Heads up against the button after the flop with AQs

I'm thinking I should have re-raised him after the flop? The Jack wasn't a nice turn card though so between the raise and the numberous hands he could have called me on that had me beat I was in check + fold mode. Tough hand, tough player. If he didn't have me beat he played it well.

***** Hand History for Game 350491169 *****
0/0 TexasHTGameTable (NL) - Sat Jan 24 02:46:01 EST 2004
Table Card Room Table 1913 (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: Player1 ( $30)
Seat 2: Player2 ( $8.50)
Seat 3: Fnord ( $19.75)
Seat 4: Player4 ( $14.15)
Seat 5: Player5 ( $29.35)
Seat 6: Player6 ( $123.65)
Seat 7: Player7 ( $19.10)
Seat 8: Player8 ( $36.70)
Seat 9: Player9 ( $18.25)
Seat 10: Player10 ( $26.75)
Player5 posts small blind (0.25)
Player6 posts big blind (0.50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Fnord [ Qc, Ac ]
Player7 folds.
Player8 folds.
Player9 folds.
Player10 folds.
Player1 folds.
Player2 folds.
Fnord raises (2) to 2
Player4 calls (2)
Player5 folds.
Player6 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ Tc, 8d, Qd ]
Fnord bets (2)
Player4 raises (4) to 4
Fnord calls (2)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jh ]
Fnord checks.
Player4 bets (8.15)
Player4 calls all-In.
Fnord folds.

I feel your pain. It is hard to put down top pair with an ace kicker but sometimes it needs to be done. There are just so many ways for him to have a straight with the J on the turn(holding a 9 or having big slick). Preflop I would have played the same way. As for the flop betting I'm not sure if I would have bet bigger, reraised or done everything exactly the same.

I ran this through the Replayer. If anyone is interested, we also have a tool that automatically changes all the player names to Player1, Player2 etc. This makes it extremely easy to post hands on the forum and get them ready for Replayer(I hated doing the find replace manually for each player before we had the tool).

Thanks for the tip on the replayer.

As for the hand he would have had me beat before the turn with...
AA
KK
QQ
TT
88
QT
Q8
T8

After the turn add:
JJ
AK
QJ
JT
J8
9x (99 T9 98 A9 K9 Q9 J9)

Easy enough to put him any any one of those hands, particularly after the turn. No second thoughts about my bet size, half-pot bets are a key part of my game right now. Still heads up against a minimum raise with top pair Ace kicker, is it time to think about going nuclear or just pay for the next card?

Probably a good laydown.

I know you like your half pot bet size, but on the flop, I personally would have bet $4 or more.

The fact that you were willing to pay $4 on that round of betting anyway (he raised you $2), I think I would have just come out and fired the bigger bet right off the bat. That might not have changed anything, but I've found that some good players will respond aggressively to weakness, and smaller bets could invite that kind of play. To be forced out of a pot with the winning hand is a catastrophe.

A re-raise on the flop would have been interesting... if he then re-raised you again, you probably can assume you are beaten. But if he just calls... well maybe his hand isn't that strong and you could bet again on the turn.

Anyway, in the end I think it was the right move to lay down the hand.

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Heads up against the button after the flop with AQs

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Heads up against the button after the flop with AQs