Another AK situation. How do you play it.

[Cpaz]

Please blast me. I almost want to limp with AK nowadays. Any thoughts? What do you put villian on?

30/60 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) (Tournament 17225354) - Mon Nov 07 21:11:22 EST 2005
Table Table 67918 (Real Money) -- Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: Chloechan (1245)
Seat 2: LazyLeoB (505)
Seat 3: johnybean (675)
Seat 4: NALA509 (915)
Seat 5: Seabiscuit29 (625)
Seat 7: PazzMan (735)
Seat 8: esper05 (2265)
Seat 10: rkoyleiii (1035)
LazyLeoB posts small blind (15)
johnybean posts big blind (30)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PazzMan [ Ad, Ks ]
NALA509 folds.
Seabiscuit29 folds.
PazzMan raises (100) to 100
esper05 folds.
rkoyleiii folds.
Chloechan calls (100)
LazyLeoB folds.
johnybean folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 3d, 7c, 8d ]
PazzMan bets (250)
Chloechan calls (250)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Th ]
PazzMan checks.
Chloechan bets (895)
Chloechan is all-In.
PazzMan?

[Fortune 500]

Fold. What's so hard about it?

He made a reasonable call with a pocket pair, and he thinks it's good. You're drawing, at best, to a 6 outer. You've lost enough. Cut your losses here.

[Cpaz]

That's what I did. The continuation bet is ok?

[Muxy]

yes

[Fortune 500]

That's what I did. The continuation bet is ok?

I don't hate it.

I tend to avoid it at low blinds. I might check and try to get a free card and catch my Ace or King on the cheap.

[silverfist]

That's exactly how I would have played it. Remember, you only need to win 1 in 3 continuation bets to make a profit. The trick is to be able to get away from one when you're called. This is a good fold.

[Fortune 500]

That's exactly how I would have played it. Remember, you only need to win 1 in 3 continuation bets to make a profit. The trick is to be able to get away from one when you're called. This is a good fold.

Incorrect. That's only if you bet about half the pot, thus getting two to one on your money. When you OVERBET the pot, like this, where he's firing 250 into a 245 pot, you've got to win a little more than 50 percent of the time to break even.

[ProZachNation]

Yeah good fold, at the level I play continuation bets work...

[silverfist]

That's exactly how I would have played it. Remember, you only need to win 1 in 3 continuation bets to make a profit. The trick is to be able to get away from one when you're called. This is a good fold.

Incorrect. That's only if you bet about half the pot, thus getting two to one on your money. When you OVERBET the pot, like this, where he's firing 250 into a 245 pot, you've got to win a little more than 50 percent of the time to break even.

Oops. Sorry. I hadn't done the math. I just usually do 50 percent unless there's a draw on the board, and then I do 2/3s.

[Trikflow77]

your c-bet is too large on this hand. You only have to bet 125-150 here, it leaves you with some sort of stack if he outflopped u. I c-bet about half to 2/3 the pot on average, you potted it here. ANd yea, fold to the all in.

[Rockymv]

This early on I'm probably not c-betting without position.

[vqc]

This early on I'm probably not c-betting without position.

IM a noob.
Does that mean you only play AK and AQ from Late position?

Whats the point of raising them in EP if you arent goign to fllow it up?
HOw does this effect ur expected value of a hand like AK?
If you raise preflop to chase out crappy hands, and because you potentially have the best hands, what happens when you miss the flop? How do you kno if you still have the best hand? WHy would you give the aggresive power to your opponent?

[Cpaz]

For the record my c-bets are normally a half to maybe 2/3 the pot at most. I think this bet was just one of those random bets and is a product of my negative variance lately.

[Trikflow77]

For the record my c-bets are normally a half to maybe 2/3 the pot at most. I think this bet was just one of those random bets and is a product of my negative variance lately.

A product of negitive variance? Are you saying that it was tilt induced or what? I dont understand, a bet has nothing to do with variance.

[Cpaz]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm varying my normal bets a bit since the variance is happening. Trying to change things up a bit that's all.

I knew you would pounce on that.

[Trikflow77]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm varying my normal bets a bit since the variance is happening. Trying to change things up a bit that's all.

I knew you would pounce on that.

ok, that i understand that....when your running bad u try anything to get it back on track......good reply. I also think this hurts your game some and makes it difficult to climb out of the rut. I admit to doing this from time to time, and after a bad day, i can look back and see some of the mistakes i dont make when im playing well.

[Scuba Chuck]

This early on I'm probably not c-betting without position.

Continuation bets and position are not nearly as relevant HU. If you're not making continuation bets in a HU pot, you're missing an element of chip accumulation.

Our hero has made a small error in the magnitude of his continuation bet, and I assume it stems from his frustration from AK hands.

[A10Chief]

I see that someone said they don't usually c-bet with small blinds. Is that a common line among most of you guys?

[Cpaz]

ok, that i understand that....when your running bad u try anything to get it back on track......good reply. I also think this hurts your game some and makes it difficult to climb out of the rut. I admit to doing this from time to time, and after a bad day, i can look back and see some of the mistakes i dont make when im playing well.

I was almost going to defend my big c-bet again by saying that it's good to vary the size of your bets. Before I did that I reread the section in HoH on C-Bets. He obviously suggests about a half the pot bet most of the time and does mention that you should vary that but that the bet size should only be between 40 to 70 percent. If lower you are obviously giving too good of odds to the villian. If higher you are overpaying if the villian actually made his hand.

I know that this is very fundamental but sometimes it's nice to revisit the basics, especially in a downswing. I think what I need to take away is to go ahead and raise with old slick but don't be afraid to get away if it doesn't pan out.