A9s line check

[sinister1]

This is early at the ft, no reads on villain yet. How is my line?

Full Tilt Poker Game #8007706880: Early Double - B (60763419), Table 66 - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:04:23 ET - 2008/09/09
Seat 1: fuddd79 (166,796)
Seat 2: aztimbo (351,687)
Seat 3: mariusdigg (104,630)
Seat 4: mc_cane05 (113,350)
Seat 5: heastoned (457,967)
Seat 7: chrisl66 (81,690)
Seat 8: Nickmus1 (529,570)
Seat 9: Hero (296,310)
Nickmus1 posts the small blind of 6,000
Hero posts the big blind of 12,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [As 9s]
fuddd79 folds
aztimbo calls 12,000
mariusdigg folds
mc_cane05 folds
heastoned folds
chrisl66 folds
Nickmus1 calls 6,000
Hero checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd 9d 5c]
Nickmus1 checks
Hero bets 24,000
aztimbo calls 24,000
Nickmus1 folds
*** TURN *** [Kd 9d 5c] [6s]
Hero bets 40,000
aztimbo calls 40,000
*** RIVER *** [Kd 9d 5c 6s] [Ac]
Hero bets 67,000
aztimbo calls 67,000

[sinister1]

21 views, no replies...bump

[mcatdog]

Good hand to post, but if you want replies then you should start terrible threads about folding AA preflop because people would rather state the obvious than answer a tough question.

Why did you bet the turn? (not saying it's bad)

[HiLo]

Villain's preflop limp in EP at this stage in the tourney always sets alarm bells ringing for me as, however it is difficult to know what it means without some reads at least from stats. I would be worried after his fl0p call and probably check the turn cos I really don't know where I am here against an unknown.

tip: If you use Poker Tracker, once it gets down to the last 4 tables or so, open up all the other tables so when you arrive at the final table you have some stats on the other players. (This works at Full Tilt but not at Stars)

[chardrian]

with no reads on villain, I am checking that turn sometimes, and betting it sometimes. I am also sometimes valuebetting the river as you did and sometimes shoving.

I think it looks fine.

[mcatdog]

I would be worried after his fl0p call and probably check the turn cos I really don't know where I am here against an unknown.

that's not a good reason to check

[sinister1]

Why did you bet the turn? (not saying it's bad)

Short answer: I thought it was better than check/folding (only slightly), check/raising (seems silly), or check/calling (seems spewy, leads to tough river decisions).

Long answer: His flop call gave me very little to work with, but I have the benefit of knowing he cannot have a combo draw (except Ad5d, which is irrelevent). On the turn I thought his range was from most likely to least likely: KK, 55, Ax diamonds, 99, AA, Kx, QdJd, TT-QQ.

I do not like the idea of just check/folding when he showed no strength preflop or on the flop. I also think a lot of the stronger hands reraise me on the flop with mostly the sets, draws, and TT-QQ just calling somtimes. My betsizing was to give Ax diamonds the illusion of being priced in to call. Also it was small enough to fold to rr, but not to small to look too weak and encourage rr from weaker hands. Checking allows TT-QQ and draws bet me out, or see a free card, while betting might represent the king enough for those hands to fold which is a fine result.

Villain's preflop limp in EP at this stage in the tourney always sets alarm bells ringing for me

Agreed. I certainly put JJ-AA, AK in his range while making decisions this hand.

I am also sometimes valuebetting the river as you did and sometimes shoving.

Can you explain why you are sometimes shoving this river, my feeble mind does not understand. (I guess you get paid off by Ax diamonds, since your hand is disguised?)

[chardrian]

his most logical holdings for how he played the hand are Kx or Adxd, a shove there looks like you missed your draw, so players will make hero calls often enough that the shove doesn't need to work that much for it to be effective.

[mcatdog]

A shove looks way more like a huge hand than a missed draw here, but I do prefer a bigger river bet, maybe 85K.

Sinister your thought process is good. Betting here is kind of a two-way bet in the sense that you can maybe bluff out TT-QQ but get paid off by worse hands like flush draws. I like everything until the river when I'd be a little more.

[chardrian]

A shove looks way more like a huge hand than a missed draw here.

I agree. But you are actually a thinking player and can fold on the river. many players either don't think or just can't get themselves to let go after calling the two previous streets.

[HiLo]

I would be worried after his fl0p call and probably check the turn cos I really don't know where I am here against an unknown.

that's not a good reason to check

My thinking here is that I don't want to be building a pot when I am going to have to let a weak hand go in the face of any agression. I prefer to conserve my chips for less marginal spots (particularly early at the FT). Is this too weak?