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Aces in trouble

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  1. #1
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    Default Aces in trouble

    PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

    UTG ($5.11)
    MP1 ($3.09)
    MP2 ($5.29)
    Hero (CO) ($1.59)
    Button ($6.40)
    SB ($3.03)
    BB ($1.68)

    Preflop: Hero is CO with A, A
    3 folds, Hero bets $0.10, Button calls $0.10, SB calls $0.09, 1 fold

    Flop: ($0.32) Q, 3, Q (3 players)
    SB bets $0.14, Hero raises to $0.30, 1 fold, SB raises to $0.52, Hero ?

    Pre flop seems ok, right? But I'm open to critisism.

    How much does my flop play suck here? Should I be raising more? Or should I just fold outright? And what now he's reraised?
  2. #2
    Preflop is fine though raising more with rockets at 2nl is probably good.
    Your flop raise really accomplishes nothing. If you're raising for value, raise more. If you're raising as a bluff, don't. If you're raising for information, don't imo.

    I think villains are going to pay you off with a bunch of worse hands at 2NL so getting it in can't be horrible so I say make a larger raise on the flop of around .50-.60cents and get the rest in asap. Sure he sometimes has a Q here but its also going to be 3x hands, diamond draws and any pocket pair a bunc of the time as well.

    I really don't recommend folding AA at 2NL very often, especially when you're only 80bb deep.
  3. #3
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    Yeah, I was raising for information. I knew when I raised it wasn't enough, but I guess I was trying to keep my losses to a minimum. May I ask, why shouldn't I raise for information?

    When he bets out the flop, well, his range is fairly wide for me, could be any pocket pair, high card ace, or indeed queen. When he reraises me, well, it's narrowed down, now he's on 33, Qx, KK, AA... I can't be good to this range, can I? Even if we throw AK in there, I'm still losing, right?

    I folded. I felt my aces were bust, and anything I did from here was losing me more money. I had no notes on him, so in the end I had to respect his bet. It came down to whether I though he was bluffing or not, and it's an incredibly dangerous board to be bluffing at.

    I don't like to fold aces often, but sometimes it has to be done. This seemed to me an easy fold.
  4. #4
    Raising for information is generally bad because you already have a decent amount of info. From your posts, I can see that you are actively assigning ranges, and this is very good - you're light years ahead of the average 2NLer and I hope you move up fast.

    Assigning a range for villain donking into you on the flop and then proceed with the hand based on that range. Don't bloat the pot further by putting in 1/3 of your stack and then deciding you're beat, and truthfully, I'm not convinced that you were. People at 2NL make crazy min flop 3bets with some kind of middle pair ALL DAY LONG, and min raises like the one you made induce that kind of stuff too.

    If you knew this villain well enough that you could profitably take this raise fold line against him because "he only 3bets the flop with trips or better in this spot" then you should already have that information on him that you were paying to get like "his range for 1/2 pot donking the flop has me crushed".
  5. #5
    He donk bet the flop after you preflop raised. Why would he do that if he had "nuts" hand like 33 or even a queen? Protection against flush? I don't think so.

    I'd reraise him much harder (to 65 cents or so, potsize once you take in his bet). If he calls and flush comes I might think twice. If he shoves, I'd probably call.

    That being said, I'm NL2/NL5 player with no so hot results. Just as a disclaimer
  6. #6
    I think your PF raise is fine. 5xBB is a decent size you don't want to be increasing your bet size just because of the hand you hold that will become easily exploitable as you move up.

    His flop bet is less then half-pot I think I would have made a bigger reraise closer to the 40-50 cents range. If you get called or reraised at that point I would have to either put the guy on some AQ, KQ, QJ or some sort of flush draw. Like clairvoyantX said this is coming from a 5NL player so would love to hear other thoughts.
  7. #7
    Also from a 5NL player lol ....

    i think u should raise more pre with those hands, i always found 4x or 5x let in too many limpers at 2NL, and u don't wanna play with more than 2 others in the pot.
    I agree u should have re raise much more on the flop, i usually go for pot size or more.

    as played, I would have called the flop, then just call /check the rest. I think the range u gave him was a little tight.

    basically you could reasonably put him on 77+, Qx, A3s. I think the majority of the time he's gonna show another pp or a 3. I find at 5NL as well, ppl defend their blinds with rediculous hands

