Confusing Hand

[coprey]

Ok. I was short stacked an hour ago and ready to exit, but I had a triple up followed by a double up and am now sitting on 60k with blinds at 2000/1000.

Im on BB and its folded around to SB who is an aggressive French player who flat calls.

I look and find AcJc

What should I do?

[coprey]

ps this is a live game

[Swinebag]

Excellent! A hand analysis given in stages...

What stack has the SB got and what is the average stack?

[coprey]

SB approx 90k

Me approx 60k

Average approx 45k

[Swinebag]

Ok then...

I think the standard play here is to raise to  6 or 7K. I"d be surprised that for an aggressive player, he has only made up and not raised. He could be trapping with a monster but is most likely weak. By raising you could get more idea on the strength of his hand if he calls or comes over the top.

There may be situations where checking is fine here and that certainly keeps the pot small, but I"ll settle for the raise. most times he will fold.

The only problem is if he calls your raise then you are probably going to have to play a big pot

[Mikeyboy9361]

I would agree with Rob, and raise to 7k, and would expect the SB to fold. If he is agressive, he may be disguising a monster, that is all down to your read. If so he will possibly re pop you, and as Rob says you are now playing a big pot. In which case a check would have been the better option, as I said all down to your read.

[coprey]

My read is, this guy is slippery and aggressive, I want to avoid playing flops with him. I dont want to give him a chance of hitting a rag. My instinct and from what I have seen so far is that he would have raised with a strong hand. I therefore put him on a weak hand.

[coprey]

I generally dont like to raise on the BB too often and will often just check in this position, however I think many would agree that a raise is in order here. I opted to raise 7k as I put this player on a weak hand and was reluctant to let him see a flop and get creative.

I raise 7k, pot is now 11k

He announces re-raise and slides in 18k

I look again at my hand AcJc and im wondering what this guy is doing

Its gonna cost me another 11k to call

What do I do?

[deanp27]

the raise is good, i probably make it slightly smaller at 6k but this is fine.

BvB battles are hard to comment on in a vaccuum as so much is read/history dependant and AJs is very difficult to fold HU.

His line looks super strong and i may just fold here, except if i suspect he is making a move. His small re-raise against someone who doesn"t seem to be too aggro looks like a monster. You are either marginally in front/flipping or miles behind imo and this is one of the few spots where i may fold a large ace BvB

[Mikeyboy9361]

With your read being "Slippery and aggressive" I would have just checked here. That would then give me a chance to re evaluate on the flop, a re pop was always on the cards, the flat call from the SB looked very suspect to me.
I think you can probably get away from it now, if you call then you have committed 30% of your stack and you still don"t know where you are, it is a difficuly fold though.
I presume you called?

[Swinebag]

he has now put in 30% of his effective stack so probably isn"t folding. You have the option to fold or shove as calling cant really be an option now. How you procede from here is very read dependent and it is a tough spot. i see this move quite a bit in low stakes STTs. It can be big pair (QQ+) but I have seen weak players (trying to represent a monster) do this with very marginal holdings. (Ax, TJ, TQ, TK, JQ and maybe JK) Other holding such as pairs 22-JJ and AK, AQ, AJ, KQ would surely come in for a raise preflop.

Most of the time, online, I would shove over the min reraise, get called and am ahead most of the time. But that is with a bigger blinds to stack size.

In a live situation, my inexperience would probably get the better of me and I"d take the weak option of calling because I wouldn"t have the bottle to shove them in, unless i had a "Janet and John" read that he was weak and couldn"t bear to fold AJs in a HU situation. I"d then leave myself in a whole lot of bother going to the flop.

You also have to consider your mental state at this point. You have come back from the dead and are looking good now. Do you want to blow it all in a HU battle of egos? Or is this a great spot to challenge for the chip lead? I think letting it go is good. You are still pretty healthy. I"d also try and get the guy to show his hand as well.

[AMRN]

I would have checked the flop to avoid any chance of a preflop re-raise. If I miss the flop I fold to a bet and let my BB go.... if I hit the flop, the strength of my hand is somewhat disguised by the preflop check.

[coprey]

Ok. Great reponses so far, thanks.

It starts to get painful.

I stand up and look at the guy, whats he up to. I start to think he has trapped me, but remember my initial instinct, that he has a weak hand. I feel lost in the hand - bad sign.

I look at the pot and my stack and realize there is a lot in there. Can I fold?

I dont think I can fold, but hate AJ now.

Because my hand is sooted I reckon I can call and still survive if the flop is bad.

I call

[coprey]

Flop

K75 rainbow

He is to act first and bets 18k

What do I do?

[Swinebag]

Col, i"m feeling your pain in this hand. I think your call was probably a mistake (a mistake that i"d have probably made too mind you) but its understandable.

shoving is definitely getting called now. you surely cant call now. That only leaves the fold. The fact that you stood up after his raise may have told him you had a playable but not a made hand and he is exploiting that???

i think you have to give him credit for a good hand. A few of the weak hands that I suggested a weak player might make that move with have now connected with the flop (A5, A7, KJ, KT or even K9???) but most will have missed.

Are you thinking you AJ was good and might still be??