Stars $5.50 - Overthinking the river with AA?

[andy-akb]

Level 2 of a $5.50 SNG on PS. Get dealt AA on the button, minraise to encourage action. Rainbow flop, K high, wasnt really scared of anything so I made a smaller bet to try to keep 1 or 2 around. Turn is a 7, so there is a straight draw on the board but it wouldnt make too much sense for somebody to hold onto that, looking back I probably should have bet more.
River is a K, now Im a little worried as villain has check-called every street which makes sense [at these levels] for a weak K. Should have I bet again after this check, or was my check fine?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

UTG (t1400)
UTG+1 (t1420)
MP1 (t1460)
MP2 (t2185)
MP3 (t1430)
CO (t800)
Hero (t1415)
SB (t1070)
BB (t2320)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A.
2 folds, MP1 calls t30, 2 folds, CO calls t30, Hero raises to t60, SB calls t45, 1 fold, MP1 calls t30, CO calls t30.

Flop: (t270) K, 8, 6 (4 players)
SB checks, MP1 checks, CO checks, Hero bets t60, SB folds, MP1 calls t60, CO folds.

Turn: (t390) 7 (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero bets t90, MP1 calls t90.

River: (t570) K (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: t570

[Staresy]

meh, no offence, but I think if you make a standard 4xBB raise here, you will still get action. Besides, you want action from 1 or 2 other players, not 3.

By min-raising in this spot, you encourage more and more people to come into the pot because they are getting better and better odds to come in, particularly if they've already put money in. Plus, at $5.50 level, they are going to come in anyway, so you want to drive out all the garbagey-speculative looking hands and make people play a premium with you or really gamble to hit a flop.

When the flop delivers a K hi rainbow and it is checked to me, I lick my lips and prepare to fire a cannon. No offence, but you fire a pea-shooter.

There is 270 in the pot, so I think you can go anywhere between 150 and 250 here, lean towards the lesser if you want to still encourage people to come along with you, but you want them to pay to chase and you also want to build the pot.

That is not intended to be offensive or insulting, and I really hope you don't take it that way, but at this level, there is no need (and indeed, little merit) in getting cute with big hands. People will call your raises, OOP, with QJ, QT, A6 and crap like that. Punish them for doing so. These are the types of hands that can really set you up for the rest of the tournament.

If you raise to 100-120 pre-flop, you can then bet more on the flop (whilst still being conservative if you think this is the best way to encourage action), bet more on the turn and take a nice big, juicy pot either without a showdown (you can show your winner when everyone folds so they know you mean business) or, if needs be, with one.

[andy-akb]

meh, no offence, but I think if you make a standard 4xBB raise here, you will still get action. Besides, you want action from 1 or 2 other players, not 3.

By min-raising in this spot, you encourage more and more people to come into the pot because they are getting better and better odds to come in, particularly if they've already put money in. Plus, at $5.50 level, they are going to come in anyway, so you want to drive out all the garbagey-speculative looking hands and make people play a premium with you or really gamble to hit a flop.

When the flop delivers a K hi rainbow and it is checked to me, I lick my lips and prepare to fire a cannon. No offence, but you fire a pea-shooter.

There is 270 in the pot, so I think you can go anywhere between 150 and 250 here, lean towards the lesser if you want to still encourage people to come along with you, but you want them to pay to chase and you also want to build the pot.

That is not intended to be offensive or insulting, and I really hope you don't take it that way, but at this level, there is no need (and indeed, little merit) in getting cute with big hands. People will call your raises, OOP, with QJ, QT, A6 and crap like that. Punish them for doing so. These are the types of hands that can really set you up for the rest of the tournament.

If you raise to 100-120 pre-flop, you can then bet more on the flop (whilst still being conservative if you think this is the best way to encourage action), bet more on the turn and take a nice big, juicy pot either without a showdown (you can show your winner when everyone folds so they know you mean business) or, if needs be, with one.

When I was looking over it again, I definitely agree there, I think I just went through a phase where my Aces werent getting paid off and it developed into a leak. Thanks for the informative post.

[swiggidy]

When I was looking over it again, I definitely agree there, I think I just went through a phase where my Aces werent getting paid off and it developed into a leak. Thanks for the informative post.

Part of the re-raise pre-flop is to see if anyone else likes their hand. If they call with KQ and see that flop they're going to pay you off. I would rather raise to 150 and take the blinds/limper's then raise to 60 and end up loosing 250 with a garbage hand. Everyone slow-plays here, so if you bet at the pot strongly, a Kx will call you down. If you make this one big pre-flop raise, get one caller and they fold to your flop bet, you've won almost the same number of chips with less risk.

As played, I check behind on the river. I don't think he has much, but the only hands that call are a straight or a K.

[drmcboy]

River check is good against a sneaky, thinking opp or a VERY passive opp. BUT few players at any level would check trips on the end there, because a lot of hands will check behind on this board, but may call a value bet. Another reason to bet river is if you do happen to get raised, you can pretty easily fold. You just won't see people CR you on the river with nothing very often. The only slight weirdness here is that some fish with 87/86 may not realize the board killed his two pair. Still, I would bet.

Proper play pre flop, flop and turn allows you to avoid these kinds of spots. Recognize that everyone in the hand probably made the correct play calling your raise. You want people to make mistakes. "Encouraging action" when you're allowing people to make the proper call is a huge leak.