    I usually just try to keep the pot low in these situations.
  8. #8
    Yea I would probably never raise for information again. What is the point of putting in money to find out something. What did you find out, did he have a Q, did he have 99, did he have 2 diamonds, maybe he had 44. Or he thinks your full of shit and is raising to see if you continue? Seriously, don't bet for information.
  9. #9
    bjsaust's Avatar
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    Didnt read the responses. What possible reason would you have for raising this flop??!! There is none unless you have a rock solid these that this guy is some crazy moron who will only donk as a bluff and will always shove over a raise when he's bluffing.
    Just dipping my toes back in.
  10. #10
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    Im opedipus bitch, the original balla.
    (1) Reload. No sense in sitting on $1.59, when you could/should be sitting on at least $2, and maybe $5.

    (2) Pre-flop is standard/obvious. Why would you be open to criticism? What can we tell you other than to raise more if you assume villains have a wide calling range, and won't differentiate because of the raise size. As a standard though, anywhere from 3-6bb is fine. I'd make it probably 4-5x here just due to stacksizes.

    (3) Flop is a no-go. You shouldn't be raising for information. You obviously are *NOT* just going to "fold outright". You do have a call option. So your decision is clearly either to call, or to raise for value. You raise for value "if" you believe villain will continue with enough worse hands to make this profitable. If when you raise, he only continues with Qx, then obviously a raise is terrible. If when you raise villain still continues with hands like 88-JJ, FD, etc, then raising isn't bad. But you should have a plan before you raise, how you intend to react if he 3bets you. You did not have that plan. As a standard, I would probably call this flop. If I raise, it's with the intention of getting the money in.

    edited
  11. #11
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    I normally enter a room with $2, 100 bbs, and reaload up to $2 if I drop below $1.50. Is it better for me to just enter with $5?

    This is exactly the kind of spot that got me open shoving pre flop with aces. I seem to play them badly post flop. I think I convinced myself that the four pots aces win is less than the one pot it loses, but of course that's not true. Maybe over a period of a week it is, but not over a period of three months.

    I'm going to take on board this raising for information thing, because it's something I do quite a lot, especially with top pair or overpair on the flop. If this is something you're all horrified at, then it must be with good reason. I guess when I do it it's with the intention of tightening his range, and sometimes also to represent more strength than I have, such as with the aces here. I suppose I was trying to tell him I had the queen, as well as asking him if he had one.

    And the call option... I just thought I was losing, and therefore chasing two outs, which is not something I want to pay to do past the flop. I need to remember I have showdown value as it is with aces, and that I'm catching bluffs and weaker pairs over a billion hands, giving my hand more equity than just 10%, which is what I thought I had when I folded.

    So call him down, and if I'm beat I'm beat, right? Don't raise for info, and raise more if I must raise. And buy in for more?
  12. #12
    If you bet an extra $0.16 purely for information you have to believe the information is worth $0.16. That means it must be clear and accurate enough to save you $0.16 when you are behind, or to earn you $0.16 more when you are ahead or blah blah blah. In this spot you are bloating the pot in a spot where you clearly still dont know where you stand. In effect I could say "Ill tell you what hand he has if you give me $0.16". Then after you pay me Ive said "well he might have a Q, or he might have JJ, or he might just think youre full of shit, and by the way we're now playing for bigger money".

    Information is a good side effect of a bet, but its rarely worth making an otherwise -EV raise just for information especially since the information you get is usually pretty murky.
    gabe: Ive dropped almost 100k in the past 35 days.

    bigspenda73: But how much did you win?
  13. #13
    On paired boards, I generally like to check or call as it's usually a way ahead or way behind type situation. Either he has a Queen or pocket 3's and you're drawing to two outs or he doesn't have those hands and HE needs a lot of help. When you raise, you're basically asking all those hands that are way behind you to fold and all those hands that are way ahead to call or raise you back. It IS possible that he is on a flush draw, but that's probably a small part of his range. So, I would just call for those reasons and then evaluate what to do based on his action and player type and tendencies. As played, it's tough to say for sure what the best play is without any knowledge of the villain or your image. I mean, you've put in a quarter of your stack with aces, so folding to this board seems like a bad play without a good read otherwise. I guess we're putting him on KQ, QJ, or 33? I doubt QQ, AQ, or 33 are viable hands for him to have. If he's the type of player to have any random Qx, he could just as easily have any other whiffed pocket pair. On the other hand, I'm not a huge fan of just automatically stacking off especially when facing this type of aggression. Knowing a little bit about your villain would REALLY help. By default with no knowledge of a $2NL player, I probably stack off and, win or lose, make a LOT of notes. But, had you played the flop the way I described, I think you would have minimized your losses IF you were behind and still would have made some decent money if you were ahead and been armed with more notes to make even better EV plays in the future against this villain.

