private game, blinds are 5 and 5 and generally a straddle for 25

a pro (can tilt when he's down)is in hijack (11k stack), semi-decent player (can tilt when he's down) in cutoff (700 stack), i'm the button (10.5k stack)

1 straddle and 2 limpers to hijack, who raised to 75, cutoff reraises to 310, i hold ah 3h ad jd on the button, raises pot to 1090 to isolate the shortstack.

it was folded around the table to hijack (who i hoped wouldn't call as we have two biggest stacks at the table) who calls, and cutoff calls all-in, pot is now 2965

flop: 2d 7c 9s

hijack checks (roughly 10k remaining), what should be my optimal action? (roughly 9.5k remaining)

bet pot call all in cry because you lost to JT87 rebuy

not a very appealing/great spot, but pot/calling seems the best without better options

I say take the free card and check.

A lot depends on villains range and what he perceives your range to be in this spot. Have you shown down any 4-bet hands in the game that aren't AAxx? Otherwise your hand is pretty face-up and villain can play pretty well against you. This board isn't great for either of your ranges, but probably better for his range. With an SPR of 3.2:1 bet/calling it off is obviously the higher variance option, but what is the likelihood of actually facing a x/R on this dry of a board? Villain should not have too many sets, and i guess the question is would the villain stack off with pair + wrap? Betting for protection/value seems best imo, and if you somehow do get check raised think its a puke/call with those pot odds.

unless you have some history, I think the HJ almost always puts you on aces here. So I suspect most of his calling range here is strong rundowns likely doublesuited. I think he almost never has 22xx and few 77xx and 99xx combos.

Not sure if this PPT syntax is correct, but against a random double suited hand w/o a pair (R!RR:xxyy) interestingly he has 45% equity on the flop. 97xx is definitely in his range, and you have about 24% equity against. Lots of run down hands will like this flop.

So I'd pot, but expect to be called or shipped on often since he usually catches a decent piece of this board. Getting roughly 2.5:1 odds and knowing he rarely has a set, I think you would have to call a ship.

you might be playing too high if you're hoping to not get called OOP by some guy who barely has anything invested relatively when you have DS AA

thats great. thx for answering my q so thoroughly and thoughtfully.

you might have severe self esteem issues if your douchbagery taunt is at least sensible. its not as i clearly stated my intention was to go headsup with the shortstack. the other pt of not wanting to get involved with another big stack is now i have to play deep stack stategy in a protected pot.

anyways the result was i bet pot and folded to a check raise from the villain. he held 3 4 7 7 double suited. this hand only intersts me from the perspective that there is no collective agreement from all players i asked as to which is the optimal play (check /bet call/ bet fold)

yeah, despite results pot/folding is horrible. take that as collective agreement from competent players you want to ask

you're welcome for the best advice you'll ever get here

Yeah, pot/f is truly bad. With an spr of 3.5 I think x behind is best. I'd pot/call with less than 3. Villain is not gonna go crazy out of line in a protected pot on later streets.

Since it is a protected potb on a relatively dry board I don't really see why we should be betting pot with our range here.

Bet pot/fold with that SPR is the nut low play you could have made IMO.

He called w that **** pf? I guess he was losing/tilted then (from OP notes). I think that makes it more of a bet/call if you decide not to check behind on flop.

If your plan was to fold to a check raise you should of just checked.

A lot of hands he has are going to check raise this flop - and you are going to fold your equity

Check- pot control

The way it was played, check. B/f is a horrible line here.
Preflop I call the 310, knowing short stack is probably going to shove and then repot on top of that- that line would give you a better chance of isolating. Plus if short stack ends up folding for some odd reason, now the pot is small enough hu against the other big stack to avoid risking your entire stack.

If you raise to $545 and he shoves for $700 are you allowed to reraise?

The short stack is the one who made it $310.

a lot of bad advice ITT

I say throw out a green bird chip as a feeler and see what your opponent does. Is he really gonna risk x/r $3k to win the $25 side pot???? I dont think so!

What is wrong with b/f? Why would you get in 400bb with just aces on this flop? And optimal bet amount isn't pot so you could have saved money that way.

My opinion is b/f (like 50% of the pot) > check > bet/call