Ok, playing at The G in Manchester a few weeks back and the following hand occurred. (We were playing 5 handed & its about 6am, its standard for the table to break up in the 5am - 6:30 am period so its winding down.) I'm dealt AK on the button & there is one limper (on a £1/£1 table).  I pop it up to £5. SB calls, BB folds, limper calls.  Flop comes King King King.  ohhhhhhh myyyy god!!    SB bets £7, limper folds, i call.  Turn is 10. SB bets £10, i raise to £25. He calls.  River is Jack & he checks. Ok my thinking at this point is that he only has a small pair.  From experience of playing against him i think he would 3bet me preflop with 77+, and AT+.  So granted he almost certainly has a pocket pair, to call my turn raise. But his check on the river makes me think he is scared of the 10 & Jack now on board.  there is £80 in the pot so i dont want him to be priced out of calling with his low-mid Pocket Pair.... so i bet £45 and, after thinking for a minute, he calls. He turns over JJ, and i'm kinda wondering how we didnt play for stacks either pre or on the flop or even the turn.  Only reason i can think of is that he was massively deep, he had close to £900 and i had approx £350 before the hand and he was playing it safe. Opinions & thoughts welcome......

Bonjour! First thought of this before I even read the second half was that the check on the river is almost always JJ. Makes no sense whatsoever, as it does not improve his hand but I think by this point he is actually maybe starting to think about slowing down and you may have AK. He's never laying it down obv based on callin turn raise. To begin with he's thinking there's a very small chance you've hit gin. He's pretty much putting you on small to medium pair and believes his Jacks to be the best hand. Once you pump it up on turn the doubt has started to creep in. Now here's the weird bit. Most people, espcially in todays 'training/coaches manuals' are either gonna do a couple of things 1) 3bet you large and if shoved on snap or sigh call and hope the AK aint gonna get rammed in your eye 2) Level yourself and jam hoping to be against a smaller pair 3) 3bet and if 4bet or jammed on believe you'd only get it in so deep with the case K I dont see what the point of flatting the turn raise does. It's all a bit hopey hopey wishy wishy. But at the same time, its a very conserative play as he's lot the minimum but only when you factor in that he's got to call any river bet as he peeled the turn-pop Now if you consider that the flop was 777 instead woould you expect it to turn out for stacks? Most def from opponents position. The KKK sometimes is just a bit too scary to put your whole stack on the line when you still lose to the K and AA and QQ. A small number compared to what you could have with small to medium pairs, AT, AJ etc

its difficult to raise on any street. once you get over 30 ppl just believe you always "have it".

staros, thanks for ur thoughts.... it was a one-off hand, pretty bizarre & i just couldn't get it out of my head for a few days, wondering if i could somehow got his whole stack off him.  But i think i pretty much got the maximum, give or take £10-20

 

Jenny, ur a massive douche!  no more pizza for u !!!!!   i may be 30 but i dont look it, i got a babyface so people think i'm young & naive !!

could you not have raised the flop.. this would at least disguise your hand as nobody in their right mind is gonna raise gin there are they? this would rep a pair and hes only behind to qq or aa. if you then check behind on turn ( as he would surely call flop) he is thinking you are the one afraid of the jack and he would defo imo lead river allowing you to click it back and him to make a crying/hero call. always the chance he could click it back on flop too meaning you could flat and flat turn before betting river when he slows down. if its late people make mistakes after a long session espially live- give him chance to make a mistake

why the flip would you want to raise the flop? That'll Fold everything out that isn't holding a pocket pair... Flat the flop could be pp, big ace, case king, air and floatin to peel the turn.. I wouldnt be raising that flop