An inspired question....

Early/middle of a tourney (blinds are relatively sane.) An aggressive player from the CO/Button raises. You're in the BB with AQo and flat call. Flop is Axx. What's your line and why? What circumstances might effect which line you take?

A) Bet and re-raise the shit out of the flop.
B) Check/Raise the flop
C) Check/Call the flop, then Check/Raise the turn

If there is a straight or flush possibility with "x,x" I bet and reraise on the flop to take it down.

If you are familiar with the player and know he is super aggressive, I like option 3, re-raise the turn. Maybe he'll get just enough rope to hang himself. I think you have him outkicked even if he has an A. The only danger in this is that once in a while he'll show you a set or he'll pair up his lower kicker on the turn or river.

I think the safest of all is to bet it right out on the flop. Hopefully, he will give you credit for the ace and you take it down right there. If he tries a re-steal you can reraise. If he goes all in over the top of me I think I fold. However, this is also probably the least profitable approach.

I'd normally bet the flop, but against an aggressive player who's likely to bet that ace whether he has it or not I'd check.

Whether I'd check/call or check/raise would depend on the board and his bet size.

If there's a draw on board that he might put me on, I might just call and check the turn (expecting him to bet again). If he minimum bets, I have to raise though to protect my hand. If he bets huge, it's not that believeable that I'm on a draw if I call so I'd check/raise and maybe even push all-in.

If the board has no draws, it's a check/raise...A call is going to be interpreted as a trap, so I may as well raise and hope he thinks I'm going for the re-steal and that he gives me further action.

I'm playing this hand like I'm relatively sure that only a set will beat me....AK is a possibility for him, but he raised from late position so he could have anything. It's unlikely any amount of heat will make me fold, unless he doesn't normally bluff and he pushes all-in for a huge amount relative to the pot.

I'd choose A

i'll take option A - if he's aggessive his raise could have been from A8 to KJ to anything in between - maybe even a smaller pocket pair.

but i still bet the flop hard - if he ends up on any kind of draw, i want to make him pay to keep drawing - no free card.

I'm chosing option A with an asterick. I will definatly raise post flop, but I want to study what else is on the board.

I could be talked into laying my hand down, depending on if someone re-raised, what else is on the board, and what type of player(s) I'm up against.

Given all that information, I will re-raise, call or fold. But I will always start out raising.

If it is only down to the aggressive player and me, I will re-raise the crap out of it. I might be tempted to raise the minimum or 2X the minimum to coax him into a re-raise.

D) Show weakness. (Claim middle pair?)

Throw out a small bet and let him hang himself straight away from the flop. If he flat calls (why would he?), then make him fold on the turn. Basically give him a reason to rereaise you on the flop.

This answer may sound a little p*ssy but being that it is early in the tournament I would play this hand very cautiously. I wouldn't want to get married to any pot unlees I clearly had the best of it.

Top pair with a good kicker isn't really "clearly having the best of it" to me.

You know he's an aggressive player so you have to think that he might be raising with something mediocre. That thinking would make me want to play the hand aggressively. However you still have to believe that he could have anything! He may be holding a small pocket pair and one of those "x"s just gave him trips. Or maybe he's holding Ax and he's got two pair.

Being the aggressive player he is, chances are he is going to call or reraise any bet you make so it's going to be up to you to decide how crazy you want to get with this hand.

I would probably bet the pot to see where I stood. If he calls or reraises then its up to me to decide if I want to risk a big part of my stack early in a tourney.

When I lose hands like this I always kick myself for going too big too early. Its too tough to recover.

When I lay them down, even if I had the best hand I can always make it up later.

It depends a little on how I think he sees me and how far to the aggressive end of the spectrum I see him, but I think I would most often check raise the flop in a NL tourney. I would want to get my chips in the middle if I thought him capable of playing Ax and calling an all-in.

In limit, I would bet the flop, and consider check-raising the turn if he flat called the flop.

In both cases I would be kicking myself for flat calling preflop.

