Bad Coach

HP_John

2/4 NL at a Toronto club.

W/ 2 limpers in, MP limps w/ AA (wtf). 2 LP limpers (1 w/ 98 s). SB calls, BB checks.

Flop is 982, 2 diamonds. Checked to button w/ 98, who bets 3/4 of the pot. MP w/ AA flat calls. LP calls.

Turn is A, non-diamond. Checked to button w/ 98, who bets 2/3 of the pot. MP min raises w/ set of Aces despite likely flush & straight draws, & w/ another player behind. LP folds. Button thinks for a bit, then calls.

R is inconsequential. MP bets all-in, button makes crying call.

After the hand, MP tells button (who he doesn't know btw) he should've folded & that he played the turn bad.

Recap: w/ 2 limpers in, MP slowplays AA by flat-calling. MP then check-calls flop despite likely flush & straight draws. Then, when MP turns his 2 outer, he check-min reraises w/ 2 likely draws & another player behind (who is getting decent odds on a draw if he thinks button is calling min-reraise). After hand, MP criticizes button's play.

Pot calling the kettle black? Even if button arguably played the turn bad, MP didn't play the hand well either.

pkrfce9

Just let me finish stacking all your chips up. Then we can chat about the hand.

g2

I can think of two options.

A) Punch him in the face
Proceed to take his money for the rest of the night

In a perfect world you could do both.

/g2

ChrisWinsor

He played the aces horrible, and deserved to have them cracked... Too bad.

WaterLooser

Umm ... the aces won, turned trips, which beats 2pr last time I checked. I don't like that play with AA, but it's hard to figure that for the hand MP has with all the weak betting and such. Sometimes traps work, AA got very lucky to win the hand. I let him tell me all night what a bad player I am as they hemmorage those chips back to the rest of the table.

BoyBlue

i agree with water. if you have :ah :ac then you have to raise 3x the BB otherwise weak hands like the 98 can hit big. the AA guy was lucky to hit the trips but if he didnt he would have lost a big check of his money cause he seem very loose and the type of guy who would have invested all his money on the poket pair no matter what was on the board

djalikool

Should always raise bullets no matter what position, especially with that many callers. Flat calling the flop was an error too, you have to raise to see where you are in the hand. At best 2 pair can slow down his betting, possibly get free cards.

Meistro

Did aces play the hand so terribly? The truth is, without knowing stack sizes, it's tough to say. Limping aces first in, in an aggressive game, is often the right play. If you have stacks of $800 at a $2/$4 nl game, raising to $16 isn't going to protect your hand, especially if you are going to back your stack with the aces, as many players do. Now if you can limp in, have a couple limpers and someone makes it $16-$30 trying to steal the money, you can then reraise to $80-$120 and your hand is fully protected. You could play your hand face up from that point and it would still be +EV as it is so difficult to outflop aces when putting in that kind of money preflop and show a profit for all the times you miss.

Now, if the game was very loose and passive, he probably should have made it $20-$24 after a couple limpers. This would charge the drawing hands to play against him and since his opponents are loose and passive if they put in serious action post flop he can fold. In a very loose and aggressive game he could limp, intending to reraise a raise, or he could raise, intending to three bet a raise, depending on the texture of the game. Even limping after a couple limpers is fine, especially because your hand looks so much like a resteal and might get heavy action from AK/AQ/JJ which will usually not pay you off.

Now, many people suggest bombing the flop, but when you limp with aces intending to reraise, and you whiff, it is best to play the pot cautiously on the flop, bailing to serious action. I do think on the turn when he hits his set he should bomb it to get more action out of two pair before it's counterfeited and to protect his hand from the draws.