I played an interesting hand yesterday that I have several questions that I was hoping for insight on.
Hand
1-3 No-limit Hold’em
Pre-flop
Me: Small-blind with pocket aces, 42 BBB when hand started ($125 total)
UTG +1: raises to 15 (70 to 90 BB behind)
Hi-jack seat: calls (70 to 90 BB behind)
Button calls (70 to 90 BB behid) with A8o as I learn later
Me: Raise to 45
Everyone calls so 180 in pot pre-flop
Flop: 3, 5, 6 rainbow.
Me: All-in for 80.
UTG Folds
Hi-jack Folds
Button calls (he put me on KK or QQ and thought his Ace was an out)
Question 1: Pre-flop I raised 3X the prior raise which was also a pot-sized bet. My target is 1 caller – maybe 2 but definitely not 3 callers. Should my raise have been sized higher or was this one of those times odd times when you get a lot of calls? The pot odds were (30 into 90 pot) for the first call and only got better from there for the remaining two callers.
Question 2: Was my post-flop raise appropriate? Two things drove my raise 1) low flop that likely missed anyone putting in 45 pre-flop 2) I am short stacked so betting 80 into 180 still had some fold equity.
Question 3: Putting myself in the button’s position and hand, I would have folded pre-flop due to 1) with A8o it is likely that my Ace is dominated so hard to play low Ace post flop. The reasons he stayed 1) 30 call into pot of 180 to stay 2) in-position. Should the button have called pre-flop?
Question 4: Should the button have called my all-in post flop? Since he had an Ace, he put me on KK or QQ. Even if he was right, there is only 12% (4 x 3) chance an Ace comes on the turn or river so calling 80 into a pot of 180 does not offer pot odds.
Question 5: If the button had pocket 88s instead, would it have been correct to call pre-flop? My logic: Direct odds are 30 call into pot of 150 for 5:1 odds. Odds of hitting a set is 7.5:1. The small blind (me) had 80 behind (another 2.5) so break-even on the 3-better who is the most likely to continue. The others had 200 to 300 before the hand started. Calling with a pocket pair would seem marginal in this situation due to odds of getting 7.5 on my chips. Would this have been an easy call with pocket 88s?