Jonathan Little
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In a $1-$2 no-limit hold’em cash game, our Hero raised from first position at a nine-handed table to $12 out of his $600 stack with A♦Q♦.
While there are certainly times to use larger-than-normal preflop raise sizes, you should not use them until you know your opponents will call with all sorts of junk. It is a disaster if your opponents will call a raise to $7 with hands you crush like A-9 and Q-J but will fold to a raise to $12. If, over the course of the session it becomes clear that your opponents will call gigantic preflop raises with many hands you dominate with your strong hands, then consider using larger raise sizes.
So, this $12 raise could either be terrible or a great exploitative play.
To be clear, your goal when making it $12 is not to try to make your opponents fold hands that you crush. You make money in poker when your opponents make errors. If they fold correctly before the flop to a large raise, they are playing well, not making mistakes.
A somewhat tight player called the $12 raise from second position, as did unknown players in the hijack, cutoff, and button. A maniac also called in the big blind out of his $115 stack.
Given five players called, the large preflop raise size was probably a wise exploit.
Some people view getting called by multiple players as a horrible result because A♦Q♦ will often lose to the field, but this is actually a great situation. While you will lose this pot a large amount of the time, you will certainly realize more than one-sixth of the equity from this pot.
With your A♦Q♦, you may realize up to one-fourth of the pot on average. When you put in one-sixth of the money and you will win one-fourth of it on average, you are in an incredibly profitable situation, even though you will lose the pot most of the time.
The flop came A♠K♦3♠. The big blind checked, as did our Hero with top pair.
This is not a good spot to check unless you are sure someone yet to act will bet. This is a flop where Hero should have the best hand a huge amount of the time, and it is dynamic such that someone else can easily call a bet with hands that Hero has in bad shape.
By checking, Hero allows the flop to check around or for someone else to bet and drive the action with an unknown range from in position. Hero should have instead bet roughly $30.
The player in second position checked to the hijack, who bet $15. The cutoff folded and the button called. The maniac in the big blind then check-raised all-in for his entire $103 stack. Hero decided to call $103.
This is a difficult spot for Hero because he has no clue if the hijack is betting small because he really wants to get action or because he has a marginal hand that does not want to invest significant money. Also, the maniac could easily have A-3, K-3, or a decent flush draw that Hero is in marginal shape against (although his range could be quite wide).
Taking all of these factors into account, Hero should make a snug fold, although calling or perhaps raising (depending on the remaining stack sizes) are not the worst options. That said, I would have folded.
The somewhat tight player in second position decided to also call $103 out of his $348 stack and the hijack folded. The turn was the 10♠ and Hero checked.
When the obvious flush draw arrives on the turn, Hero has an easy check. If he bets, he will almost certainly only get called when he is beat, or perhaps by a decently strong hand that also has a flush draw, like A♣J♠.
The player in second position went all-in, and Hero folded.
Hero made the obvious play folding, given he beats almost nothing.
The player in second position proudly tabled his A♥10♣ and scooped the entire pot. Clearly Hero’s assessment of the player in second position being somewhat tight was completely wrong because no tight player will call a $12 preflop raise with A-10 offsuit and will certainly not call a 51 big blind flop raise in a multi-way pot with top pair, marginal kicker.
It is important for this Hero to understand not to put too much weight in his assessments until he starts making better ones.
While this hand may appear to just be a tough spot for Hero, in reality, if he bet the flop, most likely the player in second position would have called, the hijack would have called, and then the maniac would have pushed all-in for $103. At that point, Hero could make a reraise in order to isolate the maniac, who should have a decently wide range (perhaps as wide as any ace or draw).
As played, Hero allowed both the player in second position and the hijack to come along getting great pot odds. While having the player in second position call the flop with an awful A-10 is a great result, most of the time when Hero gets action, it will be from hands that have a large amount of equity.
While there is no guarantee Hero would have won the pot by playing in the way I suggested, he would have had a much better chance of playing heads-up against one somewhat wide range, which is an excellent spot to be in.
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Jonathan Little is a WSOP bracelet winner, two-time WPT winner, and the 2024 PokerGO Cup champion with nearly $9 million million in live tournament earnings, best-selling author of 15 educational poker books, and 2019 GPI Poker Personality of the Year. If you want to increase your poker skills and learn to crush the games, check out his training site at PokerCoaching.com/cardplayer.