AJ in the Hijack (1 Viewer)

[acepilot388]

It's been a couple years since I've played regularly in a card room. Today was first time playing in about 6 months so I was not playing very well. 1-1 NL game at the Ocala-Gainesville Poker Room in Florida.

Hero is dealt offsuit in the Hijack. Not very good at remembering at exact details but this is the general gist of how the hand went. With this game, table is very limp-happy, not too much pre-flop raising. Hero had been raising Ax hands from any position to $2 or $3, but just decided to limp the $1 this time. Button makes it $3. UTG, Hero, and Cutoff make the call and off to the flop:

Flop: . Pot is about $12 after the rake and promo drops.

Checks to Hero, who makes a small $2 bet. All call.

Turn:

Checked to Hero, who makes it $4. Cutoff calls. Button raises to $11. UTG folds. Hero only calls and Cutoff folds.

River:

Hero checks, Button bets $10. Hero calls, Button shows and Hero takes it down.

Should Hero have jammed the turn after the raise? Looking back I'm thinking I should have. Stack sizes were similar around $40-$50 at that point. Two flush draws, straight draws, and I already had the nuts. When the third club came on the river, that slowed me down to just check-call.

 

[Steve Birrer]

Yes I would shove over the button raise. I am fine taking the pot down now with two flush draws. And the worst thing is he calls and you are still a favorite. Assuming you don't hold a or a then he has at most 9 outs and you are about a 4-1 favorite (not counting any chops on him hitting a straight).

 

[DrStrange]

Knowing if Hero held a club in his hand, especially the jack of clubs is a big deal. It should have made an impression because that would make Hero's decision easier / harder.

Preflop - - I sometimes limp AJs, treating as a suited ace-rag. More so with deep stacks than shallow stacks. AJo is a fold or raise hand for me. I especially hate cold calling a raise with AJo because so often the "strong" ace is dominated by a better ace or pair and Hero gets lost when he flops a pair and doesn't know if the hand is good. I think a preflop raise would be better than a call unless the stacks are deeper. (not that we know for sure how deep the table is.) Think how much easier the whole hand would have been with a $3 or $4 preflop raise vs a limp.

Flop - - Not sure what the point of a $2 bet into a $12 pot unless Hero is using a blocking bet strategy. It did keep button from betting with the best hand - a mistake by button in my mind. If you are going to raise QJs, this is a pretty good flop. top pair + OESD + back door heart draw. Button should have popped that $2 bet.

Turn, hero's lead - - Hero makes the nut straight on a double flush draw board. No doubt he wished that the flop bet had been bigger now. The pot should be something like $20 and Hero bets $4. This is a huge mistake, likely one of the worst mistakes Hero will make today. Hero should be aware of both flush draws which are getter excellent direct odds to draw on top of serious implied odds. Hero needs to bet enough to charge the draws a price. Additionally, someone with Jx might be fearful of AJ and take a check/call line with the second nuts. Let's extract value from people with hands they aren't ever going to fold. I bet pot - $20 trying to make the river decision easier.

Turn, facing villain's raise - - Now the pot will be $42. We don't know the stacks left behind - let's assume starting stacks were $100, and now the effective stack is $84. A jam is 2x pot. Huge bet for the way this table is playing. (if they are paying attention to that, could be oblivious to it.) But could a villain with Jx fold to that bet? I think not so often. As the cards lay, the villain has a redraw and could hope for a big freeroll on Hero's potential Jx. This would be harder with much deeper stacks. A second reason to go all in with the nuts on the turn is to keep hard decisions at bay. Half the rivers are going to make potential flushes and then Hero has some difficult decisions.

River, facing a flushing board - - If Hero holds the jack of clubs, villain almost certainly doesn't have the flush. I would bet anyway - Hero's betting pattern looks more like a club flush draw than anything else. I would fear villain will check behind.

River facing villain's bet - - This is a tough situation. I worry that villain folds losers and calls with winners most of the time. Maybe try a min raise planning to fold to a raise. Calling it down is fine too.

Hero missed a lot of opportunities here. Bets were too small, especially when holding the nuts.

Suggestion for Hero. Make a personal goal to try to average two-third's pot as your default bet sizing. Be mindful of bet sizing tells. I seriously doubt Hero bets $2 on that flop with KK or KJ - bet your draws the same way as made hands. And if Hero would bet $2 holding the nuts - don't do that.

Bigger bets with the better hands leads to making a lot more money when you win a hand -=- DrStrange

 

[acepilot388]

Thanks for the input! Lots of lessons learned. Yes, I was not playing very well today, I need to put in more time at the table

 

[JustinInMN]

Yeah I would agree, shove the turn if you have the 40-50 left that you estimate.

With a 4 straight out there if you're ahead the same cards are going to scare both of you on the river. The turn is the best spot to get value imo.

If you had a club it would reduce the chance your opponent has a flush draw (potentially reducing his ability to call), but I think it's a turn shove either way.

If villian has one pair there isn't a river card he's going to like enough to pay you unless he also has a draw to beat a straight. You don't gain anything by letting him improve. Shove now and hope he has a straight or is willing to call it off with a weaker hand than that.