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I had a very good session on Friday. I’ve been studying a bit with some Jonathan Little literature, and some of those topics have helped.
I don’t know the villain in this hand, he’s not a reg I’ve seen. First hand for me, and an early hand for him (it was a new-ish table), so effective stack is $200. Playing $1/$2
Anyways, my very first hand of the night (literally first hand dealt to me), I’m in the big blind. MP raises to 8, villain in CO calls. SB folds, and I look down at the worst hand in poker, two red aces. (Oh, right, *best hand). I make it 30 to go. The original raiser folds, and the villain calls.
Flop comes QQ9 with two clubs. I don’t love this flop – a Q would be in my range, except two of them showed up. So it’s much better for the caller. That being said, I feel compelled to bet here – if I get raised I fold, and how quick he reacts might also tell me something. I bet $40. He doesn’t snap call, but does not have to tank call.
Turn is an off suit 6. I think for about a minute on what to do. I actually count out chips to bet, but decide on a check. 2 reasons – 1, I want to gauge where I’m at. I think a set/trips/full house will keep going for value here. 2 is that I think it looks way too strong to bet here – I don’t want to rep quads or a full house, in the event he hasn’t connected with the flop. (The 6 is a brick in my head). He checks it back.
River is a total blank. I bet the chips I had counted out previously ($60), and get virtually snap-called. I flip my rockets decently confident I’m good. Let’s again avoid to results-oriented analysis, I’ll reveal his hand later.
I have 2 issues here with my play. 1 if I’m going to check the turn, I shouldn’t count out a bet and then balk at it. Second, I think I should size my river $60 up a bit, as it was into a pot of $148. Maybe $90ish would be better.
Thoughts are appreciated!
I don’t really mind the way you played it. You’re probably never getting three streets of value from worse hands, so I like the check on the turn. When he checks back turn he shouldn’t have a Q, but you never know with some 1/2 players.
I like going for value on the river, a lot of players will just check here for the showdown and miss out on the value. You can get called by a 9, or hands like 77 or 88 who are planning to call down against what seems to be your AK.
Pre-Flop: I like the raise, I like the sizing, nothing to complain about here.
Flop: 60% pot C-bet, seems good. Flop is wet but it I still think you have the nut advantage. Both players have AQ variations but in the odd event you both make trips you are more likely to have a bigger kicker and notably there are very few combinations of AQ left. Notably villain doesn’t have to have a Queen, JTs, KJ, and some number of 9s are possible.
Turn: I’ll speak directly to the actions first then a word of warning. This is where the position really becomes awkward. As mentioned villain slow playing a Queen is a real possibility but we are so far ahead of any one pair hand. I think a check for pot control is fine but I don’t think you would be happy calling down even with AA here especially if any of the draws come in.
Now to the counting out a bet, be careful of having that as a tell. In general I read it as a sign of someone who is uncomfortable.
River: I’m assuming no draws came in. A bet for value here is fine but understanding it is somewhat thin is also good. The sizing should give JJ, TT, and a 9 a decent price to call. Balancing this with JTs and KJs and AJ combinations is good since you are likely playing AA, KK, and maybe JJ this way as well.
I agree John, I felt like I was good, but $1/$2 gets weird sometimes.
David, yeah I know. The turn check is fine in my opinion as well, but if I’m the villain I would have read it as real weakness/fear and bet hard. Easy for the villain to rep a Q here. I think I would have had a tough decision to a large turn bet. Correct the river brought nothing in (it rainbow-ed the board, and was a 3 or 4).
I’m happy with the thin value, but I still think I could size up a little bit – he snap-called, so I assume a slightly larger bet would have been called as well.
As it turns out, he had 10s, so I scooped a good-sized pot on the first hand. (and then another good-sized pot two hands later with A-J over K-10).
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