Had this bizarre little hand happen to me during a recent session, and I still find myself wondering whether I made a good fold or not. As I'll never know the definitive answer, I figure the next best thing is to ask you guys what you would do. Here's how the hand played out ...
An aggressive player in early position at my $1/3 NLHE table raised pre to $8 -- an unusually small amount. He got three callers, including a bearded, forty-something man who had a bit of a Zach Galifianakis thing going on and had just sat down on my immediate right. I called from the button with 5♦-6♦, making me the fifth and final player to go to the flop, which came A♥-5♠-6♣. The original raiser and the two players behind him all checked. Zach, who had ~$135 in front of him, bet $15. I raised to $40. It folded around to Zach, who called. Turn came the K♠. Zach rechecked his cards and pushed his remaining ~$95.
Suffice to say, it was unexpected. And the big problem was I knew nothing about this guy, as he had played less than a single rotation. Sometimes you can guess how well somebody knows the game based on how they look. (Young kid who's wearing a hoodie and ear buds -- be wary. That kind of thing.) But, honestly, I had pretty much zero read on this guy, other than his flop bet was smallish yet it seemed like he was comfortable getting his money in on the turn. So ... what? Was he a novice with A-K who was tentative at first but couldn't wait to get his chips in when the king hit the turn? Maybe he was a sturdier player who flopped aces up and was now protecting his hand against A♠-X♠? Or perhaps he himself picked up a flush draw? Was he a genius who knew that shoving here would short-circuit my brain? Or just an idiot who decided his bare ace was good enough, so why not just get it all in ASAP?
I played tight and laid the hand down. So what do you think? Good play or bad play? After sitting with Zach a while longer and getting a read on his style, I developed a better feel of whether I should have called or not. But I'll save that info until a few comments come in. I'd like to first hear what you guys think, based on nothing but the information I had at the time.
10 comments:
I think it's a good fold until you know the guy can overplay AQ this way.
I guess the question is, how much did you have in front of you? playing tight, probably safe there. But, if you have a stack in front of you. Call the guy out, then you really find something out. If you are short stacked, then tight was the best play.
Good point, Jason. I obviously had the guy covered, but I certainly didn't have a huge stack in front of me. Maybe $250, at most.
Zach has such an akward stack size on the turn. Pot is $120 and he only has $95, so any bet he makes commits him to the pot. So he shoves and I think you have to call. You raised him on the flop, so if he had a strong hand why wouldn't he check to you and let you bet before shoving? Maybe he thinks shoving on the turn is the only way he can win the pot. Or maybe he is an idiot and you can't figure out an idiot.
For the record, i thought it was a good fold ... whether or not you can read the guy or not, you're still just sitting there with low pairs
I think you have to call the $95 bet into a pot of ~$215 even if you may have gotten unlucky on the turn...which I sort of doubt.
He wasn't the original raiser. Would he have 3-bet pre-flop with AK? It's possible, but less likely that he flopped Aces up given your holding.
No, I think this is almost an insta-call here and if you double him up, that's NL poker. I think you're sweating the money and playing a bit scared.
The only thing that I would have done differently (besides calling) is perhaps raising slightly larger on the flop ($50 or $60).
Interesting range of opinions, fellas. Thanks for commenting. It's always appreciated.
Anyway, after playing with this guy for another hour, it became clear that he really didn't know the game all that well. I saw him get his money in quite bad a couple of times. While this additional information definitely means he could have played A-K this way, it also means I almost certainly would have looked him up, had I known it at the time.
And, of course, try as I might, I never got the chance to have another go at the guy for the rest of the session. Sigh ...
Tough hand, sorry I'm late to the party but I understand your fold. It's always tough when you have a big pot against a player who is new to the game (or you are new to the table). That said, I think the math makes it a call.
Also read your earlier post about your run bad of late. I can certainly sympathize with that. Last month in Vegas, I had a particularly long and horrific run of luck with one particular hand--pocket Kings. I must have discovered every possible way to lose with them.
Hope your luck gets better. Very nice blog.
Thanks, Rob! I appreciate the kind words. I'll be playing again and writing more soon, so please stop by again sometime.
Glad you're still playing through your bad run, for the moment I'm living my poker life vicariously through poker blogs like yours! When I first read this I thought, probably a decent fold, though I can understand a crying call, too.
I mean can you really beat much at that point, however, unless he's overvaluing his hand, right?
So after your comments on his play later on I wondered if there were any context clues to help you figure out if you should've called him.
Well, his flop bet of 15 is kind of suspect, right? Also, after you raise to 40, he only calls and leaves himself with 95 left over,
to which upon a K on the turn he rechecks his cards and then shoves.
I was trying to think with all this information what could he have? I think he probably doesn't need to check his cards if he hit a set, right?
And if he wanted to make sure he didn't have 2 spades he probably doesn't have the 5 or the K, right?
So it seems like you beat him with everything except a strangely played set of Kings or AK(if he was double-checking to make sure he actually had what he thought he had) or A-6, which is possible, too.
However I think considering the range of hands we can put him on it seems more probable he just had an Ace and was reassuring himself before shoving his last 95 in...
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