Hand

[peterbirks]

Well, a cursory glance at the scales on Tuesday night was enough to impel me back to the gym yesterday and today, after only a couple of visits in three weeks. Much though I hate going, I hate the gradual onset of bloatedness and gut-growing even more. It's not a matter of improvement; it's just staving off the inevitable for as long as possible.

Here's a hand from yesterday:


Villain 1 $24: (Big Blind, tight, 5%/0% on 40 hands)
Villain 2 $85: (Cut Off, tight, 4%/0% on 25 hands)
Hero: $98: (Button. Dealt AKs - hearts, if you think they are a lucky or unlucky suit ... :-))

Blinds 50c/$1


All pass to Villian 2 who raises to $4.
Hero reraises to $11.
Villain 1 Big blind goes all-in for $23.
Villain 2 calls.

Hero?

PJ

Comments

This ought to be an easy one right...

[(Anonymous)]

...but there's no such thing as an easy one.

If we're assuming both villains are reasonably sensible you're in a fairly unenviable position. I think all I can do is consider the options and pick the least worst.

1) Reraise (I see no reason not to go all-in if this is the decision). You're probably racing with both villains, although if you're dominating one of them you're very likely to be behind the other. I don't like this move, I doubt you have any fold equity.

2) Call. If you spike the ace on the flop I guess you're probably going to be playing for your stack, similarly if you get a couple of hearts.

3) Fold. Learn something from the hands they show, and live to fight another day.

Honestly I don't like any of the three options, which leads me to believe this needs careful analysis. Obviously reads on the other players also count here; if one of them will throw it all-in in this situation with rubbish then it's a different game altogether. The more I think about this though the more I think you have to be up against at least one pair, possibly two, and possibly a pair and a good ace.

Being honest with myself I think I usually call here and commit if an ace flops. But in my more cowardly moods I fold.

Note: This is not much of an attempt at a decent analysis. It'll be informative to see what those with clearer vision think.

Lurker

Re: This ought to be an easy one right...

[(Anonymous)]

Folding isn't an option here - the odds would be good for anything suited @ $12. I rather like the push with AKs - it's a pot sized reraise; it isn't too much for the risk of being trapped. You've a v good chance of creating dead money and you don't want a snall pair pushing the flop. In addition the stacks aren't big enough to maketo trapping an Ace with a call worthwhile. You might have to worry about AA, and so it rather depends what range you figure him to cc with. I'd want to see all 5 cards with AK in this set-up, the suitedness acts as a nice insurance against a trappy AA.

If I hold Kings or Aces, I might prefer to do something different; unless it was obv I would.

Totti

Re: This ought to be an easy one right...

[peterbirks.livejournal.com]

Some comments on the above two observations:

On Lurker: "You are probably racing with both villains".

It's a possibility, but I wouldn't have made it a probability. Obviously this all depends on opponents' ranges, but Big Blind doesnn't look the type to go all-in in this situation with anything other than AK, AA or KK. I'll just about accept QQ and JJ as 10% chances in total.

The original raiser's range is wider. I think that I would just say "definitely not AA".


On Totti:

As you will see from my later post, the call was actually for $19 rather than $12, but I doubt that this affects your analysis.

PJ

Re: This ought to be an easy one right...

[(Anonymous)]

Yes good point. What I actually meant at the time was "racing or worse", and as you say "worse" is actually fairly likely too. I see Totti's logic and I think it beats both my call and fold options. Fold is clearly a weak move.

Given the stakes you're playing I'm not sure I agree with your ranges. It's very difficult without knowing the players, but I see AA as a very possible holding for villain 2. He's put in a bet, been reraised, and now has the chance to trap you into setting him all-in preflop, or at the very least suck you into an expensive pot on the flop. And I've seen people do what villain 1 did with all sorts of garbage. Certainly any mid pair is possible, or even KQs! But I'd agree given his stats that my default assumption would be roughly what you say.

Re: This ought to be an easy one right...

[(Anonymous)]

ok I missed the tight/tight description of two villains. Can't agree with pushing range of all-in villain. He's not folding AQs, 99 (and some worse hands) given a cut-off raise and a btn re-raise. Let's not forget he's expecting the initial raiser with an investement of $4 to fold. Cut-off villain I suspect will not want to be folding AKo, or 10-10 against an all-in short stack. There is a criteria missing which probably determines whether to call or push: your image. If you mean business when pushing then I'd be inclined to push - I cant imagine him wanting to fold 10-10, AK to the all-inner, or indeed push with it. So I suspect you could get these hands to fold and image dependent, JJ. KK,QQ aren't likely to play this way - so for a tight player I'd put AK, 10-10, JJ , AA as the candidate hands, but the latter two less likely as they could obv be played different.

If you are a bit too aggy then calling might be more preferable,