Tuesday, July 8, 2008

O8: How Would You Play It?

I had AAT6 with diamonds in this hand, and I just did not know how to play it. Reraise the initial minraise and telegraph aces? Pot it when it comes back around to me again after a three bet and a caller, or see a flop before committing to the hand? I obviously wasn't feeling like gambling here and went set mining, but WWJD? What is correct?

4 comments:

jason said...

I don't like the way you played it. With the initial min raise, I would likely have potted it there. This way here you are "buying the button" as the button will likely fold and you will be last to act.

I really you have a crummy AAxx hand but it is still and AA hand and it does have a low, albeit a crummy low. And it is not as bad as an AA99 hand, which I think it the worst AAxx hand to have.

Since you choose to call though once the blind raises I want all my chips in the midddle preflop. You are likely ahead of every other possible hand except another AAxx hand where you will likely chop.

Playing AAxx hands in O8 is similar to Hold'em in that you want to isolate. Once you have one big preflop raiser and you repop pot everyone else will likely go away and if they want to gamble so be it.

I would not be overly worried about telegraphing aces. They don't know your other 2 cards and the villains forget once they get in the heat of the hand post flop. I telegraph aces all the time and the villains still pay me off.

My advice would be to play them much more aggressively.

Ryan said...

I know I played it like a pussy. There were some psychological factors at work that probably suggest I shouldn't have been playing at all. I'd dropped ~20% of my Cake roll in the week or so leading up to that hand, including a recent bust.

"Overpair" is just so rarely good at showdown and I was so psychologically beaten by my run that I went all Martin with this one. Still, It's a really freakin' annoying hand, because you can't make the nut low, and your AA is rarely going to stay the best high...

jason said...

I guess I have to challenge your statement AA is rarely going to stay the best high. If you are heads up,typical with a big reraise, AA is the best high through the river more than 50 percent of the time. Run poker simulator on an AAxx hand or even the AA6T hand against random hands. You will almost always be a winner. Then run it against something that someone is likely to call you with like A2xx suited or A3xx suited. My guess is that you are now even a bigger favorite as you dominate the Ace. Even better is when you are called by a KKxx hand, where you are a bigger favorite.

Sushi Cowboy said...

I agree with Jason here. Get your chips in as fast as you can here. If you get out flopped so be it but at least you got your chips in with the best of it. You're right about AA post flop, if you are getting people playing back at you then your overpair to the board is likely no good or if you are good at the time then likely not favored. I have been surprised at how well AAxx actually does play...as long as you are heads up so jam the pot with them and narrow the field.

I don't care about telegraphing Aces either and if I end up taking down a pot pre-flop I'm fine with that but that's rare in my experience with micro-limit PLO/8. No one is going to miss out on seeing a Flop: either you potted and it's "not that much more" to them or they potted and you re-potted and they are already emotionally invested in the hand and want to out-flop you even if they *know* you have AAxx.

You shouldn't puss out on a hand because of your bankroll. If you have too much at risk then you should either lower your stakes or take some money off the table.