In general is this right? AA in MP3

Alright, so if you look at the hand, obviously I didn't lose as I have the nuts. My question is: On any street here, should my play have been changed to improve my eV in general.

Since this was the first hand at this table, I have exactly ZERO reads on anyone.. I tanked for a few seconds before each call, after all generally seeing AA on the flop without an ace in the hole is scary. Maybe I was repping KK, QQ by doing this based on my pre-flop action (if the villain is even looking that deeply into my hand).

I don't see a great opportunity to bet back into him without scaring him off.. but if I min-raised the turn, that would pretty much ensure he's all in on the river, thoughts?

Do we like the min-raise on the turn, or flat call as played? other changes? (I know my 4bet- if you can call his raise a 3bet- would give away my hand to most of you, but I don't like this small pot 3 handed as it would be, I don't think I'm ever changing the preflop play here against unknowns)

Absolute/UB Cereus No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (9 handed) - Absolute/UB Cereus Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($3.22)
SB ($1.60)
BB ($2)
UTG ($1.19)
UTG+1 ($0.53)
MP1 ($2.62)
MP2 ($1.40)
Hero (MP3) ($2)
CO ($2.11)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A:diamond:, A:club:
4 folds, Hero bets $0.06, CO calls $0.06, 1 fold, SB raises to $0.10, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.30, 1 fold, SB calls $0.20

Flop: ($0.68) A:heart:, 4:diamond:, A:spade: (2 players)
SB bets $0.12, Hero calls $0.12

Turn: ($0.92) 2:spade: (2 players)
SB bets $0.36, Hero calls $0.36

River: ($1.64) 6:diamond: (2 players)
SB raises to $0.82 (All-In), Hero calls $0.82

Total pot: $3.28 | Rake: $0.16

ah the wonders of playing in position --

as long as he continues to do the big betting for you OOP in this 4-bet pot giving you the opportunity and SPR to stack off by the river, this more passive line is absolutely fine. I expect him to have JJ-KK here btw, probably KK. If he checks any street then we would have to bet for sure to make sure stacks get in by the river.

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Originally Posted by mrchevyceleb

ah the wonders of playing in position --

as long as he continues to do the big betting for you OOP in this 4-bet pot giving you the opportunity and SPR to stack off by the river, this more passive line is absolutely fine. I expect him to have JJ-KK here btw, probably KK. If he checks any street then we would have to bet for sure to make sure stacks get in by the river.

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:) woo, we are in agreement then! yeah, i expected KK too.. lol; it was an interesting hand though. definitely noted the villain after the hand was over.

In a 4-bet pot with villain betting the flop and turn i think he's committed to his hand and the money is going in whether you raise or check the turn. So checking is just fine.

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Originally Posted by littleogre

In a 4-bet pot with villain betting the flop and turn i think he's committed to his hand and the money is going in whether you raise or check the turn. So checking is just fine.

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:tsk:

In a 3 bet pot, I am most likely raising the flop and definitely raising the turn.

I don't completely mind the flat call on the flop.

this is one of the few instances at the micros where i think playing a very strong hand passively is good. the strongest hand he can have is 44 (unlikely) followed by KK,QQ,JJ etc. not many of these can stand a raise and you have the deck utterly crippled. because villain is short-stacked, and thus your SPR is low, i really like how you played the hand, basically giving villain a rope to hang himself by not raising him out of the pot (which is what is likely to happen because we KNOW his range is weak) while still allowing stacks to go in by the river. only minor fault i can see is that you are probably better off opening for 4 or 5bb preflop at 2nl beause your open raising range will be pretty strong and thus, you will want to be building pots when you raise preflop.

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Originally Posted by texa8

:tsk:

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sir i have close to 70k hands at 2nl which may be small to some but over that time i have never seen someone fold in a 4-bet pot hu pot. Also sb has a big chunk of his money already in the pot. so i highly doubt he is folding if we raise the turn. If you twist my arm i would just call. If he check folds the river ( not likely to happen) then he wasn't gonna call a turn raise. Also by just calling it gives him the chance bluff/think his hand is good and fire on the river. In the long run i don't think it's gonna make much of a difference whether op raises or calls on the turn.

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Originally Posted by littleogre

sir i have close to 70k hands at 2nl which may be small to some but over that time i have never seen someone fold in a 4-bet pot hu pot. Also sb has a big chunk of his money already in the pot. so i highly doubt he is folding if we raise the turn. If you twist my arm i would just call. If he check folds the river ( not likely to happen) then he wasn't gonna call a turn raise. Also by just calling it gives him the chance bluff/think his hand is good and fire on the river. In the long run i don't think it's gonna make much of a difference whether op raises or calls on the turn.

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why raise when SPR is going to allow you to get stacks in by just calling and let him value-town himself? You have to have a reason for raising and it has to be better than "b/c I have the best hand"

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Originally Posted by rpm

this is one of the few instances at the micros where i think playing a very strong hand passively is good. the strongest hand he can have is 44 (unlikely) followed by KK,QQ,JJ etc. not many of these can stand a raise and you have the deck utterly crippled. because villain is short-stacked, and thus your SPR is low, i really like how you played the hand, basically giving villain a rope to hang himself by not raising him out of the pot (which is what is likely to happen because we KNOW his range is weak) while still allowing stacks to go in by the river. only minor fault i can see is that you are probably better off opening for 4 or 5bb preflop at 2nl beause your open raising range will be pretty strong and thus, you will want to be building pots when you raise preflop.

