How badly did I play this hand?

[Mister Al]

Second game of a small tourney. 1500 in chips to start. Blinds 10/20, I'm BB.

I have AK. 4 callers in front of me, I raise another 80. 3 fold, 1 caller.

Flop: A K 8 (rainbow)

I bet 100, caller raises to 300. At this point I decide to call ( greedy thoughts)

Turn: Q (no possible flushes)

I check, caller bets 100, I raise to 400, caller goes all in. I call.

Yep, he had 10 J and I'm out.

Clearly in retrospect I should have raised his raise after the flop, but did I play this hand that badly?

Any advice?

[conradhex]

I dunno, I think his bet on the flop doesn't make a lot of sense, does it? Makes it a little trickier to put him on the straight on the turn...

I would have been tempted to push on the flop, putting him on A10 or something, but I'm a crappy player so don't listen to me.

[Taardvark]

Your preflop raise wasn't enough. You're raise should have been in the 160 t0 180 range. Your raise lets a hand like J10 play reasonably getting better than 2 to 1.

As soon as he reraised you preflop I'd get it all in. The only hand you are afraid of is pocket eights and if he has it so be it. If he puts all his chips in with a draw he is making a monumental mistake and if he sucks out so be it.

I wouldn't say you played this hand badly but there were several small miscues that led to your demise. Small mistakes in no limit can be magnified and I think that is what happened here.

[Soultwister]

I agree the preflop raise is way too small. So is the flop cbet, unless it's standard for you. The small cbet actually succeeded at what you should be wanting to accomplish with this cbet sizing: villain trying to bluff you with some crap hand.

The rest of the hand was played decent but not optimal. On that board you do not have to fear much except gutshots, which never get the correct implied odds anyways. Because of that, I think calling is somewhat fine.

OOP though I'd prefer a raise because it's hard to get more chips in on later streets, villain will never fold a worse ace because of stack sizes, and should you call here, villain will generally try to check 95% of his hands down since your hand is face up.

[Mister Al]

Thanks guys

Between your advice and my own 'post mortem' on the way the hand was played I've come to the conclusion that my pre-flop raise was definitely not big enough and also I was trying to be a bit cute/greedy just calling his raise on the flop. I should have raised again with a decent bet here.

We all live and learn.

[Raisindye]

As you already noted your flop play could've been a little more aggressive, but I don't hate a call when your hand is that strong.

As far as the pfr being more, I'd like to hear from even more people about that opinion. I've always stuck to a 3x or 4x raise early, and shifted to 2.5x as the blinds get to around 120/240. By not switching up the raises I was always taught that it leaves less room for reads based on your pf action.

I don't think you played it horribly. I think a bad player gotcha and that happens.

[Taardvark]

[Raisindye]