A couple newbie questions

Greetings, everyone. I've been lurking for a few weeks now, but this is my first post. Those few weeks have been spent reading about all of the strategy articles and stickies here, along with as many good forum topics as I could find. Apologies in advance if any of these questions are blatantly covered in one of said stickies, as I may have forgotten seeing it.

Note: I'm playing .01/.02 FR while learning and building a bankroll.

1) Is AK a shove preflop? Considering it's behind every pair (albeit slightly to the low PPs), I don't feel nearly as comfortable shoving it PF as I do KK or AA. If your reraise gets shoved over or reraised big by a tight villain, is it a fold? I imagine shoving makes more sense against a loose villain.

I had one of these today where I open raised AK for 4bb and got insta-shoved by the SB with a 3.27 stack (I had 2.93). This villain was 73/73 over 11 hands, including another PF shove with AJo from MP. Turns out he was holding 44 and the board was totally dry. Was I right to shove back here?

2) What's the best way to extract value from big hands that make it to the flop with 1 or 2 villains? If I raised PF, I usually cbet for about 2/3 pot. If I get called, should I fire again on the turn or check to the river? If it makes it to the river, what should my bet size be?

I know I've got more questions, but this is all I can think of right now off the top of my head. Anyway, thanks in advance for helping out my noob self.

Cheers!

There are some situations where I would shove AK pre-flop but not many. Deep stacked compared to the blinds is not where I'd want to shove back with AK. I am much more inclined to shove AK when short-stacked, especially against a loose goose. You're going to encounter these pre-shoves a lot at the penny tables because too many players overvalue hands like AJ.

Sometimes you gotta make a stand though. Either that or find a new table without a maniac who has position on you.

Start here:
http://www.flopturnriver.com/Small-S...y-Preflop.html

Originally Posted by jtx51

2) What's the best way to extract value from big hands that make it to the flop with 1 or 2 villains? If I raised PF, I usually cbet for about 2/3 pot. If I get called, should I fire again on the turn or check to the river? If it makes it to the river, what should my bet size be?

It always depends on what the board texture is, what the stack sizes are, what your reads are, etc. Why don't you post some hands that show what you're asking and we'll let you know what we think?

welcome to FTR!

I'd just like to thank OP for a well thought out first post. Keep doing what you doing (reading, studying, learning), and you should have no problems excelling.

Welcome to FTR. Like Courtie said, post some HH's. At 2nl, TPTK is the nuts on the flop and typically deserves another bet on the turn, likely on the river, too, but you need to read your opponents a bit.

If you think the flop likely hit other people multi-way then bet pot. If it's HU or really dry then consider 2/3 or so.

btw, i recently tried massively multitabling at 2nl. it is gobsmackingly nitty considering what u would expect

1. i dont agree with shoving AK pre but definately 3-bet it and call 4-bets in most situations. and get it in if you hit the flop.

2. go by reads alot here. like Saul said 2NL is surprisingly nitty so if u know your ahead on the river u might have to throw a thin value bet out there and hope it gets called.

2NL is actually kinda hard to beat @ stars, compared to 10NL @ FT so u can improve your game alot @ 2NL imo.

Welcome to FTR and GL

why do you say 2NL was hard to beat in stars?.. it barely took me a week to move up from 2NL

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Here's one such hand where I flopped a straight and wanted to extract value from it. I ended up getting a lot, actually, but that doesn't mean I necessarily played the hand well. I think I might have played it too slow. I have no read or data on the CO, and the button was 44/0/3.5 over only 9 hands.

Sorry, can't post links yet, so I had to edit out the suit images.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed)

saw flop | saw showdown

MP ($3)
CO ($1.09)
Button ($6.23)
SB ($3.12)
Hero (BB) ($2.03)
UTG ($2.01)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10s, Kc
2 folds, CO raises $0.04, Button calls $0.06, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.04

Flop: ($0.19) 9c, Jh, Qs (3 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $0.20, Button raises $1.03, Hero calls $1.03, CO calls $0.83 (All-In)

Turn: ($3.28) Jd (3 players, 1 all-in)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: ($3.28) 9s (3 players, 1 all-in)
Hero bets $0.94 (All-In), Button calls $0.94

Total pot: $5.16

I was worried about the chance he could have a boat after the river, but since I didn't have much left to get AI compared to the pot size, I figured I'd play out my straight. Bad decision? Was calling the PF minraise with KTo a mistake? I'd have folded to any standard raise.

Thanks, cheers.

Playing KTo from the BB is a mistake imo, but when button raises to $1.03 on the flop you should just go all-in right there. You hit the nuts and your opponent clearly likes his hand, so why not shove over?

Does he min-raise a lot from late position? Is that his standard? I'd rather 3bet then call "hoping to hit" because most of the time you'll miss and calling small raises from the blinds and c/f will cost you a lot.

Yeah, put him in on the flop (especially with so little relative to the pot behind)