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Ahh thank you, this is helpful, I have been wondering about my preflop raising at 2nl.. I kept my basic tourney betting sizing for this, which is typically 3bb + 1 for each limper, adjusting if I know they are going to call more. Think I should keep something like this but maybe more like 5bb +1x or 4bb +1.5x, since people will tend to call more?

It's standard postflop.. I would pretty much never raise ever here with like any hand in my range. Villain is betting plenty to get the money in by the river. If he has a hand like JJ-KK he "might" get the money in if we raise, but if he is doing that, he's just as likely to bet/bet/bet or call a bet if he happens to check. By calling we allow any of his absurd bluffs to stay in the hand, or allow him to catch a card that makes him willing to stack off with.

Well played as pointed out by most!

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Originally Posted by Udyr

In a 3 bet pot, I am most likely raising the flop and definitely raising the turn.

I don't completely mind the flat call on the flop.

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if you raise his small bet on the flop , what can he possibly call your raise with 44. You'll fold out just about every hand that he can have and make 12c out of his flop bet instead of getting his stack by the river.

Same with the turn, calling it down makes it look like you are drawing or maybe a weaker pocket pair.All the more incentive to try and push you off your hand on the river. Get aggro with him and he'll start to wonder whether you have a better hand than him and fold to the raise.

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Originally Posted by littleogre

sir i have close to 70k hands at 2nl which may be small to some but over that time i have never seen someone fold in a 4-bet pot hu pot. Also sb has a big chunk of his money already in the pot. so i highly doubt he is folding if we raise the turn. If you twist my arm i would just call. If he check folds the river ( not likely to happen) then he wasn't gonna call a turn raise. Also by just calling it gives him the chance bluff/think his hand is good and fire on the river. In the long run i don't think it's gonna make much of a difference whether op raises or calls on the turn.

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i may be wrong, but i think the :tsk: was because in the post he referred it to, you seemed to interpret the hand as being played OOP. you said "the money is going in whether you raise or check the turn".

Edit:
actually, raising or checking the turn is impossible whether IP or OOP. but you get the drift. i still think calling turn is better because the money is going in on the river 100% if villain has a hand that he would call a turn raise with (due to tiny river SPR etc etc). so if 1% of random villains at 2nl fold QQ or KK to a turn raise then, assuming the money goes in 100% on the river, whether it goes b/c or c/c, calling has a slightly higher EV than raising (i think).

also as stacks mentioned, calling allows villain to catch a piece if he's ever pure bluffing here (with hands which we assume he's not calling a turn raise with), or allows him to think he can keep bluffing on the river if he's ever bad enough to do so.

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Originally Posted by sven00100

Ahh thank you, this is helpful, I have been wondering about my preflop raising at 2nl.. I kept my basic tourney betting sizing for this, which is typically 3bb + 1 for each limper, adjusting if I know they are going to call more. Think I should keep something like this but maybe more like 5bb +1x or 4bb +1.5x, since people will tend to call more?

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basically, i think most 2nl villains fall under the "if i know they are going to call more" category you used to differentiate between opponents in tourneys. i used 4bb+1 per limper when i played 2nl pretty much purely because i read it somewhere on these forums. you may be able to get more value in the broader scheme of things with 5bb+1 - i've never tried it. however, i think you will definitely get more value, if you are raising a strong value range, from raising 4bb than 3bb at 2nl.
as an example, pretend that every time you are "value betting" postflop streets (which is what you are most likely to be doing when you are opening a strong range preflop and playing against calling stations), you bet 8/10 pot, and for simplicity, you win 100% of pots in which your hand is strong enough for you to "value bet"

3bb preflop raise HU (blinds folded) =
preflop pot - 7.5
flop pot - 19.5
turn pot - 50.7
river pot - 131.82

4bb preflop raise HU (blinds folded) =
preflop pot - 9.5
flop pot - 24.7
turn pot - 64.22
river pot - 166.972

i'm shit at maths so i may have messed the calculations up at some point, but the important thing is to realise how bets are typically relative to the potsize. so a 1bb difference in preflop raise size becomes a far bigger pot by the river, which, assuming you are value betting in the right spots, translates to a higher winrate. you probably knew all this but meh, maybe it'll be helpful to someone

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Originally Posted by rpm

i may be wrong, but i think the :tsk: was because in the post he referred it to, you seemed to interpret the hand as being played OOP. you said "the money is going in whether you raise or check the turn".

Edit:
actually, raising or checking the turn is impossible whether IP or OOP. but you get the drift. i still think calling turn is better because the money is going in on the river 100% if villain has a hand that he would call a turn raise with (due to tiny river SPR etc etc). so if 1% of random villains at 2nl fold QQ or KK to a turn raise then, assuming the money goes in 100% on the river, whether it goes b/c or c/c, calling has a slightly higher EV than raising (i think).

also as stacks mentioned, calling allows villain to catch a piece if he's ever pure bluffing here (with hands which we assume he's not calling a turn raise with), or allows him to think he can keep bluffing on the river if he's ever bad enough to do so.

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Well we are partly in agreement i think i said if you twist my arm i would call.