I'll post some more thoughts later, but here are a few keys for me...

o With 1 Ace in hand and another on the board, even considering his play list, more often than not he doesn't have one of the 2 remaining Aces.

o Given that Ace - anything is a routine steal hand, he's almost always going to represent an Ace on the flop.

o I said aggressive. Not manical and/or calling station.

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it was a good play but you have to pick your spots, i play very conservativly but i pick my oppourtunites, to make moves, there is no wrong way to play, every one has a style that works for them, mine works for me yours works for you we are both profitable. so i dont think thats the only way as you have said it, its one way and if it works for you great, but its definatly not the only way

I would definately pick A).

-because im going to be the aggressor,

But if he (and ONLY if he) came back within 1-2 seconds all in, I know hes got something, (could be pockets that made a set on the flop).

or he could have 2 pair A x suited.

I've found from my experience that it is almost impossible to put a guy on a set after the flop, I would feel comfortable as long as he didn't push his whole stack in (early in tourney, he/she is going to be thinking about survival unless they flop the nuts)...

It's one of those judgements you have to make at the table based on the feel of the game.
IMO

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I don't get why everyone is leading out and betting. This guy is an aggressive player, as Fnord said, and you're in the BB, after just calling the raise preflop, so your strength is very concealed.

Since this guy is an aggressive player, you know he's going to bet if you check to him, no matter what he has. I'm not saying he's a maniac that'll always bet, but here he has no reason to assume that its best for him to do otherwise, even if he's on a draw.

His preflop raise allows him to represent the ace here, even if he has KQ or JJ or whatever. With a draw, he'd look to take it down on a semi-bluff, and if not hopefully make his hand on the turn. He has no reason to think you'll reraise. And even if the prefop raise was a complete steal, he still has a chance to take the pot down here.

So anyways, if there's a draw out there, I'm check raising. If there's not a draw, I may consider check / calling, then check raising on the turn. But if he is on a draw by the turn, he may consider just checking here, if he feels like you're trapping him.

But anyway, at the flop I see no reason for him to believe you have a strong hand. Check to him, he will bet, and then decide where to go from there.

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I chose B. Only to see what they do with my raise. I might act a little differently depending on what XX were. Like if it were A/7/2 and Rippy was in the game I'd fold immediately and withdraw from the tourney. Wink

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No worries Ripp! Very Happy

I wasn't really offended anyway. Sorry if that post came off sounding too harsh. I have seen that comment about profit/hour and "don't worry about losing the hand just move on to another tourney" on a few other posts. I can understand it but I just can't agree with it because the majority of games I play are live. It sucks big time going out early on a hand like Fnord has given for an example. Then my night's over. "See you in a week." Tough to take. I like playing too much.

I do agree that you have to look at the big picture with this game. There's just too many up's and down's on the short term to determine if what you are doing is correct.

I've been keeping track of my record at my home games and out of the last 30 games I've been in the money (top 3) 17 times. I'm happy with that but in those 30 games I've only won 3 times Sad

.

Its seems my overly cautious approach usually gets me in the money but winning the tourney on a regular basis isn't happening yet.

I have been paying attention to many of your posts Ripp. I've been trying to incorporate more of your style into my play too. What I've been trying to do is play quite tight early on and then when its down to 5 people I switch gears and start playing a little more aggressively. I haven't been able to win recently but hopefully soon.

Anyways no hard feelings here. Keep those posts coming! They're great for guys like me just learning. Smile

i play very timidly, but i feel i play my best as a short stack and shorthanded, i know thats probly not how it should be but thats my game at this point, i play the 22$ 10 player sng's, and quite often it will be down to 4 or 5 players and i will have just let myself get blinded down win the odd pot and be around 800 chips or so and everyone else is at 1500 - 2500, and i pick my spots and a good percentage of the time i make the money, and alot of those times i take first, thanks to all the heads up play and tips i have gotten lately

so i agree ripp yours is one style that works, but to say its the only way is wrong, there are many ways. maybe its just the way you phrased it, i dont know,

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An inspired question....