    Generally speaking, raising for information IS bad. It's basically like saying "I'm lost in the hand so I'll throw more money in and see what happens". You want to bet/raise for value, as a bluff, and for protection. By protection, I'm basically saying that you need to charge draws a bad price to draw or charge villain a bad price for you to continue with a marginal hand that they could easily bluff you on - pocket 9's on a 8 5 2 rainbow board for example.
    - Jason

  14. #14
    Just buy in for 100bb ($2 at 2nl obv) and have the autotop off option on so you dont have to actively do it.

    As others have said, raising flop is dumb if you're trying to "tighten his range." Like wtf, so you only want hands that beat you to continue? Just flatting here and evaluating the turn is far and above the best play imo. He's donking probably 66-JJ, MAYBE a Q, likely a random 3x, and most often as a bluf with like KJ/KT/etc.

    Raising for information is just a not smart move. You said it yourself to do it to tighten their range. As I said above thats just generally not smart unless you hold the nuts, and if you DO have the nuts, you're raising for value, not information. It just doesnt have much value imo.

    Also, you had a lot more than 10% equity in this hand until you raised, and even after he 3bet theres a pretty good chance you're ahead. He could be bet/3betting with JJ/TT here a lot.

    And lol at the notion that you'll lose more in one pot than you win in 3. If you look in like 99% of all players that have 100k+ sample that play a solid TAG (hate that term) game, will have AA/KK/QQ as their top 3 most of the time. You can swap QQ for AK or whatever but AA is almost always at the top.
  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by tugger
    I guess when I do it it's with the intention of tightening his range, and sometimes also to represent more strength than I have, such as with the aces here. I suppose I was trying to tell him I had the queen, as well as asking him if he had one.
    This is all backwards. Why tell him you have a Q when he could have JJ or QQ? Why are you trying to tighten his range. You want him to have the widest range possible that includes more hands you beat. Tightening his range will only include hands that beat you. Your doing things because you think you should and not for the reasons they will actually make happen. Think about his hand, not yours. If you are telling him you have a Q, do it with J9s or ATs, not when you are beating a ton of that wider range you want him to show up with. He will bet with a lot more hands here than he can call with. Try to work backwards and picture what raange of hands you want him to show up with here, and play the way that that would happen.
  16. #16
    Stacks's Avatar
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    Im opedipus bitch, the original balla.
    Quote Originally Posted by tugger
    I normally enter a room with $2, 100 bbs, and reaload up to $2 if I drop below $1.50. Is it better for me to just enter with $5?

    Buyin for $2 - $5 is fine. $2 is 100bb, and once you get past the I believe 5nl will be the most you can buyin for on any non-deep table (pokerstars doesn't have deep tables). So it's helpful to get used to playing with 100bb. Buying in for more is okay too as some bad players buyin for more, and it's always good to have players that you have an edge on covered.


    This is exactly the kind of spot that got me open shoving pre flop with aces. I seem to play them badly post flop. I think I convinced myself that the four pots aces win is less than the one pot it loses, but of course that's not true. Maybe over a period of a week it is, but not over a period of three months.

    Aces are going to show a profit for you. But just because it's AA, you can't no longer estimate your equity against villains range. If postflop, you don't have the needed equity to continue, then it will be -EV for you to continue. If you do have the needed equity, then it will be +EV. Just like all other hands.

    I'm going to take on board this raising for information thing, because it's something I do quite a lot, especially with top pair or overpair on the flop. If this is something you're all horrified at, then it must be with good reason. I guess when I do it it's with the intention of tightening his range, and sometimes also to represent more strength than I have, such as with the aces here. I suppose I was trying to tell him I had the queen, as well as asking him if he had one.

