JM 4th September Hand 1 - How to play rag aces if you hit top pair.

[Charlie44]

Catching up on few days hands. Apologies if some of these hands seem mundane, but I really feel that these hands regularly occur and any value loss will multiply.

Raising in position is an option here (as is folding) on the button but decide to call because I have nothing on the villain. I am back to min raising here on the flop. Perhaps I shouldn"t be doing this but at this level I think if I"m 3 bet I"m almost certainly beaten. What does thses small bets mean on turn and river ? Should I be trying to get value by raising the turn here or with such a weak kicker or should I be content to see a cheap showdown ?

PokerStars - $0.10 NL FAST - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BTN): $7.94
SB: $24.51
BB: $10.00
UTG: $2.50
UTG+1: $12.98
UTG+2: $6.66
MP: $4.52
MP+1: $9.60
CO: $2.63

SB posts SB $0.05, BB posts BB $0.10

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.15) Hero has
fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO raises to $0.30, Hero calls $0.30, fold, fold

Flop : ($0.75, 2 players)
CO bets $0.30, Hero raises to $0.60, CO calls $0.30

Turn : ($1.95, 2 players)
CO bets $0.30, Hero calls $0.30

River : ($2.55, 2 players)
CO bets $0.40, Hero calls $0.40

[mporter123]

Fold pre.

If we have a dynamic and good enough reads then 3 betting is fine but I don"t like calling at all.

Min raising the flop makes zero sense. All you are doing is making him define his hand or as it more commonly known - raising for information. You don"t know if your winning and raising the flop will help you find out. Check calling the flop is fine.

If you check call the flop then I would be raising the turn if he bets that small. The reasoning being, we can assume he doesn"t have an Ace, so want to get value from his other one pair hands like QJ.

Keep posting hands, they are interesting.

[AAroddersAA]

Fold pre here.

The cut off has 26BB. I don"t like calling his raise with this hand as if we miss it"s really hard to do anything except fold and if we hit our ace we might still be behind. I would normally say 3 bet this hand if we were like 100BB deep but 26BB deep it"s just a fold. I might shove in a tournament with antes but this spot is totally different to that. Preflop I would say Fold > Raise > Call.

AS it happens we hit about as good of a flop as we can, and he has 20BB behind, just call him down. I don"t see what the raise on the flop achieves, the flop is dry there are no draws he SHOULD only call us with an ace and if he has one it is better than ours so just let him fire all the streets.

Turn and river are played fine as played but with hands like A4s you really want to be deep. Here you are not. If you really want to raise I would wait until the river when he is priced in with a Jack, his stack is so small that he will have to call I think. I would just call all three streets though.

I would also really strongly recommend turning on the auto top up as it will mean you are playing deeper more quickly and you can then make better use of this kind of hand.

[TheSnapper]

Preflop.

Look for reasons to choose your best option. In this exact spot my thought process would be...

Does villain open too wide in this position, if so, 3b will turn a profit.

Does villain play well post flop, does he cb either too much or too little, if so, I"ll flat knowing I can win my fair share without hitting.

[deanp27]

regarding pre, I would 3bet vs some and fold vs others (yes even with such a short stack). Doubt I peel though.
Don"t understand the minraise flop. Just call down if you think you are in front.

Also try to play with a full stack, against opponents with fuller stacks if you want to learn/improve.

[Charlie44]

I would also really strongly recommend turning on the auto top up as it will mean you are playing deeper more quickly and you can then make better use of this kind of hand.

Yes thanks Steve - I have done that now following your earlier recommendation. Thses are hands from a few days ago.

[Charlie44]

Preflop.

Look for reasons to choose your best option. In this exact spot my thought process would be...

Does villain open too wide in this position, if so, 3b will turn a profit.

Does villain play well post flop, does he cb either too much or too little, if so, I"ll flat knowing I can win my fair share without hitting.

Thanks Brendan. I have no hands on viallian but this a very useful thought process for other hands.

[Charlie44]

Yes i definitely think the mini raise is bad on the flop. The actually turned over Q3 diamonds for bottom pair. It did have the effect of slowing him down considerably with the very small bets on the turn and river but I didn"t take advantage of it. Perhaps a flat call on the flop and he would have continued betting normal size.