Recently I decided I was going to start playing live more often, to keep my people reading skills from getting rusty. So I headed up to one of my old haunts, with the intention of playing some NLHE.

Nine months ago, when I used to go there regularly, they had a single NL game with a $300 buy in and two $5 blinds. Now they spread up to ten $40 buy in tables, with $1 blinds. Times have sure changed quickly. I sat at one of the $40 games, as I don't have a lot of NL ring experience (compared to limit).

The following hand gave me some trouble. I had a stack of about $115, and had been moved to a table with a tricky player, who was very loose preflop, but knew how to play postflop and was good at sensing weakness. I was there for some time, so he knew I was a tight player. He had around $300.

We were 7 handed, and I picked up AQo in MP. One limper to me, and I made it $5 to go (my standard raise). The tricky player was in the BB and called, as did the limper.

The flop came AJ7 rainbow, and I bet $10 when they checked to me. The BB raised it up to $20, and the EP limper folded. I called the $10 raise (I didn't even stop and think about it. What would you have considered here, and would you have done the same?).

An 8 came out on the turn, completing the rainbow. The BB bet out $25. What do you consider, and what do you do?

When he min raised you from out of position, you have big problems.
AK beats you, AJ beats you and a set buries you. Hes not making that move with AT. If hes built his stack from $40 to $300 he knows what hes doing and I doubt he has 2nd pairtrying to make a move on you. Sitting here its obvious you need to fold to his flop check raise, but during the game I may have called it.
No way Im calling his turn bet though. Hes trying to milk you dry. He knows you have an ace and doesnt care. Hes betting suspiciously small here. You can bet if you call, a large river bet is coming.

The avg player will lose his stack in this hand which makes it a great Hand of the Week candidate. Would you like to submit it?

I'll basically agree with Ice as I often do. You have $25 in there and you are going to be asked to put in much more to beat what hand? I can not put him on a set of JACKS or Ace King from your description and the pre flop bets. There's not an open end straight draw out there for a semi bluff. I don't put him on a set of Aces. With this reasoning, there are not many hands he can have you cannot beat.

A, J or the other two pair is a huge possibility or the small set are his hands or he is on a pure bluff. He would not pure bluff here and continue to struggle over this tiny pot.

On the flop, I'd bet him more, $15 or $20. Then I'd put the brakes on. I can't dream up a hand you can beat. What did he have or do you know?

Well, I ended up calling the $25. The little voice inside my head was saying he was testing me, so I decided to call to see what he'd do.

A second Jack fell on the river. He bet $60, which would have basically put me all in as I had $65 left. I decided that he wasn't testing me after all, and folded. He showed me 45o.

After the hand I was kicking myself, not for folding to the $60 bet, but for calling the $25 bet. As unsure as I was, I think I should have let it go on the turn. He could have easily had AJ (my first suspicion when he raised me on the flop) or 77, or possibly AK.

Given the cards, I basically lost as much as I could have here. He was quite good at knowing people's limits -- when he got called down, he almost always had it.

Does anyone sniff out the $60 river bet as a bluff?

Do you still want this as a hand of the week, Iceman? I'm not sure the outcome is typical of this situation.

Yeah, I still want it. The lesson is still the same. I can guarantee you that this guy is a losing player. A very large percentage of NL players would play this hand to the river and lose, which is why his bluff is so bad. It will work against the 15% of good players, but against the rest of the world, he'll get killed.