I Really Think I Played This Wrong, Help Would Be Appriciated.

[Mills 0]

Okay, so i'm playing pretty solid at a 1/2 session at the Borgata in AC when a few new players come to the table. I fold mostly from the time they arrive, till when this hand comes up. ( i'm sitting with about 370 of a 200 buyin) After a limp,UTG+3 makes it 13 to go, called by the UTG+5.. I look down and see AQ of spades on the button and make it 60. Which brings us to my first question. Is this a good steal spot? It looked it, at the time, but now i'm not so sure. ANyway, Limper folds, the inital raiser calls, and the caller folds. Flop comes KQx and he donks 70 into me.... I found this kind of bizzare. Inb the first place, I didn't expect to get called... I was c-betting pretty close to 100 pct of the flops... it looked to me like he was protecting a king.... he started the hand with about 230... anyway.. I muck my hand... he mucks. It felt like the right move at the time.My two questions at this point are:Is that a steal spot, is it a bit spewey... should I just call?and, of course, what would you suggest on the flop?Thanks

[Danege 1]

Is that a steal spot, is it a bit spewey... should I just call?

By asking if it's a steal you're implying that you're bluffing with AQ here. Are you raising for value or as a bluff?

[Mills 0]

nah i didnt mean to imply that I thought I was bluffing... I kinda felt like it was a win/win propisition... If i take it down, great... If not... I have a strong hand in position

[Stupidhead 2]

nah i didnt mean to imply that I thought I was bluffing... I kinda felt like it was a win/win propisition... If i take it down, great... If not... I have a strong hand in position

Considering how bad the live games are I just flat. I'd want hands like A10 and QJ in the hand so we can get stacks from someone, assuming we're good enough to realize when someone has caught a bigger piece than we have. Isolating the raiser means we're either going to be heads up against a likely strong hand, or someone is going to cold 4bet and we're ****ed.

[rrumsey 0]

Considering how bad the live games are I just flat. I'd want hands like A10 and QJ in the hand so we can get stacks from someone, assuming we're good enough to realize when someone has caught a bigger piece than we have. Isolating the raiser means we're either going to be heads up against a likely strong hand, or someone is going to cold 4bet and we're ****ed.

see flops against retards, then value town them. Being IP against moron's imo can be a hinderance sometimes bc of stuff like this, so just see the flop and then we maybe could peel to the turn had we done that and still have enough behind that if things pan out we can look to bet turn big to get it in on the river, he may or may not have a K, but we have no wiggle room left to find out bc the pot is so big, small ball morons!

[JoeyFinngars 0]

When you re-raised why did you make it $60?You mentioned that you were trying to take it down there but also would like to see a flop. Did you consider raising a smaller amount?Personally I would have made it $40-45, your most likely going to be called by at least one player and this amount keeps the pot smaller in case you want to float the flop.My ideal play here would be to flat call in position against these players and let them dictate the betting on the flop. If you connect carry on in the hand, if not then toss it away with minimal damage.

[DonkSlayer 1]

I think you played it fine/there isn't a much better line.Calling preflop is fine, and if you're going to raise, I like your sizing because we get some fold equity, although I think $50 would do the same trick; we want fold equity when we 3-bet any drawing hand like AQ. On the flop, so deep, I might look away and call as if I hit a set and am just stringing him along, and re-eval on turn. His donkbet range is polarized to a set, AK and a smaller pp that missed the set.

[SwolyswoND 1]

Live I call pre and just use position. As played, unless I have history with villain I think it's a fold. Usually in live games 3bets pre are so rare that the whole table should put you on QQ+ (even though thats not right here - there a very few 1/2 live players who 3bet AQ pre). So he has you on a big hand (at least TPTK) and doesn't seem to care.

[mtdesmoines 3]

Okay, so i'm playing pretty solid at a 1/2 session at the Borgata in AC when a few new players come to the table. I fold mostly from the time they arrive, till when this hand comes up. ( i'm sitting with about 370 of a 200 buyin) After a limp,UTG+3 makes it 13 to go, called by the UTG+5.. I look down and see AQ of spades on the button and make it 60. Which brings us to my first question. Is this a good steal spot? It looked it, at the time, but now i'm not so sure. ANyway, Limper folds, the inital raiser calls, and the caller folds. Flop comes KQx and he donks 70 into me.... I found this kind of bizzare. Inb the first place, I didn't expect to get called... I was c-betting pretty close to 100 pct of the flops... it looked to me like he was protecting a king.... he started the hand with about 230... anyway.. I muck my hand... he mucks. It felt like the right move at the time.My two questions at this point are:Is that a steal spot, is it a bit spewey... should I just call?and, of course, what would you suggest on the flop?Thanks

I think $60 is too much unless he's a total clown who calls regardless. Easy fold on flop.

