How to handle smooth callers in no-limit?

Ok, first post here and a beginner at no limit, so bear with me.
I've just recently discovered the beaty of being the agressor instead of the caller and things have improved a lot. However, there is one situation which seems to take my entire stack all too often.

I'm dealt something like AK in early position, raise preflop and one person behind me calls. I hit on the flop, say A94, and start betting.
Flop - I bet, he calls, turn - I bet, he calls, river - I bet, he calls and shows pocket 9's and takes most of my stack.

Now, here's my thinking
1. I've shown strength preflop and with an A on the flop and me betting, it should be pretty evident for him what I have. Therefore, he must be pretty sure to beat it and I should check and fold, at least on the river.
2. On the other hand, I have seen the exact same behavior with TT, JJ, ATs and what not. Therefore, checking would either give him a free card, or signal weakness and be setup for a bluff.
3. Or, after the flop I continue betting but much smaller amounts. Risking less, but winning less and giving pot odds for a draw hand.

I cannot really decide what is the best strategy here, I guess the answer comes down to "know your opponent" which, unfortunately, I'm not very good at yet.

Comments?

Can you post the hand history?

How much did you raise pre-flop? How much did you bet the flop? Rainbow flop, 2 suited or single suited? Why did you bet the river?

Bottom line here is you're out of position and screwed for just about as much of your stack as he can get from you.

Hey, I can see the fnords! Finally!

No, sorry, no hand history, this was just an example out memory of
something that I realize I have to do something about.

Out of my head I guess that I'd raise preflop to something like 4xBB (.10/.25 NL UB)

The flop was rainbow, and I bet about half the pot.
The turn brought up a potentially dangerous draw card so I bet rather heavy there, the pot or close to it.
Why and how much I bet on the river I can't answer and it's a good question...

I was a very typical weak/tight player that got bluffed out a lot, I'm trying to correct that now, but I most certainly overdo it every now and then. I would be grateful if you or someone else could share how they would play in these situations.

Sometimes you can be playing your best poker and you are just going to have to pay someone. Otherwise you are going to be folding the best hand. You played this hand ok i thought was just unlucky to run into trips, if you had checked on the river, he might have smelled weakness and made a bigger bet / or if he was chasing a draw insited a big bluff. The first you are laying down a good hand to a better one, the other you are laying down the best hand.

You can't have bet the nut hand in every game and you can't look for monsters in every hand.

Unless you want to be tight passive . . . I've read this in two of the 4 poker books i have Super System and Lee Jones Limt Holdem.

If you do suspect you are beat, just try to see the hand out cheap, althought if you are not you lose some EV. What can i say you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Thinking back usually if someone has trips they let you know . . .

i'm a new player as well, but here are my thoughts:

- you don't have good position, but you initally played your AK alright, although, call call call wreaks of getting slow played. some things to ask yourself: what kind of player is he? is he a calling station? does he generally play good cards? why isn't he folding? if he has a monster, why isn't he reraising, how does he respond if checked on the turn or river?

- 4 X BB pre-flop raise would not have me folding 99 (as to what the appropriate raise is for AK, 4 X BB may be correct in early position)

you basically got slow played by someone with a good set - you didn't screw up too bad, you got out played. like toasty said, you can't win every time.

personally, i'd rather have this happen to me than the pinhead who calls your pre-flop raise with T4o, and then catches two pair on the AT4 flop!

keep at it and take the good advice on this board.

Thank you all for your replies.
One of the problems with being inexperieced is that it is hard to tell the difference between a bad beat and a bad strategy. As this, or similar, has happened to me quite a few times lately, I figured that I do something seriously wrong. But as far as I understand, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with my play - I need to learn to read other players better, and I need to stop up a bit and do some serious thinking in this position.
How would you play this if you don't have a read on the opponent? If you or him are new to the table or, like me, you are a slow learner. A check on the turn/river and a fold on a heavy bet? It doesn't really make sense either. If I were last to act with someting like AQ or KK against AK I would probably raise the half pot bet on the flop to see if he really hit. If he calls and checks on the turn I would bet, assuming he was on something like JJ-KK. This should be a much more common situation than the set (or two-pair) I talked about before, right?

i'm sure you're already doing this, but analyze (through hand histories) EVERY single hand you bet - the wins and losses. i do this the next day and when replaying the hands, everything seems so obvious. but it's a lot to think about when you're in the midst of a hand.

some random thoughts:

- play some $6 NL SNG tourney's - you pay your $6 bucks and just play. for me, the tourney's get the money out of my mind on each bet. you can play a lot of hands and the worst that will happen is you lose your $6. you have to really pay attention to position, other players, etc. because you have a limited time to act (as they do to), and need to watch for opportunities to make a move, but you play with the same players for the duration. tourney strategy is a bit different, but play a tight-aggessive NL game and you should make it into the money. see the FTR tourney section for 'lots of good approaches.

- don't sweat the bad beats (like i don't ) - and use the times you get outplayed as lessons. and suck it up and tell the person nice hand.

- specific to this case, i'd bet the flop (he calls - ok interesting), check the turn (if he's slowplaying, he'll probably check), check or small bet the river - if a big reraise comes back at you, and you're not familiar with his play, fold.

now, if i could only consistently take my own advice...

I can agree on the tourney thing..

You can't play a ring hand for $6 let alone 60-80 hands likeyou could in the tourney.

I think the amount of play time/experience of the tourney is worth it even if you aren't winning them. Make sure when your done you have them emailed to you so that you can re-play them and LEARN from them. post them here and we (ok usually fnord, he's got an eye for this stuff) will make some comments if your comfortable with it.


if your just learning and still having trouble, the tourneys are a little kinder on your bankroll when you make a bad play. (won't cost you $40 for a bad all in.. just put you out and cost you your buy in)

Thanks, I did play a lot of tourneys in the beginning just because of that, and I'm doing alright on the low no limit tables now - started two months ago with big losses, one month ago small losses and this month actually a small profit
I do not, however, analyze my hand histories as careful as you suggest, but will start immediately.

Originally Posted by OBD

I do not, however, analyze my hand histories as careful as you suggest, but will start immediately.

Glad to hear that..

As you go through your hand history question every check/call/raise/fold you made.. double check your actions. I'm sure you'll find you missed a few bets here and there. g'luck

Your question is not difficult................You were outplayed. The only way to change this from happening again is to KNOW your opponent. The cards DON"T matter. The size of your stack, tolerance for losing it, size of your bet vs opponent's stack, and position all contribute to the dynamix.

A paragraph, page or bok won't help........... only experience.

Good, luck