How to play if you hit a straight on flop?

Question

I played the following hand in NLHE microstakes online money game (6 seats):

Every one is in a deep stack (above 100BB)

I have A♥Q♠

Before flop:

I raised 3BB and the next player reraised to 10BB and I called. The reason I called was that I had <50% chance to win this pot if my opponent has a pair. I wanted to decide about next action when flop appears (give up when miss the flop or play when I hit the flop)

Flop (21BB):

K♥J⋄T♥

Quickly saying bingo! I have the best possible hand now. The only issue is how much I can win now. I check and my opponent bets 10BB then I call it.

Turn (41BB):

4♣ I check, my opponent bets 41BB. I call him.

River (123BB): J♠

Now if my opponent had pocket kings (more probable) or pocket tens or jacks, he wins.

We both checked.

The opponent shows A♠A⋄ I won the pot.

Despite I won the pot, I am not sure if I could win more here. Here are my thoughts:

• On preflop I should either reraise or fold it. If my opponent is raising me, it means that he has JJ+ or AK or he is bluffing.
• I should bet on the flop. The reason is that for every strong hand (JJ+) I should be reraised. The exception might be QQ and sometimes AA but I should be called anyway and called again for small bet on turn.
• On turn, as I knew that I have the best hand, I should reraise and then (if there is not appearing any card making him a potential full house) raise again on the river. I could win more money then

Also I am also not sure if my opponent played correctly on turn. IMO he should raise only half of the pot, not entire pot.

Please let me know if my thinking is correct.

Answer 1

This is really just a comment on your turn play. Short version: After you check and he bets, I think you should have shoved all-in.

You don't say exactly what the stacks were to begin the hand, but since you say they were greater than 100 bigs, I'm guessing they were closer to 100 than 200+. You called his pre-flop reraise and played the flop and turn quite passively when he was shoving money into the pot. His turn bet wasn't a bluff. After his turn bet (assuming a 100 bb starting stack for both players), he has put 61 bb into the pot and has 39 behind. When you call here, you also are left with 39, when the pot is 123. You could have pushed all of that on the turn and there's no way he was folding. Even if you both started with 200 big blinds, then you only have about one pot-sized bet remaining after his turn bet, so shoving here if you'd started with 200 bb would also not be absurd. With the combination of his aggression on every street so far and his potentially feeling he's priced in even if he's beaten, he would have called your turn shove.

Answer 2

Just gonna throw my two cents in to make you think about some things (some people might have mention some of them already.)

You haven't actually mentioned anything about positions here, what position are you and what position is villain? Position is one of the most important factors when explaining a hand as our range changes based on this. For example if you are 3-bet on the button he is perceiving you to have a wider range.

Seeing as I don't know positions this will be more general.

I think you mentioned this but you should bet the flop don't check behind with two to a flush on the flop and give him a free card, he might have been tricky and 3-bet you light with 76h for example. Not going to happen that often but if it does it would be pretty hard for you to lay that down considering the line he took preflop.

There are still lot's of second best hands that will call so just bet for value all 3 streets. If he raises at any point just get it in.

At the micros people do not bluff and do not like laying down good hands as is demonstrated by villains play, even on such a coordinated board.