[Mills 0]

thanks for the input, guys. I definetly should have come down on the side of pot control, as many have said... some interesting thoughts here.

[Jariso13 1]

I think $60 is too much unless he's a total clown who calls regardless. Easy fold on flop.

At the 1/2 weekend night tables ive played at recently at the Borgota a reraise to 60 is fine if you are expecting to get called. In the game I played a week ago a RR to 40 or 80 would have been considered about the exact same thing by most of the players at my table. I normally play tighter there...keeping the pots smaller until I hit. Not making steal plays like that (even though you may have had the best hand at the time here, im just speaking hypothetically). I'm not sure that my style is optimal for those games so other peoples opinions on steal attempts to pick up $30 pots in sometimes crazy live 1/2 games is somewhat interesting to me.Also, as played I say fold the flop. He has 100 behind and has already committed $130 to the pot. He is most likely shipping the 100 on the turn.

[JoeyFinngars 0]

At the 1/2 weekend night tables ive played at recently at the Borgota a reraise to 60 is fine if you are expecting to get called. In the game I played a week ago a RR to 40 or 80 would have been considered about the exact same thing by most of the players at my table. I normally play tighter there...keeping the pots smaller until I hit. Not making steal plays like that (even though you may have had the best hand at the time here, im just speaking hypothetically). I'm not sure that my style is optimal for those games so other peoples opinions on steal attempts to pick up $30 pots in sometimes crazy live 1/2 games is somewhat interesting to me.Also, as played I say fold the flop. He has 100 behind and has already committed $130 to the pot. He is most likely shipping the 100 on the turn.

Are the players you are playing against competent enough to take an opponents playing style into account when calling preflop?Do they notice when a player hasn't played a hand in 45 minutes and is playing tight?When I play at Niagara the first thing I do is setup the image that I am a tight player (at times very tight) and I usually do this for the first 30-45 minutes at the table. Once I feel my image is established I will test the waters so to speak by trying to pick up small pots in position. If I get resistance or notice the table isn't astute enough to recognize my nitty tendencies then I re-evaluate my approach.

[skeetles 0]

Okay, so i'm playing pretty solid at a 1/2 session at the Borgata in AC when a few new players come to the table. I fold mostly from the time they arrive, till when this hand comes up. ( i'm sitting with about 370 of a 200 buyin) After a limp,UTG+3 makes it 13 to go, called by the UTG+5.. I look down and see AQ of spades on the button and make it 60. Which brings us to my first question. Is this a good steal spot? It looked it, at the time, but now i'm not so sure. ANyway, Limper folds, the inital raiser calls, and the caller folds. Flop comes KQx and he donks 70 into me.... I found this kind of bizzare. Inb the first place, I didn't expect to get called... I was c-betting pretty close to 100 pct of the flops... it looked to me like he was protecting a king.... he started the hand with about 230... anyway.. I muck my hand... he mucks. It felt like the right move at the time.My two questions at this point are:Is that a steal spot, is it a bit spewey... should I just call?and, of course, what would you suggest on the flop?Thanks

Interesting, I was Friday night as well, prolly not my table though.Anyways I think AQs is a great hand to be playing in a single raised pot with position; 3bet/squeezing is bad imho, there are many hands u can stack off like weaker flushes, dominated pairs, where if u 3 bet then those hands aren't going to be calling pf and u lose value off of hands that you have dominated. Anyways as you played it I think your PF 3bet should be smaller say 45-55. As played a fold is good here since I think villain has a hand like KQ or QQ here a lot of the time. Knowing its borgata though I wouldn't be surprised if villain shows up with JK here most of the time.

[Init2WINitHI 0]

I'm between two lines here - I don't play live 1-2 so I don't know if the 13 dollar raise was a lot for these players or standard for this table. If it was standard I like the raise. If it seemed like a lot I like the flat. I read a couple of times but didn't see the suits on the flop so I assume they are rainbow and not spades. If one is a spade i may call. Live there are so many more variables. Did the player bet out immediately (like he was betting no matter what fell, or did he check the board and then size up a raise. If he bet quickly - I might get out some raising chips in front of me, or count out my stack like I'm pondering a shove.... get a reaction then evaluate from there. I think the bet size of 70 into a pot that size is a little suspect - JJ or 10 10 may take this line too. Folding here isn't bad either. AQ is so tough to play.