SB both have hero covered. SB plays quite a few pots and has paid of some other players chasing draws. however, i still put him as one of the better player at the tables.

UTG+2 limps, Hero raises to 10$, Button calls, SB raises to 20$, UTG+2 calls, Hero calls.

Flop: Qh-4h-2s
SB bets 40$, UTG+2 folds, Hero raises 80$, SB calls.

Turn: Qh-4h-2s-Jh
SB checks, Hero bets 30$, SB calls.

River: Qh-4h-2s-Jh-x
SB checks, Hero checks.

Question: How should i have played this hand if i didnt play it correctly in your opinion ?

Question 2: I know I shouldnt play big pots with hands like AQ and AK (as NLTAP says, did i inflate the pot with my flop raise?

Question 3: I wanted a cheap showdown but when SB bets 40, i dont want to call down as he might bet bigger on the turn.
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Hand 2:
Hero is AKo in SB.

MP1 limps, MP3 limps, CO raises to 20$, Button calls, Hero calls, MP1 calls, MP3 calls.

CO raising range is very wide, could have anything, Button is the fish at the table. raises every hand preflop, bets every flop.

Flop: A-Q-10 (2 clubs on board, hero has no clubs)
Hero checks intending to checkraise pot when CO bets, but it gets checked around.

Turn: A-Q-10 -Q
Hero bets 40, Button calls.

River: A-Q-10 -Q-Q
Hero bets 75, button folds.

Question 1: Should I have reraised AK from SB. I am only learning to play NL and i seem to overplay AK before and lost stack with it. I am trying to play small pots with AK now. is this too weak ? but i am in SB and would have reraised maybe if i was button.

Question 2: Should i lead out here rather than check raise ?
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Hand 3:
Hero is 10-10 in the BB.
5 people limp, hero checks.

Flop: 10-2-4 (2 suited board)
hero bets 15, 4 callers.

Turn: 10-2-4-4
Hero checks, everyone checks

River: 10-2-4-4-9
SB bets 40, hero raises all in for 150$, sb calls.

Question 1: when i get 4 callers on the flop should i lead again like 40$ in the turn to build bigger pot rather than slow play ?? I did win a decent pot on this one but am wondering whether leading out again half the pot on the turn or maybe even smaller bet on the turn to show that i am scared of the paired board would have built me bigger pot ?
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Miscellaneous question:

I had a maniac fish 2 seat to my right. he was raising preflop almost every other hand. which was alright with me because i am only learning to play NL and it forced me to play tighter. however, the other players caught on it too and were slowplaying him all night

however here is what i did on 2-3 hands. were these correct ?

1) when he raised UTG 30$ , i reraised all in 150$ with AKo. is that too risky considering i am mp1 and someone else with AA-JJ might call me and i am putting too much at risk just trying to isolate maniac. I dont want to play this guy post flop because he could outflop me. I just want to push my big cards that beat his raising range.

2) i called his 15$ raises with KQ0 2 times and KQs 1 time. even though he raises with junk, should i be calling someones 3-bb raises with KQo, knowing he is a manic and 4-5 people will call his raises too.


thats it for today. thank you FTR. You helped me learn a lot in Limit, now hopefully I can learn NL from you guys too.

Hand 1: Yes. You inflated the crap out of that pot. You were given a lot of opportunities to fold, but you didn't, and that is why the pot got so out of control will a marginal hand on a scary board. If I were you, I would just fold to the reraise PF, especially if he's a better player. It automatically removes you from marginal situations like these where you need a solid read to make the best decision, something which seems like you didn't have at the time.

Hand 2: Reraise PF to 65 ish. You are OOP with a VERY poor multiway hand. AK is a hand you want HU all of the time OOP. Lead the flop, there are WAY too many draws on the board to check. The turn bet is terrible. You are giving odds for any draw, and you are just asking to be raised. Make it at least 80. River bet is fine.

You say you would have reraised if you were on the button, but that doesn't make sense. You are OOP and very very vulnerable. You need to reraise so you aren't OOP on a multiway pot like this. BEING OOP SUCKS ESP IN MULTIWAY POTS! Remember that.

Hand 3: Don't slowplay unless you have the deck crippled on the flop. E.G. You have AA and the flop is AAK. Slowplaying is a bad idea on this turn because you clearly could get more money in the pot since people called your flop bet. Also, you could get some to bluff at you repping a 4. The key to winning at NL is to keep firing at pots, being aggressive with big hands so they will get paid off.

Reraising AI with AK against a maniac is fine. But I think you should reraise hands like KQ instead of just calling to eliminate making multiway pots that will make your decisions very difficult postflop.

Good luck!