06- 6-06, LearnTexasHoldem:
Set Of Aces In A Tourney -- too passive?
But, 3 days later, it still hurts, so I thought I'd ask your opinion.
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Early on in a home event when this hand went down.
Some players are good, some are not so good. The villain in this story is not so good on average.
Blinds are 100/200, about to move to 200/400. Both the villain and I have right around the 10K we started with. Under the gun, I look down and find pocket aces.
Online, I sometimes like to just call from utg and re-raise the almost sure raise. But, in this event, I wanted to avoid a family pot with Aces. Then again, I did not want all to fold and only to win the blinds.
So, I made it 600 to go. I ended up with 3 callers, more than I wanted, so I told myself to be careful post-flop. Well, the flop came A-10-6 rainbow. Just about perfect.
The blinds had folded, so again I was acting first. This time I just checked. (pot is now $2400). The next guy makes the min raise of $200. 2 calls when it gets to me.
Now I'm in "milk it" mode - want action. I raise it to $700. (small given the pot size, but again, I wanted the action here). 1 call and 2 folds.
Pot is now $4200.
Turn card brings a Q and does put the flush draw as a possibility. I'm aware of the flush chance, but not too concerned. At this point, the range of hands I'm assuming are an ace (big or small), 2 pair, maybe trips, outside chance on 2nd pair.
The last two, you'd think I'd have been re-raised, but this guy doesn't do that. Very passive player. Taking all that into consideration, I open for $1700.
Even though I discounted the flush chance, I gave him the wrong odds to chase on the river. He thinks for a bit and calls the bet. At this point, I've ruled out draws and 2nd pair and have him on the big Ace, 2 pairs, or trips.
River card brings a non-flush Jack. It then hits me - I hope he wasn't on a gutshot. For the first time, I'm now fearing the straight. (could have had KJ from the start and I'd have been in trouble as of the turn). Still, his other holdings were much more likely in my mind.
So, I gather my courage and bet out another $2000. He insta-calls and from his reaction, I know I'm beat. He shows K-10 and wins with the straight. In my mind, his play on the turn was horrible. But, I'm more concerned with my own.
Was I too cute on the flop? Should I have bet more on the turn to drive him out?
If I knew what he had on the turn, I'd have made the same bet to try to get him to call. That type of player will call off big chips w only ok hands, so I wanted to maximize what I took from him.
So, despite the result, did I play it properly? (and NO! is a perfectly good answer as long as I get insight!)
Thanks!
Answer:
One possible place to improve might be to bet more on the turn. Granted you don't want to let a draw in too cheaply, but the main reason isn't that. The main reason is because the opponent sucks and will most likely call with bad hands. You have top set against a guy who might call as much as you are willing to bet. Who knows what he has? He might have nothing but a gutshot, or he might have a hand as strong as two pair or a smaller set. I think an overbet here would probably, in the long run, be more effective.
Next, you played the set deceptively. The point was to confuse the opponents. That worked. You need to expect then to get more action later in the hand because they have no idea what you hold. Everyone will generally be suspicious and not give you credit for AA, so bet more strongly. Lastly, I'm always a little wary of the board when there are three cards in the Broadway zone, in this case the AQT. Then combine that with a backdoor flush possibility and you shouldn't be worried about betting someone out.
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