$1-3 NL – Lost the minimum

Here was another interesting spot during yesterdays session. Dodged a bullet here. I will say, I do observe a lot of “Fancy Play” at these levels. I’m glad the turn card was what it was.

Hero stack: 500
Hero hand: AKo
Hero Position: UTG

V1 stack: 300
V1 hand: AQo
V1 position: BB

Preflop:
Hero opens to 12, only V1 calls.

Flop: A 5 Q r
V1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: Qd
V1 checks, Hero best 15, V1 calls

River: 7s
V1 checks, Hero checks

I have no history with villain in this hand. Was a bit on the younger side and didn’t see him play too many hands. The table seems to be aware that early position raises are usually strong holdings. With this hand, I would’ve been glad to pick up the uncontested chips, which was the table dynamics at the time. I raise and they all fold.

The BB defends and with no history gave him a tight range given that he’s OOP.

I thought the flop was ok for me, but I elected to pot control during the hand.

I took a stab of the turn, thinking I could take down the pot from there. Boy was I wrong.

On the turn, I lose to a lot of Queens. His check-call on the turn, at the time, was suspicious. I know that if an opponents checks to you on all three streets, you should be betting, but my gut told me to check behind and stick with pot control. I didn’t see a reason to bet and was surprised to see his hand. I may have lost the hand, but I think I lost the minimal here and that’s a pretty sweet feeling.