AQ TPGK hand review

[abysil]

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($0.78)
MP ($2)
CO ($1.97)
Hero (Button) ($2.64)
SB ($0.70)
BB ($3.41)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q, A
2 folds, CO bets $0.05, Hero raises to $0.15, 2 folds, CO calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.33) 7, 9, A (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $0.22, CO raises to $0.48

Your turn. Villain is 33/9/44 over 33 hands, and isn't usually stealing from button or c/o

[deucesomething]

Given the dry board I'd probably call and see a turn card. Unless you've seen him doing this with the nuts, folding would be the worst option. I'd be inclined to call this down cheaply.

[abysil]

Given the dry board I'd probably call and see a turn card. Unless you've seen him doing this with the nuts, folding would be the worst option. I'd be inclined to call this down cheaply.

I hadn't seen him show down a check raised hand previously, so didn't know what he chooses to check raise and what he chooses to bet out.

I put him on a narrow range of hands though because he was almost never raising preflop, so something like aq+ 99+ from the cutoff

[texa8]

yeh i call and see a turn, probably folding to any serious agression though..

position helps lots here obv

[Imthenewfish]

call and reevaluate :/

[abysil]

A call is what I chose as well, and this is how it turned out.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

CO checks, Hero bets $0.22, CO raises to $0.48, Hero calls $0.26

Turn: ($1.29) Q (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $0.80, CO raises to $1.34 (All-In), Hero calls $0.54

River: ($3.97) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $3.97 | Rake: $0.26

Results:
Hero had Q, A (two pair, Aces and Queens).
CO had K, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $3.71

[Erpel]

Couple things.
His raise is really really small. It's not a min-raise, but it's close. Put yourself in his shoes for a second. When he makes a small raise is that because he wants you to call or because he wants you to fold?

If he wants you to call, it's because he has a strong hand (like a set) and wants to build the pot to ensure that all the money gets in the middle by the river. If you think your opponent is playing straightforwardly that should suggest to you what type of hand he could be holding. If this was not a 3bet pot I would suggest that he probably shouldn't even c/r here with AK as TPTK should not necessarily want to stack off. Since it is a 3bet pot he is correct to commit with an SPR a bit below 6 and with TPTK. That's not to say that c/r is the best way to keep hero's range wide for his TPTK stackoff.

If he wants to see a fold it's because he has a draw like T8. Some people just don't size their bets properly and they make them small when they want you to fold (making it cheap and correct for you to call) and large when they want you to call (often making it an easy and correct move for you to fold). Bad players often bet small with a draw to make sure the bet size is such that they are correctly priced in to continue with their draws. This could be what's happening here.

On balance, I think when he check/raises the flop you should expect to be behind with AQ. I think he is more likely to want the call than to play a T8 hand here. Consider that with the PF bet/3bet sizing he is almost correct priced in to set mine with any pocket pair and would almost certainly fold T8 if he raised it in the first place.

The actions in this hand that I think MAY be mistakes (not saying they necessarily are):
Villain decides to call a 3bet preflop OOP with AK
Villain deciding to c/r flop rather than bet out (easy enough to get stacks in with 3 betting rounds)
Villain incorrectly sizes the raise portion of his flop check/raise (misses value when ahead)
Hero calls flop c/r when AK is near the bottom of villain's value range
Hero turn bet is needlessly big. 1/2 PSB should easily get the rest of the money in if villain is willing to put more money in. Maybe an even smaller bet would be correct to suggest weakness and that hero can be bluffed off a hand causing villain to spazz out and bluff. With just about a PSB behind even a 1/3 PSB would leave less than 1/2 pot left on the river.

[abysil]

Thanks for the insight Erpel. It is neat to realize how much thinking there is to do that decisions made in a hand will be based on that is overlooked while the hand is happening. Most of your thoughts crossed my mind while I was playing the hand but some didn't. (I didn't consider T8, but did consider he wanted a call on the flop raise because he was holding a strong hand, as I hadn't seen him make a play like this previously) Reading your response makes me want to analyze hands more closely in the future before making a decision in a big hand, which I usually do but sometimes slack off and just play hands like a robot.

Thanks for the tips.

[rpm]

i like your point erpel about how villain pretty much never has a semi-bluff range here and as a result his check/raising range (i think) is really polar. i think it's safe to say that relatively unknown 2nlers don't have many as many c/r bluffs as they do nut hands