Did I play AK wrong or was this just a cooler

[Jarrin Solomon]

Hey guys so I don’t tilt very often and am pretty even keeled, but tonight playing in the 1/2NL game I kept getting rivered and losing pretty decent sized pots. The nail in the coffin was when I picked up AK offsuit on the button. The table was pretty loose and they were just average older rec players who chased anything really.
So I get dealt the AhKd on the button with exactly $200 effective. I raise to $12 standard. I get two middle position calls and everyone else folds. Villain 1 has about $800 behind and Villain 2 has about $180 behind. Flop Ac7c7s. Both players check to me. I bet $25 into a $39 pot. Both players call. Turn 8s. Both players again check to me and so I know neither of them have a 7 cause these specific two older players always bet if they have something like trips and don’t even think about value. So I now bet $40 into $114 and both call. At this point I’m thinking one has an ace and the other is on the club draw. River comes Ks. First guy grabs and bets $50 and other guy calls and for that price I have to call. Guy rolls over As5s for the nut flush. Now my question is did I bet too light on the flop with that board and turn or should I shoved turn with top pair top kicker? I had been getting rivered all night when having the best hand going in to the river. I’m also wondering if I should just move up to the 2/5 games cause this seems to be happening to me all too often at the lower stakes. Thanks for your thoughts.

[Joe]

Hey Jarrin, I think you played the hand fairly well overall. Pre flop raise size is the same as I use in 1/2 if no one has raised in front of me or straddled. Your flop bet is 2/3 pot size which seems appropriate in this situation, I think the only question is on the turn. When the second flush draw comes on board and you have no blockers to either flush I think you should probably shove. I realize that’s $163 in to $114 but with how you explained the 2 players you were up against, I think it might be your only way to win the hand. That thought might also be incorrect, you might not be able to get rid of the 1st villain after the turn with him having top pair + flush draw and 800 going into the hand, I doubt he is too concerned with losing 163 after putting 37 in and he would still have 600 behind. As far as moving up to 2/5 I think that should be based off your win rate and if you can afford it. Hope my reply helps, good luck in the future.

[Dave Thompson]

I think preflop and flop are fine. I think you should be betting more on the turn. Even shoving, as Joe suggests, isn’t terrible if you think players will call big bets with flush draws.

But I want to stress a key point: you should always be betting here for value and never to try to get a worse hand to fold. If you can charge AXss the max by shoving on the turn and you think they’ll call, by all means jam it in. But you DO NOT want them to fold. You want them to call. If you’re shoving to get a flush draw to fold, you’re doing it wrong. When you are confident you have the best hand (which I think you justifiably were in this case) you should be looking to maximize your value. That doesn’t mean getting draws to fold. It means getting them to pay as big a price for their draw as you can. That’s how you maximize your profit, because most of the time their draw won’t hit.

Now of course if they didn’t have a chance to win some of the time, they’d never call. So you will get drawn out on sometimes, and unfortunately this was one of those times. Those times often come in streaks (as is the nature of anything based on a probability distribution) and it sounds like you’ve been on the losing end of a few lately. I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve been there – a lot. But that is not a reason to move up to 2/5. In fact, when people are chasing flush draws for the wrong price routinely in a game, that’s a game you should want to play in because you’ll make more than you lose in the long run against those players. If you want to move up to 2/5 and you can afford to do so, that’s great. But my advice would be don’t do it because you are getting drawn out on by folks paying too much for their draws at the lower stakes. Keep grinding and playing a solid strategy and you’ll be profitable long term. Good luck at the tables! 🙂

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Dave Thompson.

[Joe]

Well put dave, i think everything you said is good stuff. I like your style. I agree that losing comes in steaks and sometimes is unavoidable, but it’s worth it for the upswing you usually get in return as long as you’re playing solid poker with good fundamental strategy. And yes you want people to chase their flush draws, with knowing the end result in this hand and that the guy did hit his flush, that was my main reason for wanting the opponent to fold rather than chase.

[Jarrin Solomon]

Thanks guys! Both your responses make perfect sense. You’re correct dave in getting value and that’s what I was going for with my smaller sized turn bet. I thought about shoving, but then like you said i wanted them to call because the odds at them point of hitting that flush was 4% right on a runner runner flush? I guess it has just seemed like lately this has happened to me more than ever these last 2 months and last night after getting rivered for 4 big pots while playing it correctly I was just tilted a bit. After reading your responses and sleeping on it you guys are right about not just moving up to 2/5 and long term that was the correct play.

[Author]

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