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2x AKo vbet unimproved

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floaty
Joined: 13.04.2010

Have two AKo that I was kinda wondering about, felt they were ok but I thought Ide check with you guys :f_grin:

First one is against a laggy player, 36/27/2.02af over 215 hands. the turn would open up for some raises but i still have alot of outs if he were to raise and he might also semibluff with some draws at this point so i didnt feel betting again opened up for that much trouble, and when the 5 comes on the river and he hasnt made a move on any street so far I kinda put him on Ax so I went for a vbet.

PokerStars - $0.50/$1 (6 max) - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

Hero (SB): $39.50
BB: $13.41
UTG: $20.96
BTN: $19.53

Hero posts SB $0.25, BB posts BB $0.50

Pre Flop: ($0.75) Hero has A♠ K♥

fold, BTN raises to $1.00, Hero raises to $1.50, fold, BTN calls $0.50

Flop: ($3.50, 2 players) 2♥ T♥ 2♦
Hero bets $0.50, BTN calls $0.50

Turn: ($4.50, 2 players) 6♥
Hero bets $1.00, BTN calls $1.00

River: ($6.50, 2 players) 5♣
Hero bets $1.00, BTN calls $1.00

Hero shows A♠ K♥ (One Pair, Twos) (Pre 69%, Flop 81%, Turn 89%)
BTN mucks A♣ 8♣ (One Pair, Twos) (Pre 31%, Flop 19%, Turn 11%)
Hero wins $8.12

The second hand is also against a laggy player, but I only had ~30 hands on him so stats doesnt count for much. Think he played the hand really weird. Don't know why he caps the hand, but Ive seen people do it more and more, makes their range really narrow. So when he checks the turn it pretty much seems like the only hands left in his range are Ax unless he went nuts with some low pp, but even that doesnt make sense, so I go for two streets of value. I can kinda understand if he wants to induce bluffs and not risk getting turn raised perhaps, but my range is pretty much the same on the turn as it is on the flop since I wont fold that many hand in a pot this big on such a nothing flop, so I think he should barrel one more there, especially since he doesnt have any diamonds...

PokerStars - $1/$2 (6 max) - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

BTN: $28.68
SB: $108.12
Hero (BB): $24.00
UTG: $34.94
CO: $33.59

SB posts SB $0.50, Hero posts BB $1.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero has A♣ K♦

fold, fold, fold, SB raises to $2.00, Hero raises to $3.00, SB raises to $4.00, Hero calls $1.00

Flop: ($8.00, 2 players) 2♠ 8♦ T♦
SB bets $1.00, Hero calls $1.00

Turn: ($10.00, 2 players) 5♣
SB checks, Hero bets $2.00, SB calls $2.00

River: ($14.00, 2 players) 4♦
SB checks, Hero bets $2.00, SB calls $2.00

Hero shows A♣ K♦ (High Card, Ace) (Pre 74%, Flop 86%, Turn 93%)
SB mucks A♠ Q♣ (High Card, Ace) (Pre 26%, Flop 14%, Turn 7%)
Hero wins $17.28


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5 replies
YohanN7
Joined: 15.06.2009

I think that both hands are well played. I also think that they are fundamentally different, due to position.

The first hand is much easier to analyze than the second, because one needs practically no reads to play it the way you did. What are the chances that he will bet a worse hand for value? Slim. What are the chances that you will fold if you accidentally check and he bets? Slim too I hope due to the pot odds. In terms of equity you need way less than 50% equity to bet OOP OTR to make it mathematically correct to bet versus most opponents. He is not going to raise (for value) with many hands, probably not even top pair. What I'm getting at is that you need a strong read to alter your play here and play, say, bluff-induce. This hand becomes problematic only if he raises on the river.

The second hand is entirely different because here you really need reads to bet. I admit that the bet is quite clear versus quite many opponents, but still. There are twelve possible A combinations. You lose to five of those and win versus six. Throw in the fact that you lose to every hand that hit the board in any way, and to every pocket pair, (these hands are not folding) and you find that you must be able to pin him down to exactly A high and be sure that he cooperates and only calls. If you throw in any reasonable preflop capping range of choice for his range, then you are decidedly not a favorite. This is what I mean by reads being crucial to bet here to narrow down the range to exactly A high - perhaps even AQ exactly. As an aside, you need to be a favorite by some margin versus the hands he is calling with to bet IP OTR.

Edit: By combining the two cases above, if an opponent checks OTR and thinks anywhere along the lines I do (first case), then he is either polarized (very weak, very strong), or he is playing, perhaps read based, bluff induce with middling strength. Versus the first two cases, a bet does no good. The last case depends on what he considers to be a bluff catcher. King high might be a bluff catcher to him on this board, and only AK+ might be to another opponent. But I agree, as played, his most sensible holding is AQ (because you have a K), AJ, etc.

/Johan = :f_confused:


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floaty
Joined: 13.04.2010

Originally posted by YohanN7
There are twelve possible A combinations. You lose to five of those and win versus six. Throw in the fact that you lose to every hand that hit the board in any way, and to every pocket pair

Im not sure I agree on this one, sure there has to be a read somewhere, but I doubt he'd cap his entire range of Ax, same goes for the pp. But yea, other players might have a wider cap-range in sb vs bb so yea theres a read ofcourse, but I'm not sure there has to be a really good read for this particular hand. As for the c/r part of his range, I don't know why he would have one, what would it be? flush-draws, seems so weird in this spot. Must he have one really, even for a balanced strategy in this spot? He could bet his k-high-part of the range (KQ, KJ?) aswell and c/c the river with enough eq for a bluff induce from the weaker part of my range. I just don't see any good reason for checking that turn...

But then again, I'm not sure if your talking about this particular spot or the c-play in general


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YohanN7
Joined: 15.06.2009

You do lose to the hands I mention because he would beat AK with those hands. That's why you need a good read to bet. You are simply targeting a very narrow range hands. But you seem to have a good read so I think a bet is fine. The thing is that if you are only 50-55% sure he'll turn over AQ/AJ, etc if he halls, then the bet would be a loser. I call that a strong read.

/Johan = :f_confused:


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floaty
Joined: 13.04.2010

ah. sorry, misunderstood there. yea, the read is strong indeed.


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Dawnfall26
Joined: 30.07.2008

Hi!

First hand...
your play seem clearly best to me. Valuebets all the way against his most likely Ax holding. Flop he will call with close to 100% range so your turnbet is mandatory.Also check doesnt make that much sense since it insta puts you on a type of hand that you have and thinking players(which laggs often are) will exploit that. So with that in mind betting turn is again for value. Since he doesnt raise there he doesnt have Tx,2x and even 6x,pockets are diminished somewhat... River pretty much a blank...therefore you should be a favourite.
If you got raised on the turn...I would calldown on blanks,just too many draws
If raised on river is though but appart from 55 it doesnt make much sense for him to play this way so I may call there again...hard one though

Second hand...
Once he checks this turn Im betting here all day long.Not really a spot for c/r from his side and I dont think he has many hands that will c/c here that are better than yours....Tx,8x will always bet and even should pockets or 5x but these are in shorter supplies anyway. On the other hand there are many AQ,AJ,KQs that make total sense here...River nothing really changed... thin vbet vs AQ,AJ,maybe even worse are totally in order here.

I think both hands are played very well


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