Another interesting spot with AK

[pokeraussie]

$1/$2 live game.

EP opener was female and from chat at the table picked up she was a tournament player. She seemed one of the more solid players at the table, and I knew her opening range included AJ.

She raises to $10 I just call in MP with AK and there were like 4 players to the flop.

Flop comes down AJx with some low card on a 2 tone board. She cbets to $30, fold, I call, everyone else folds.

I forget the turn it was a brick card. She moves all-in for a bit more then $100. Against most $1/$2 players this is an insta call but against this player I really had to think about this hand. In fact her boy was having a go at me for taking so long to make the decision.

Is it correct to say the decision comes down to whether or not she takes this line with AQ? I thought her opening range from EP was AJ+ so I am basically only beating AQ (8 combos) and losing to AJ (6 combos) AA (1 combo) JJ (3 combos) so in other words I have 47% equity against this range.

On the other hand if she would not play AQ like this it becomes a fold. Is my logic sound? How often would you expect her not to double barrel with AQ in this spot?

[rakebackengine]

Why not raise the flop to 30 to find out where u are? If she calls then alarm bells go off and u can check behind her on the turn

[pokeraussie]

she started the hand with like 75bb i don't think an info raise on the flop with the plan to raise/fold makes a ton of sense. you could very easily be folding the same hand which is a huge mistake considering we don't have to be correct that often and by calling the flop you keep in dominated hands.

[rakebackengine]

So in that case, snap call the turn bet then

[Spry]

I'd call here most every time... only reason if not is if she looked really confident.

[pokeraussie]

I'd call here most every time... only reason if not is if she looked really confident.

Interesting you say that cause I kinda think this whole hand basically comes down to physical tells. Although to be honest I really didn't have a solid read. Her cbet didn't seem that strong although she is almost always going to have at least Ax at least in this spot, but then she pretty much insta shoves the turn. So make of that what you will.

[parttimepoker]

If she's only 75Bbs deep and raises AJ from EP, why not just 3bet preflop? She makes it 5x, you 3b to 15x or so and have no problem calling it off when she shoves. If she folds you pick up 6.5BBs without a flop, which is a great outcome for AK.

I call all day, she could just be repping the ace and using her "tight" image to blow you off a hand. If she's competent she'll think you're unlikely to have many aces in your range (certainly not AK).

You also tie AK and are ahead of small ace + flush combos plus whatever other flush draw combos she might have + all of her bluffs. You're getting 2-1.

[pokeraussie]

A tourney player stack off with AJ pre? You have to be kidding me most of them are tight players. I didn't want to 3-bet because I felt she was folding worse and she was opening a tightish range from EP.

[parttimepoker]

I don't expect her to stack off with AJ. I expect her to fold a shit-ton, you to pick up ~7BB and for you to have a fine price to call / never be too gross of an underdog when she does shove.

I also think you should be 3betting her pretty often without AK.

[jdwanchalk]

This is a very easy call.