    First things first, you typically want to play against the widest range possible. When you are getting value, you want him to put in money with as many worse hands as possible If you are intending to bluff, you want to make sure his range is wide enough that he has enough better hands to fold to make the bluff profitable. To "raise" with the intention of tightening his range one to a raise that beats you is absolutely what you don't want to do.

    Here, if you believe that he will fold everything but a Queen/33 to a raise, then raising is terrible. That's because when you raise, you are building a pot that if he continues in, you are behind. And that when he folds, you had the best hand. As you can see, that's no good.

    Now if he would have continues with worse hands often enough, then that changes. But you weren't raising for information in that case, you were raising for value.

    Also, the "rep a stronger hand" thing does not apply here. Why would you want him to think you had a Queen here when you have AA. If he thinks you have a queen, then he will play in such a manner that he only puts in money with better hands. Which means that with AA, you will only get action from a better hand, and all worse will fold, same as above, and is no good.

    This is the same logical problems my dad still has and he's playing 25nl. He will raise preflop, then see an Ahi flop, and insta cbet 100% of the time. When I ask why, he says "I need to rep the Ace". Which makes good sense when he has air hands because villains will typically play straight forward and fold a fair amount of better (2nd/3rd pair) hands thinking he has a pair of aces. However, it's terrible logic when you have a hand like KK on Axx flops, because if you are repping the ace, and villain thinks you have it, he will play perfectly against it, and therefore you betting KK there is bad. At least the reasoning was. Instead, bet if you think worse hands will call and you can get value.


    And the call option... I just thought I was losing, and therefore chasing two outs, which is not something I want to pay to do past the flop. I need to remember I have showdown value as it is with aces, and that I'm catching bluffs and weaker pairs over a billion hands, giving my hand more equity than just 10%, which is what I thought I had when I folded.

    You thought you were losing when he donked for $0.14c on the flop? If you thought you were losing, then why in the world would you raise, and put in more money? If you thought his range for donking the flop was Qx/33, then the correct play would be to fold.

    But I assure you, that isn't his range. he will donk 1/2 pot with alot of other hands, so his range could be something like Qx/33/44-JJ/A3/FDs/KJ/etc. And against that range, we have the needed equity to call. A raise will be bad if he only continues with better, and folds worse. But if he continues with enough worse hands (FDs, 44-JJ, etc), then raising is fine as we are building a larger pot against a range we are ahead of.


    So call him down, and if I'm beat I'm beat, right? Don't raise for info, and raise more if I must raise. And buy in for more?

    Don't just call him down, and if your beat your beat. That's a terrible way to look at it, and can lead you to losing money unnecessarily. Like I said, just because you have AA doesn't mean you automatically have to go to showdown. If you fail to assess villain's range on every street, and how your hand plays against that range, then you are losing money. AA is not an exception.

    When he donks the flop, you need to ask yourself numerous questions. Start with things like:

    1) What are my pot odds?
    2) What range of hands does he do this with?
    3) How does my hand fair against that range?
    4) Do I have the needed equity to call?
    4a) If so, then folding is incorrect.
    5) What does he do to a raise? What range does he continue with?
    5a) Do I have enough equity against that continuing range to raise?

    Those questions must be asked and answered on every street, with every decision you face. Among other questions. To neglect doing that is going to lead to suboptimal, and probably losing, play.
  17. #17
    Stax swoops in and owns the thread as always.
  18. #18
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    Thanks stacks.

    "Why would you want him to think you had a Queen here when you have AA."

    Simple, because I wanted him to fold. I guess I didn't like the flop and was hoping to be able to take down the raised pot by repping the queen. But I do realise that this is bad logic. I understand what you've said above, and I really will try to apply it to my game. I don't want him to fold if he has a range that is losing to me. And if my range is losing, then it's a question of how far behind I am, and pot odds.

    " If you fail to assess villain's range on every street, and how your hand plays against that range, then you are losing money. AA is not an exception. "

    And with this you've probably nailed the reason I found myself losing one big pot and winning four small ones with aces, and the reason I went for the shove option for a week. While I accept shoving is not the most profitable way of playing aces, it's a guaranteed profit nonetheless. But I do want to maximise my profits with aces. I suspect I'm guilty here of attempting to keep my profit with aces as high as possible, ie folding for cheap when they're losing, but I'm not sure I was losing, and even if I was, you're right, I should fold to his donk bet if I put his range that tight that aces are losing, and I don't have the required pot odds to continue.

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