Poker Coaching: Aces On A Draw Heavy Board

You’re eight-handed in a $10,000 buy-in live tournament with a 125,000 stack at 500-1,000. UTG raises to 2,500, and it folds to you on the button with A♦ A♥.

Question 1: Should you call, reraise to 6,000, reraise to 8,000, or reraise to 12,000?
Answer: This is not a spot to get tricky or do anything out of the ordinary. Simply put in a normal three-bet to roughly 3x the initial raise, as you would do with the rest of your three-betting range. If you were shallower, you could go smaller because then you would not need to three-bet as large in order to get your entire stack in by the river when you feel inclined.

You reraise to 8,000 and UTG calls. The flop comes Q♦ 9♦ 2♣ and UTG checks.

Question 2: Should you check, bet 10,000, bet 14,000, or bet 20,000?
Answer: This flop is good enough for you such that you can bet and even call a raise. While you lose to a few hands like sets and Q-9 suited, you beat almost everything else. Choose a medium size so you don’t force your opponent to fold underpairs and gutshot straight draws. 10,000 or so is a nice size in this spot.

You bet 10,000 and UTG calls. The turn is the 4♣ and UTG checks.

Question 3: Should you check, bet 12,000, bet 22,000, or bet 44,000?
Answer: Normally when there are two flush draws available, you want to bet on the larger side to get full protection against the draws and win the maximum against one-pair hands, but in this spot, having the A♦ blocks many of the logical draws your opponent could have. So, you don’t need to be quite so concerned about being against a draw (even though plenty of draws are still possible).
Your opponent is likely to have a queen or a nine, so make a medium bet they cannot fold against.

You bet 22,000 and UTG calls. The river is the 5♥ and UTG checks.

Question 4: Should you check, bet 20,000, bet 40,000, or go all in?
Answer: When all the draws miss, aces are an excellent hand to go all in with. There are a lot of busted draws your opponent can reasonably put you on, which will result in them calling with lots of one-pair hands that you crush.
If you somehow knew your opponent would always fold a queen to an all-in, perhaps a smaller bet would be better, but that is rarely the optimal strategy once the stack-to-pot ratio becomes roughly 1:1 or shorter.

You go all-in and your opponent instantly folds, presumably with a busted draw. Oh well, you weren’t getting called anyway. ♠