question on a hand

[Larson 0]

Hello everyone, im new here but i am familiar with this forum, i read some posts here and there that are actually intersting and help my game. Some of you guys have some good comments on some hands. This is why i have decided to post a certain hand i played at a home game about a week ago. This hand has been on my mind a lot, not that i lost the hand, its how i played it and has been bugging the HELL out of me.It was home game 5 dollar buy in + rebuys (there is always a lot of rebuys). It started off 9 handed, by the end of the night and many rebuys later, it was down to 4 handed with a pot of about 90-100 dollars. I was medium stacked at about 27 dollars with the big stack to my left with about 40. Blinds were nickel dime. I would like to share this following hand and tell me if i played it right or should i have played it differently. Ill try to make it as detailed as possible. Hope i dont make it to long.It was down to 4 handed, i was UTG and looked at pocket aces. Im a loose/semi-agressive player. I like to look at flops if the price is right and always play my big hands pretty aggressively. I make a standard raise to .50 cents. The player to the left of me is a real gambler. Money is no object to him and likes to play. He is very loose and he comes over the top of me and makes it 3 dollars to go. I didn't put him on a premium hand, but something suited(he loves suited cards), anywhere from QJ to A 10, anything better than that he probably wouldve gone all in pre-flop. the small blind immediatly folds. The BB player is next, he is a tight player, doesnt play a lot of pots, and rarely makes a call of such a big raise unless he has a good hand. To my surprise he goes into the tank and starts contemplating a call. The more and more he thinks the better my read gets on him. I know he doesnt have a premium hand (AK, AA, KK, QQ, JJ) cause i know he wouldve at least immediatly called with those hands, if not pushed all in. So i was thinking he had a medium pair (88,99) i was 80% certain. He ends up calling the raise. So it comes around to me. I basically have two decisions, call or raise. I finally decided to raise. Now how much to raise. I have about 23ish dollars in my stack so i could make a good raise or push in. I was thinking that if i pushed in, the gambler to my left would call, and the tight player to my right would fold. It never crossed my mind to make a smooth call and look at the flop. So i just went ahead and pushed all in. The re-raiser thought for about 10 seconds and folded, player to my right sat there and contimplated, i had him covered so he was playing for the rest of his chips. He said "you must have aces", which he was absouletly correct. I was like **** hes going to fold. He ended up folding 88 face up, my read was correct. Now this is the part that bugs me.Being that it was a home game we decided to deal out the cards. The flop came out and the loose gambler said **** i had top pair, the board was Q-9-X, the turn came an ace (making my aces unbeatable), and the river a rag, the loose player ended up showing Q 10 suited, my read was pretty accurate. Im almost certain he wouldve payed off my aces after the flop being he is a gambler and rarely folds or plays top pair like its a royal flush.This really bugged me. Did i play the hand wrong knowing what the board came out? Should i have smooth called preflop because i had such a strong read on the 2 other players and couldve easily gotten away from the aces if i didnt like the flop. The more and more i think about it, i had such a strong read on the 2 players i shouldve seen the flop, and somehow get the money in the middle if the flop hit me right, which it did.Any suggestions? critisms? on how i played this hand. Was it blatantly obvious that i had such a good premium hand. Sorry for being such a long post

[LuckyMcCatcher 0]

No you played it perfectly. It might be ok to smooth call if you were up against only the re-raiser, but with another player in the hand will become more difficult to play postflop out of position and with more of a chance to get sucked out on. The rabbit hunting should have no bearing on your decision, because the flop could easily come QT8 w/ no A on the turn and you will be faced w/ a decision for all your chips. Also playing AA post flop against 2 players out of position will generally leave you with tough decision on any draw heavy board. ITs best to go ahead and get your chips in against a re-raiser and a cold caller and force them to possibly make a mistake by calling. You still won a decent pot w/o getting sucked out on and you got to keep your sanity.

[BeanGW 0]

Don't second guess yourself. You played it fine. If you had made your initial raise and they had all folded that would have been fine too.As has been said many times (and quoted Doyle Brunson from SuperSystem I believe). With Aces you generally either win a small pot, or lose a big one. Be glad you got some preflop action and picked up more than just the blinds.Also, you were UTG... so without knowing the flop, and when you might be up against more than one opponent, it's often times better to just pick up the pot preflop. (ie, when you otherwise might have flopped a suited board, three to a straight... etc. etc.)

[krup24 0]

You played the hand properly.Now you c why rabbit hunting can be dangerous to your game. It makes u think that proper play was somehow improper. It's better not to rabbit hunt to prevent "what ifs"Like I said you played the hand properly and as Bean (via Doyle) is u either win small pots w/ AA or lose big ones.

[Larson 0]

thanks for your replys guys, i did win about 6 bucks w/o even seeing a flop, i hate rabbit hunting, but we never go a hand w/o seeing all the cards, im not 2nd guessing myself ne more, that wouldve sucked if i lost the pot cause i decided to slow play, im playing another game tonight, if nething intersting hands come up and need some advise again, i hope i can count on u guysthanks again

[DaBruins 0]

i just have one question, it came down to 4-handed, and the blinds are only .05/.1???? In most places that tournament would never end up because there is absolutely no reason to play fast when even the short stack can have upwards of 250 bb's.

[speedz99 145]

Did i play the hand wrong knowing what the board came out?That's the worst question you can ask yourself as a poker player.

[macphec 0]

You played it fine. A smaller reraise would have been fine too as the tight player would likely have folded but the gambler would have called a more modest reraise. But hey, w AA you win a small pot or lose a big one so take your small pot and run.

[lboarts 0]

Were you on the bubble?If so, you could expect your opponents to fold anything but a premium hand here. I would have reraised the initial raiser another $6 hoping to push out the blind and get called by the initial raiser. AA works best if you can get HU with someone.The blind went in the tank on the initial raise, so my thinking is another substantial reraise will push him out while keeping loose guy in. Being out of position after the flop allows you to push in first, putting loose guy to the test instead of him testing you. This play works most of the time, and with that flop I'd see no reason not to push here. This is a risky play, and I try not to take big risks when I'm on the bubble. However, when I'm holding AA, I'm always looking to isolate a player and get HU, regardless of the bubble.All that said, you played the hand right. You have a reraise and a call behind you, no reason (except the bubble) not to think one of them is gonna race you.

[speedz99 145]

You have a reraise and a call behind you, no reason (except the bubble) not to think one of them is gonna race you.It's not really a race when you are a heavy favorite (as AA is against all hands).Just semantics.

[lboarts 0]

It's not really a race when you are a heavy favorite (as AA is against all hands).Just semantics.[/quote]So its only a race if you're a small favorite, say 33 v AK, and not a race if you're a big favorite? I thought a race was when all hole cards are face up before the flop.

[Larson 0]

This was simply a cash game, the blinds were raised like 3 hands later being the initial blinds were rather small compared to the stacks we had.

[lboarts 0]

This was simply a cash game, the blinds were raised like 3 hands later being the initial blinds were rather small compared to the stacks we had.

Thanks for clarifying. I think the term rebuy threw me off. In cash games around here we call them buy ins. Just semantics.