Fancy a little Ace game?

PokerStars Hand #86038254453: Tournament #612902844, $92.60+$7.40 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2012/09/11 21:46:31 WET [2012/09/11 16:46:31 ET]
Table '612902844 1' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Villain (3771 in chips)
Seat 4: Hero (1793 in chips)
Seat 5: Player 3 (3436 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 50
Hero: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Td Qs]
Player 3: folds
Villain: raises 109 to 209
Hero: calls 109
*** FLOP *** [Tc 3h Ad]
Villain: bets 209
Hero: raises 241 to 450
Villain: raises 3112 to 3562 and is all-in
Hero: calls 1134 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1978) returned to Villain
*** RIVER *** [Tc 3h Ad 3c] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain: shows [Qc Jh] (a pair of Threes)
Hero: shows [Td Qs] (two pair, Tens and Threes)
Hero collected 3586 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3586 | Rake 0
Board [Tc 3h Ad 3c 4c]
Seat 1: Villain (small blind) showed [Qc Jh] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 4: Hero (big blind) showed [Td Qs] and won (3586) with two pair, Tens and Threes
Seat 5: Player 3 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

This hand is played on the bubble of a $100 reg speed 6 max game. The two players are regulars but both have their faults. The Villain in question is extremely aggressive/spewy and does not adjust when players use that aggression against him. On bubbles he seems to make it his sole objective to try and outplay (and failing that gamble with) the players involved regardless of your activity or image. To give you a barometer of his aggression his raise from the small blind % is very close to 90% but when it is 3 handed it is pretty much 100%. That means when you are to his left you can have a lot of fun by widening your calling and 3 betting range accordingly.

In this particular hand the other regular folds the button and our villain makes his obligatory raise to 209 which is essentially a min-raise. Given that he incorporates near enough 100% of his range when he raises in this situation I have 2 options when I look down at QTo. I can re-raise all in (which is likely profitable given that his calling range would have to be astronomically wide to make it break even or worse) or I can choose to flat call and see a flop with a) a hand that plays well and likely dominates his range and b) position for at least the flop. I have tremendous pot odds to go with those other 2 factors so I decide to flat call and stacks are deep enough to allow for maneuverability post flop should I find a suitable spot to make a move.

The flop comes A T 3 rainbow. The Villain goes ahead and continuation bets half pot (which he does 94% of the time). A tricky situation with 2nd pair? The reality of it is that it's not tricky at all. This player loves to try and outplay on bubbles as I mentioned before. He will never give me credit for an ace, as he'd expect me to re-raise preflop given both of our images, so when I raise it small to 450 (leaving ~1000 behind giving the illusion of fold equity) I expect him to continue with his entire range such is his nature whether he has me beat or not. I'd expect KK-K10 to flat call here in which case I shut down. As all aces (A2-AK), AA, TT and T3o accounts for 16% of his range it is hugely profitable to make a raise here with the intention of calling off his inevitable flop 3 bet. In fact, a 3 bet all in may be weaker still as he may choose to flat call his strongest hands (AA, TT, AK, AT) in the hope I'd continue what he perceives to be a bluff. Anyway, as predicted, our villain snap shoves all in and turns over QJo giving him a gutshot and an overcard to my pair of tens. I fade the 27% equity he has in the hand (rather more than I expected/hoped) and get to work on making use of my increased chip stack which has been kindly handed to me.

bigstealer