DECISION POINT: In a live $1-2 Cash Game it folds to you in Cutoff with A♦A♣ and you raise to $10. It folds to the Big Blind who calls. Villain checks the 6♦Q♦8♠ flop, you continuation bet and get called. The turn is 8♣ and the action goes check, bet, and call. On the J♥ river action is checked to you. What do you do here?

PRO ANSWER: In a $1-2 cash game we have pocket aces in the Cutoff. It folds around to us and we open for the table standard $10 and the Big Blind is the only caller. The flop is 6dQd8s and our opponent checks. This is a somewhat coordinated flop and we could justify using a larger bet sizing of around 60-70% of pot. However, against what is likely a very wide defense range from the Big Blind we opt to continuation bet for $10 and the Big Blind calls.

The turn is the 8c and our opponent checks. While is card is a part of their overall range it decreases the likelihood they have an 8x combo. This makes their most likely holdings Qx or a flush draw. We hold the Ad which blocks a fair amount of logical flush draws our opponent can have as well. Given our opponent’s overall range this is a great spot to second barrel for value. We bet $22 and our opponent calls.

The river is the Jh and our opponent checks to us again. Normally with just an overpair, we’re looking to extract two streets of value. In this case when we evaluate our opponent’s likely range of hands there are a lot of Qx hands, some missed flush draws and a few tricky 8x hands that slow play the turn. Given range assessment we are still ahead of our opponent's range and they have enough combos capable of calling a third bet with a worse hand.

This is a great spot for a thin value bet and unless we have some sort of read that our opponent is quite tricky and capable of check-raise bluffing a lot of their missed draws. We can make a half pot or slightly smaller sized value bet and be called called by Qx hands to extract a lot of extra value.

Betting is the correct play.

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