pkrfce9

playing in the weekly 1/2 friday night game aka donkeyfest. game has just started so no stacks much above 200 and a lot of players have bought in for 100 only. the game has been aggressive with a fair bit of raising PF but no huge hands or big pots up to this point as i recall. i have 250+ and i'm pretty sure i cover everyone.

semi-tight guy UTG raises to 7. i haven't played with him before but haven't seen him making any wild moves yet. called by LAG in MP. i am familiar with his game. (he is not a donkey.) i'm in MP with AA. i raise to 35 to see if anyone wants to get stupid. sure enough, uber lag behind me with about 200 looks like he wants to raise but he decides to just call. i have played with him a lot - he is decent but extremely loose and aggressive and guaranteed to put you on tilt with some of the plays he makes. he loves action. some think he is a donkey but i know he doesn't get too far out of line too often. he is pretty good with his reads. i put him on a big pair or strong Ace but he is laggy enough to play any 2 here if he thinks he can chase me off the pot on the flop. he would most likely know i have a big hand here.

unfamiliar player on the button with a little over 100 also makes the call. not sure how to interpret that but my best guess would be a couple big suited cards. i figured with a big pair, she would want to limit the field and a small pair didn't have implied odds to set mine, given her small stack.

UTG folds and MP player thinks a bit then calls with 100 or less behind. i suppose he is getting better odds here to call with a wider range of hands but he is OOP. i'm thinking he has some kind of suited cards or weak pair. he didn't raise earlier when he had the chance so i doubt he has a big pair.

pot is approx 150. flop comes 952 with 2 spades. i am holding As. MP checks. i figure if i'm going to bet, i might as well push. i also figure betting is better than checking. so i push. lag behind me folds. button calls quickly. MP agonizes and finally folds, claiming he had TT and putting me on KK or AA.

of course button turns over 99, which made little sense to me but maybe you can explain it. didn't matter much since the turn was A and the river a T. ship it, bitches.

questions:
* my PF raise: would it be better if it was higher or lower? why? anybody ever consider jamming here? how dangerous/deceptive would a smooth call be?
* flop bet: would a CR work here? given the dynamic with the uber lag behind me, followed by a set miner and overpair, this could have built a huge pot. of course, it could have set me up for a huge re-suckout, too.
* button's PF call: can this be justified on any level or is this a bad play?
* reads: what sort of hands would you put the players on given the PF action? i was surprised how far off i was.
* is live poker rigged: we would have had 3 sets that hand

__________________
I can't tell you how awesome it feels to win a WSOP bracelet!

cadillac

My live experience is much more limited than yours. But here goes:

You bet size is perfect. No one is getting the right odds to set mine you here but they still will so over the long run you make monies.

Jamming here is bad.

Smooth calling kind of reeks imo unless you have a guy yet to act that is going to 3 bet here very often. I find live low limit donks call WAAYYYY too much preflop so if you call here you may be taking a flop like 4 or 5 ways which just sucks for your hand


*Check raise might be a good plan with the aggression left to act behind you. You might trap a few extra bets in the pot.

*Buttons call is bad.

* reads? Meh it is live. All pairs and random Aces. maybe some suited broadways


* Live poker is OMFG rigged.

__________________
Stupid is as Stupid does - Forrest Gump

pokerJAH

I think the raise is more than enough for 1/2 and since it is also a re-raise (indicating real strength); its really table dependant and really should be in line with previous raises; since it is a new table, no real trend to rely on. If these donkeys want to call your $35 raise with a pocket pair, let them.

I'm probably one of the few players (which is fine, fuk the norm) that would smooth call AA in any situation. Mostly in early position hoping for a raise so I can re-raise or even a call in a multi way pot. If you hit your third ace, you are typically golden and well disguised. Disception is key in cash games. But you have to be prepared to fold AA on a bad flop or with too much resistance. When I call w AA, I treat them like 22 and if I miss, I will fold them and move on.

my preference is to bet this flop to build the pot and establish where you stand; not sure I like the push, as I figure it will scare everyone off the hand except a hand that will beat me. But I guess w $150 in the pot already, you are happy to take it down now and are committed anyway. If you are pretty certain the player behind you will bet, CR seems reasonable.

probably figured if a low flop came he was good; a $35 re-raise is an easy fold with 1010; not sure why he didn't push at this point if he was going to call anyways?

I would have been more expecting AK or AQ and high pairs (even down to 99); loose players would likely be in with any suit connectors or suited aces.

Shouldn't the BB be asking whether it is rigged, since you hit a two outer on the turn

pokerJAH

btw, when most players raise $35 pre-flop, there is one bigger problem. All the real strong players at the table now know what you have and they don't even need to look at their hole cards. They just hope for a dangerous board (or a board they happen to hit) because they know they can get you off your aces with properly placed bets on the flop, turn and river. They don't play their cards, they play the players.

I wouldn't expect these types of players at GT though.

pkrfce9

i believe they did know, hence the question about bet sizing. a smaller raise gets more callers which i didn't want. it probably still tips them off, too. a smooth call guarantees more callers with a bit of deception and would be much easier to get away from postflop, too.

one of the side effects of so many callers to a big raise, there is no way i could fold this on the flop. with the exception of one other player, the remaining stack was around 100 with 150 in the pot already. whoever jams first, is giving their opponent 2.5 to 1 odds to call so a bluff here is very unlikely to work.

__________________
I can't tell you how awesome it feels to win a WSOP bracelet!

pokerJAH

the place I play on Fridays, $35 would be a substancial raise in the 1/2 game (which I mainly play); $20ish would be more reasonable but you may still get a couple callers depending on your previous bets. I had AA on Friday, raised to $15 on the button and got the same number of callers as you (after they all just called $2 preflop). The domino effect. My flop was ugly.

on a side note, a couple of weeks ago, I raised on the button with 77 to $7 and the small blind made it $27. Folded around to me and I fold only to see the SB call. I figured he had a high pair and I was dominated. Of course the flop came 772 and he ended taking a huge pot with AA. Such is poker.

compuease

Hey.... I was sitting on Greg's left when this went down.... lol.. Well played Greg.... donkey... Seriously though, I don't really know what else you could have done. Push preflop and make a few dollars or rely on the ppl without odds to call you looking to set mine... Justice was served, now if only someone would serve it to me..