Did I play this AK hand well?

Question

Weak online 25/50 cash game with play money. Hero in the Cutoff Seat, Villain under the gun. Villain is pretty loose player with about 2K in chips, hero has about 5k.

Everyone up to Hero limps, then Hero raises to 100 with AK offsuit, everyone calls. This is a 6 seat table by the way.

Rainbow flop J 10 7. Villain bets 50, everyone calls. Turn doesn't matter, villain bets 50, a bunch of people call. River is an Ace. No flush possible and I did not realize there could be a straight. Villain makes a pot size bet - around 1000. Hero re-raises to 2000, villain shoves in about 200, third player folds.

Would do anything different? I was wondering if I should've made a larger bet pre-flop, maybe 150 or even 200 ?

Villain shows J 7 and takes the pot.

Answer 1

There are a lot of questions outstanding in this, but a couple of things jump out at me.

1. It's a micro-limit play money game - people will play anything
2. Your raise to 2x BB with multiple limpers is WAY too small. It's too small of a raise to be considered a raise, really, even in a big real-money cash game. The pot-odds almost dictate that the other players call that raise. For example, if I'm in the small blind and 4 or more other players limp in, I have pot odds and I will likely not even look at my cards when I call to see the flop - even 72os is juicy in that position.
3. On the flop 89 makes a nut straight, on the river gives KQ the nut straight - so your comment that "No straight of flush is possible" is incorrect.
4. The "villain" is shooting at the pot right away after the flop - he likely had something. At this point all you had as Ace-high.
5. Hitting your A on the river never warranted a raise unless you thought the "villain" was an easy push-over and would fold a pair of Jacks or perhaps 2 pair. Apparently not. Top pair is a pretty weak hand to warrant that move - it could justifiably be called a semi-bluff.
6. A bigger raise pre-flop might have helped. However in a micro-limit play money game, I'd put in something like 500 (10x BB) just to get everyone's attention. However, as you're likely going to be pot committed on the next betting round, an all-in pre-flop might be justified if you really want to maximize your odds. But that doesn't mean that J7 won't call you - even in a big real-money game.

AK (suited or not) is not some all-powerful hand. There is a tendency for some players to do what is called "falling in love with AK." (aka the Anna Kournikova syndrome - AK looks good but barely wins). Where once a player engages with AK, regardless of how strong or weak they are on the flop, they keep aggressively push the position. This usually doesn't work out well. Just sayin.

I this situation, I would have either just fold after the flop (after limping in) or just called on the river. I think that calling with over cards on the turn could be a justified play given the pot (in hopes of hitting a straight with a Q or perhaps a K or A would beat the other players pair). But raising on the river was not a play that could be based on the strength of the pair of Aces. Your top pair can only beat second pair or a busted draw. As we saw there were two possible straights. Just calling on the end minimizes your losses and give you a chance to win if, for some reason, the other player had a J-blank or perhaps a busted straight draw.

Answer 2

I decided to run some numbers to confirm if this is a bad call.

I did a simulation of around 500k hands, having the following as input:

• 3 players
• Pot size after villain pot-sized bet: +/- $ 2250
• Villain bet: $ 1000
• Board: J♠ T♥ 7⋄ 3♣ A♣
• Hero hand: A⋄ K♥
• Villain hands: random

The result:

• Card-odds: 76% (easily found by pokerstove as well)
• EV: + $1470

Based plainly on EV a call here is mathematically correct.

But you have to take into account some things:

• Your hand is a bit weak for such big pot. Regardless it's a TPTK, you're on the last street against 2 players with a hand you made just now and caution is needed eg. a small pot is required.

• Villain act very aggressing in River after goofing around in all streets. This signifies a trap! This is overused in play money. More often than not you'll end up against hands you'll laugh at, although winning ones and that's matters.

• Your EV is big, but is not a monstrous EV; It's a bit bigger than call amount and way smaller than pot-size after the Villain raised. With this hand, i'm pretty inclined to fold here rather trying to win with a hand i made on river.

• Villain is hardly holding a random hand used on above calculations; he certainly have something, that changes the EV anyway in worst.

Conclusion: With hands like AKo, you need to act very aggressively on earlier streets to:

reduce the field into 1 or 2 at most opponents

You have to raise much bigger than normal, a x10 bb may be the standard in a given play money table to kick out the usual limpers.

If you don't succeed in this, then always remind that an A on flop will keep any player with say a A♥ 3♠ in the hand, no matter how much you bet. Calling stations is all about play money. AKo is a good hand against good players that can fold a dominated ace, not against a bunch of stations.

Answer 3

You asked would I do anything different? Yes I would. Raising by 1bb at a play money table, not a good idea. What's the raise trying to do? If it's to thin the field, not a chance. If it's for value, people would put far more in. Let's say instead of raising from 50 to 100 you raised to 650. I guarantee you at least one will call at a play money table - especially if you do this frequently. You will likely force a couple folds, so you thin the field and give your hand a better chance.

A straight will be possible a decent amount of the time. In this case someone holding a straight got there really cheap, putting in hardly any chips. Then when they got there they put a load of chips in and got others to follow. This means that they can chase that cheap straight many times whilst missing it, and the one time they hit it they get such a big pay off it makes it worth it. You need to make sure that people will be disproportionately chasing straights in the future.