I 3bet AK - Miss flop

Villain seemed like a standard reg - not very loose but not horribly nitty. Cant remember him taking much action other than occasional blind stealing and cbets etc. No showdowns to note.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.05 BB (6 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from http://flopturnriver.com


MP ($5.07)
CO ($5.48)
Hero (Button) ($5.43)
SB ($9.35)
BB ($2.86)
UTG ($5.21)


Preflop: Hero is Button with A, K
2 folds, CO raises to $0.12, Hero raises to $0.39, 2 folds, CO calls $0.27


Flop: ($0.85) J, 4, J (2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $0.41, CO calls $0.41


Turn: ($1.67) 2 (2 players)
CO checks, Hero ?


On the flop I miss, but so did he unless he has QQ or JJ. He cant be super thrilled about the flop either. So I cbet, thinking I can take it down bc I assume most hands he would call preflop are folding here (mid PPs he called to set mine, AQ maybe AK. Maybe TT and QQ will call and obviously JJ and AJ.

He checks back turn so he's either not super strong, or he's slowplaying, but my hand isnt getting any stronger. If he stuck around the flop, is this turn too safe to barrel?

I'd take the free card, IMO.
We have a bluff catcher, and no reason to be in a bloated pot against someone who's not splashing around.

If I bet the turn and face a c/r it's the easiest fold ever, and I'd rather take the free card and maybe call a small bet OTR just to catch what bluffs I can.

These kind of spots, we kinda need to play our entire range the same on the flop otherwise we're face up when we have AK. I think here I just check everything. On most flops I'll cbet everything, but this is a flop where I'm probably just going to check. I want to control the pot when I have QQ+, I have all the flop when I have JJ, and I want to see a free turn when I have AQ+.

I'm calling reasonable turn bets.

As played, definitely check now. If he bets river, I guess it depends on the river and his sizing. I can sometimes hero call AK high, but villain has to be capable of floating flop light for AK to be good here. This does seem like a more common spot to float though, so if he's floating sometimes, chances are he's floating now. AK is still a strongish hand on this board, any 9 or lower, or a jack, on the river and it still has decent showdown value.

btw I think you're expecting him to fold way too much on the flop if you think he's throwing away his 55-TT. I'm not folding a pair to one bet on this flop. I'll have some ace high too, probably with a backdoor flush draw. I'm also check/calling Jx and 44 obviously, so I have a fairly balanced check/call range.

Given stacks and pre flop 3bet size, pre flop I'm calling 22+ JTs+ AJo+ A2s-A5s ATs+. I can float all of this range except my ace highs where I don't have a backdoor flush draw.

This would make AK an excellent value bet on the flop, and the flop bet probably isn't bad in terms of ev, but if we're betting the flop with all of our range then it gets tricky to play the turn and river with everything except our JJ and any other Jx we might have. It's easier for villain to bluff us off our premiums.

When we check this flop, we can get to showdown with just two calls. That makes it really hard for Jx to stack us when we have AA.

Originally Posted by OngBonga

btw I think you're expecting him to fold way too much on the flop if you think he's throwing away his 55-TT. I'm not folding a pair to one bet on this flop. I'll have some ace high too, probably with a backdoor flush draw. I'm also check/calling Jx and 44 obviously, so I have a fairly balanced check/call range.

Given stacks and pre flop 3bet size, pre flop I'm calling 22+ JTs+ AJo+ A2s-A5s ATs+. I can float all of this range except my ace highs where I don't have a backdoor flush draw.

This would make AK an excellent value bet on the flop, and the flop bet probably isn't bad in terms of ev, but if we're betting the flop with all of our range then it gets tricky to play the turn and river with everything except our JJ and any other Jx we might have. It's easier for villain to bluff us off our premiums.

When we check this flop, we can get to showdown with just two calls. That makes it really hard for Jx to stack us when we have AA.

Ok, I think i can get behind this.

I checked the turn, River was 3spades, another pretty safe card unless villain has A5 but also completely misses us.
Villain checked. So did I
I was so tempted to bet the river, bc villain wasnt wanting to put more money is, but i figured if he called the flop, the river card probably wont scare him off and will call often enough to make it a losing play. That was my thinking anyway.
Villain won pot with 99, i just wondered if I should have fought more for the pot, but the board wasnt exactly scary for him.

I think we're only getting rid of 99 by triple barrelling, which seems way too risky. I don't think you did much wrong. I think you get called enough on flop for AK to be value, and you didn't make a turn or river mistake. I might be underplaying my range here by checking everything, but I do feel like we need to play our entire range the same way on this flop. So if you're betting AKs here, bet AA too, even JJ. If AK is value, so too is JJ. It gets called by the same range minus Jx.

i think you've got to bet more on the flop in a 3 bet pot so that you can make it easier to get stacks in when you do have QQ+ , if they call a bigger flop bet you can easily check behind on the turn and take a free card to improve . if you do hit your king/ace on the river you may even get him bluffing into your improved hand and if you miss its a pretty easy river fold to a bet

btw Vin, Keith is better than I am. I'm not saying that always makes him right and me wrong, but on average you'll get better advise off him.

Keith is more aggressive than I am against people he perceives to be fish. An he perceives everyone at these levels to be fish. He wants to bet big because he's happy to stack QQ+ here. I'm not.

I guess you need to decide just how fishy your villains are. Are they playing badly against nosebleed aggression? If so, take Keith's advice.

Hand's played well, but maybe not reasoned super well. In a vacuum, this particular combo prefers a check but JJ4r is just so good for the aggressor that we just depolarize, even for this large of a size.

Turn can go one of two ways: you can blast off very hard on this blank of a turn, in which case this combo isn't bad to have in your range since it blocks so much AJss/KJss. Or, you can just check it down and realize your equity.

I'm more interested to see how you play your range here than I am what you do in this particular hand.